As
call for the 'Restructuring' of Nigeria continues to garner momentum in
the polity, the leader of the apex Igbo socio-cultural group has said
it remains the only hope for Nigeria.
Leader of the apex Igbo socio-cultural group in Nigeria, Ohanaeze
Ndigbo, John Nwodo, has declared that restructuring remains the only
hope for Nigeria.
According to The Sun,
he said those claiming that north would be doomed if the country is
restructured are ill-informed. Instead, he said the North, with right
agricultural policies, would be the richest part of the country, if
Nigeria is eventually restructured.
He cited Netherlands, whose entire land area was half of what Niger
State, one of the 19 northern states in the country is endowed with.
“The example of Netherlands in Agriculture is also relevant
here. The Netherlands is the 18th largest economy in the world. It has a
land area of about 33.9,000 square kilometres. Niger State, one of
Nigeria’s 37 administrative units has about 74,000 square kilometres.
Netherlands earns over $100 billion from agricultural exports annually,
contributed mainly by vegetables and dairy. Nigeria’s oil revenue has
never, in any one year, reached $100 billion.
"Northern Nigeria is the most endowed agriculturally in the
entire country. Its tomatoes, carrots, cabbages, cucumbers, tubers,
grains, livestock and dairy feed the majority of Nigerians in spite of
its huge reserve of unexploited export potentials. In a restructured
Nigeria, the North, with the right agricultural policies, will be the
richest part of Nigeria,” he said.
He spoke yesterday at the Chatham House, in London, where he
delivered a paper on “Next Generation Nigeria: Accountability and
national cohesion,” at an event put together by the Royal Institute of
International Affairs.
Condemning the designation of the Indigenous People of Biafra
(IPOB) as a terrorist group by the Federal Government, Nwodo described
the Igbo as the most loyal ethnic group in the country, whose commitment
to the concept of “one Nigeria,” was unwavering, adding that the Igbo
is the single largest ethnic group found in any party of Nigeria other
than the indigenous group.
“We invest and contribute to the economic and social life of
the committees wherever we live. We are proudly Christians, but very
accommodating of our brothers of other religious persuasions. We are
grossly marginalised and still treated by the federal government as
second-class citizens. No Igboman, for instance, heads any security arm
of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Our area is the most heavily policed as if
there was a deliberate policy to intimidate us and hold us down,” he added.
The Ohanaeze leader, who took the audience down memory lane on
constitution developments in Nigeria from 1960 to 1998/99, further
argued that the constitution presently in operation in the country was
never written by the people of Nigeria per se. He said it was imposed on
the country and Nigerians by the military clique.
“Our present constitution was written at a time of
unprecedented increase in national revenue, following the massive
discovery of oil in Nigeria and its global reliance as a source of fuel
for mechanical machines. It had, as its centre piece, the distribution
of national revenue and national offices, using states and local
governments as units for division. It constructed a federation in name,
but a unitary government in practice, following the pattern enunciated
in 1966 from the inception of military administration in Nigeria,” he said.
He also came hard on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for dilly-dallying over the issue of restructuring, which “it willingly promised Nigerians during the electioneering in 2015”, just as he insisted that the continued neglect of the 2014 National Conference report would spell doom for Nigeria.
“To achieve a national consensus on this subject requires a
national discussion; regrettably, the ruling party, APC, which promised
restructuring in its manifesto, after two years and four months in
office, is still appointing a committee to define what sort of
restructuring it wants for Nigeria. To make matters worse, none of the
other political parties have come up with any clear-cut route for
achieving a consensus on this matter.
“The National Assembly itself is a reflection of the deep
ethnic divisions in the country, and the Northern majority conferred on
it by the military makes it highly unacceptable to Southern Nigeria.
Recent resolutions made by it on devolution of powers have not helped
the situation. Happily, the Senate President has promised to revisit the
subject matter.
“The only hope for change in Nigeria today is the rising call
for restructuring pioneered by the Southern leadership forum, supported
lately by ex-Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former President Ibrahim
Babangida and leaders of the Middle belt, including Dan Suleiman and
Prof. Jerry Gana.
“Our expectation is that now that our president is fully
recovered and back to work, he should address the situation by
constituting a nationwide conversation of all ethnic nationalities to
look into the 2014 National Conference report and the trending views on
this subject matter so as to come up with a consensus proposal that the
national and state assemblies will be persuaded to adopt.To continue to
neglect a resolution of this impasse will spell doom for our dear
country,” Nwodo, added.
The Ohanaeze leader also painted a gloomy picture of the country’s economy and said, “the
restructuring of Nigeria into smaller and independent federations and
the devolution of powers to these federating units to control
exclusively their human capital development, mineral resources,
agriculture, and power (albeit with an obligation to contribute to the
federal government) is the only way to salvage our fledging economy.
“Restructuring will devote attention to the new wealth areas,
promote competition and productivity as the new federating units
struggle to survive. It will drastically reduce corruption as the large
federal parastatals, which gulp government revenue for little or no
impact dissolve and give way to small and viable organs in the new
federating units.
“As I speak today, Nigeria has a grim economic outlook.
Nigeria’s external debt has grown from $10.3 billion in 2015 to $15
billion in 2017. Her domestic debt has also grown from N8.8 trillion in
2015, to N14 trillion in 2017. Domestic debt component for the 36 states
rose from N1.69 trillion in 2015 to N2.9 trillion in June 2017.”
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