Leaders of
the South and Middle Belt parts of the country, on Saturday, reaffirmed their
faith in the continued existence of Nigeria as a single entity. The leaders,
however, maintained that the current structure of the country is unbalanced,
unjust and over-centralized, therefore requiring it to be restructured in line with the recommendations of the 2014
National Conference.
Their
position was made known in a communique issued after the South-Middle Belt
Leaders Consultative Summit, which held at Sheraton Hotels, Abuja, on
Saturday.
Among those
in attendance were Mr. EK Clark, an Ijaw leader; Mr. Olu Falae, a former
presidential candidate; Messrs. Ayo Adebanjo and Yinka Odumakin of the Afenifere,
Mr. Jerry Gana, a former Information Minister; General Ike Nwachukwu, a former
presidential aspirant; and Mr. Labaran Maku,a former Information Minister. Also
in attendance were Senator Stella Onu, Dr. Bala Takaya, Chief CO Adebayo,
General David Jemibewon, General Ishaya Bamaiyi, Mr. Obong Victor Attach and
retired Air Commodore Indogesit Nkanga.
The leaders
maintained that for the Nigerian federation to function in the interest of the
constituent parts, there should be devolution of powers and functions to the
federating units. This, they said, will make each federating unit effectively
serve the development interests of its people.
"This
is the central essence of a good federation, not the current
over-centralization of powers and functions in the central government. As a
logical derivative, we must work out a new fiscal formula that will move
Nigeria away from the current over-dependence on oil and gas revenue to a
diversified economy where all federating units are encouraged to develop their
abundant natural human resources for regional and national development,"
the leaders said at the summit.
According to Saharareporters, the
federating units, they explained, shall remit agreed percentage of their
revenue to the federation account. The summit then urged the Federal Government
to address the issues by fully implementing the report of the 2014 National
Conference, which considered and resolved the vexatious matters. "Accordingly, we support the recent
resolution of the National Assembly that the Report of the 2014 National
Conference be placed before it," the leaders stated.
They also
called for the reversal of discriminatory appointments into key Federal
Government offices, stating that the country is a secular state, in which the
governments cannot adopt any religion
In addition,
the leaders slated the recent plans to adopt a combined syllabus of religious
and moral education. They called for a halt to the plans and demanded a return
to status quo of teaching Christian Religious Knowledge and Islamic Religious
Knowledge separately.
Equally, the
summit condemned the activities of herdsmen in the Middle Belt and Southern
States. It suggested that there may be an organic link between the operations
of the herdsmen and Boko Haram group. The summit criticised the nonchalance of
the Federal Government to the dangers posed by herdsmen and demanded they be
immediately disarmed. The summit also
condemned the quit notice issued to Igbo people resident in the North by some
Northern youths and stated that Nigerians will resist any attempt to take over
power through military coup by any group.
It called on
the Federal government to look into 16-point agenda submitted to the President
Muhammadu Buhari by the South-South
Leaders to sustain the current peace in the Niger Delta.
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