RE: NIGERIA AT 100: TAKING STOCK AND LOOKING AHEAD - Punch Editorial Board TRUE FEDERALISM, DECENTRALISATION, DEVOLUTION OF POWER AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY ARE THE WAY FORWARD IN NIGERIA - Stephen Dieseruvwe I totally agree with the part of the editorial report which reads, ...Nigerians demand a structural change, a renegotiation of the terms of the union that will give the component nationalities a real voice on how they are governed; allow all entities to derive benefits from agricultural and mineral resources beneath their own land; allow them to police themselves as it obtains in all functional federations; allow them to grow at their own pace without being held back by others they hardly knew before amalgamation, and end the provocation where revenue derived from one area is used to fund discriminatory religious practices in other areas. The progressive system adopted after independence, allowing considerable regional autonomy that was foolishly jettisoned after the first military coup in 1966, should first return in a modified version. Since the union is not delivering benefits to the majority, Nigerians should not relent in seeking a fundamental re-structuring through a Sovereign National Conference. The majority should work together to overcome the machinations of the powerful, largely parasitic, minority that benefit immensely from the distorted system. Nigerians should have the opportunity to decide if they want to remain together at all or if they want a dramatic loosening and decentralisation of the polity. India split into three – India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – in defiance of Britain’s perfidious amalgamation. Yugoslavia did not survive as the patchwork created by the victorious allied powers after World War I just as Czechoslovakia unravelled as the Soviet Union was also unbundling in the face of resurgent national self-determination. - PUNCH EDITORIAL BOARD
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 13:11:24 +0000
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