Elder statesman and chieftain of
the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Frank Kokori has called on the
federal government of Nigeria to split the nation into 12 states.
According to him, equity and
justice could only be achieved if the country returned to 12 states – six for
each of southern and northern Nigeria – as it was during the regime of General
Yakubu Gowon.
Kokori called for the convocation
of a round table discussion with genuine people from all sectors and sections
of the country on restructuring.
He said, “National Assembly
cannot do anything for proper restructuring of Nigeria.”
The elder statesman told Tribune
that each of the six states should be autonomous, saying the current 36-state
structure is not viable.
“Top on my agenda on any
restructuring in Nigeria is Gowon’s 12 states in 1967, not the present one they
are talking about six zones.
“That Gowon’s 12 states will move
Nigeria forward. Let them decentralized Nigeria like Gowon did.
“Restructuring is all about
making a country where there is no cheating, ” the septuagenarian mooted.
He slammed the National Assembly
for recently thrashing the outcome of the National Conference held by the
Goodluck Jonathan administration, admitting that the recommendations were
suitable for the country.
“The issue of how Nigeria should
be governed should not be the business of the National Assembly because it is
an interested party; it will not like anybody to whittle down their power, so to
me, it should be the people themselves.
“To me, the constitutional
Conferences by Jonathan was okay, its just that the people were not properly
chosen by their people. Most of them were nominated by the PDP government if
not, they made a lot of sense in that conference,” Kokori admitted.
“We should not just sweep it
under the carpet; it’s a serious matter, the president himself should be seeing
signals now, so we should come together for dialogue and talk seriously about
Nigeria,” he warned.
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