General Gowon, speaking at in Minna, Niger State, said Nigeria is made up of over 500 ethnic groups hence the people must have faith in the indivisibility of the country rather than agitating for its restructuring.
“Nigeria is made up of over 500 ethnic groups, languages and dialects and so many various groups called nationalities and they want restructuring. This restructuring everybody is asking for, we will have about 500 different ideas of restructuring. There is call for restructuring to reduce the number of states to only a few either back to the old region or to the zones.”
The former Head of state who is known for his strong faith in “One Nigeria” said most states will be reluctant to be joined to another state for the restructuring into regions to occur, hence the impossibility of Nigeria’s restructuring.
“Those are some of the ideas that I do not know whether it will be possible for any state today to wish to be merged with another state. Let us see whether our politicians will see guidelines to be able to achieve what they want.
“But I have my problem whether the states will be financially capable to they will be able to run there states properly.”
He recalled his struggle to keep Nigeria as one during the civil war and said it was not out of hatred for any region or ethnic group but one borne out of the need to promote the course of unity in the country.
Were the ethnic nationalities that constitute the regions fighting themselves at the time you DESTROYED the regions and created the states? For example were the different ethnic groups in the northern region fighting themselves because of regional government they belong? Also, were the different groups in western region fighting themselves because of regional government they belong to when you abolished the regional governments? why can't we now restructure to something similar, merge some nearby states together as a region under one governor? We can make the six geopolitical zones into six regional governments with six productive governors. Nigeria does not need 36 arrogant,lazy and wasteful governors! The number of motorcades being controlled by 36 governors, their commissioners, numerous special assistants and advisers will reduce to few with six governors and commissioners and assistants! Each region will be bigger than some west African countries. They will harness and maximize their human capital resources in addition to agricultural and natural resources and create wealth big enough to develop themselves and contribute 30% to the central or federal government for defense (military) and foreign affairs which should be the role of Federal (central government). Every other thing is handled by the regional government. The whole idea of restructuring is not more than this! What is this big deal that my fellow northerners are making out of restructuring as if people are saying let us carry Nigeria from the planet earth and put it the planet Jupiter where there is no evidence of life? What were the bases for DESTRUCTION of regions and CREATION of states? Oh. For 36 governors to come and sit down and wait for money from sales of oil and gas to be shared. Can't we learn from Norway? They saved their oil money for future generations! David from Okene Kogi State.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete