Enyeribe Chikodi Azubuike Let us look at the political structure of our colonial master, Britain/United Kingdom (UK) who brought us into this mess. UK has four federating regions namely England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. All these regions have a common prime minister who resides in London, UK capital. The major things they have in common are currency, ambassador and visa. That is, they operate with one currency, have one ambassador representing them in other countries and one uses the same visa to enter all of them. Apart from this, all the nations of UK are almost independent of the other. Each region has its own police, national team, domestic league, etc. Hence, the English Premier League we watch at the expense of our domestic league is only applicable to England. Each region manages its God-given resources and give a little percent to the centre as tax. Through this, each region develops at its own pace independent of other regions. Nigeria once flourished under a system of governement similar to this where we had three regions - North, West and East. Each of these regions sustained itself with groundnut, cocoa and palm oil respectively including other agricultural resources. It was during this period that the three renowned universities - UNN, ABU and OAU were built by each region. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe built the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) using money from palm oil, Sir Ahmadu Bello built Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria using money from groundnut and Chief Obafemi Awolowo built Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife from cocoa money. Intellectuals like Prof. Wole Soyinka, Prof Chinua Achebe, etc were produced under this system of govrnment. There was healthy competition among the three regions and each developed at its own pace independent of other regions. There was nothing like looting of public fund then and the struggle by all the ethnic regions to control the centre (federal government) was not as it is today. The Hausa/Fulani military oligarchy came and suspended the constittution, created several states at their own advantage and in their bid to control the oil in the Niger Delta. This is the genesis of Nigerias problem. What Nigerians are asking for is just a return to this true federalism or total break up of the country. President GEJ said the outcome of the National Dialogue would be sent to the National Assembly (NASS). Which NASS? The people representing the interest/wishes of the masses or the NASS dominated by the North? A NASS where Kano alone produces 22 house of representativesmembers and Katsina 17 whereas Anambra and Abia have just 10 and 8 respectively. Is it the NASS that have passed no bill at the interest of the masses but rather attempted to legalise girl child marriage? I think GEJ is trying to bow to pressure from Hausa/Fulani on the proposed National Dialogue.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 05:39:34 +0000
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