By Adeyinka Adeniran
The Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC) has charged the National Assembly Committee on the Review of the Constitution to discharge their responsibility with utmost consideration with a view to return the country to regional system of government.
In a statement made available to the media by the publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Oguntimehin, the Yoruba socio-cultural organization said it is lending its support to the growing calls by various ethnic groups across the country for return to the 1960 constitution.
The OPC further reaffirmed its support for a call by a group of ethnic nationalities for Nigeria to be restructured into six reorganized regions.
“For Nigeria to make any meaningful progress, we must return to regionalism. It is the best system that will engender progress and development for a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria.
“What we are proposing is a regional system that will make the regions to be self-reliant. Each region will be in control of whatever is produced and generated in their region.
“They will also keep 70 percent of such generated revenue and send thirty percent to the centre. It is our firm belief that with such arrangement, the country will attain its God-given potentials, while peace will reign with attendant development.”
The OPC listed countries with multi ethnics nationalities like Nigeria, but with far smaller population, that operate regional system of government.
“We don’t have to travel far to see countries that operate regional system. An examples is Senegal.
“Senegal with an estimated population of about 17 million people has about 14 regions which are further divided into departements.
“Even Gambia with population of about 2.8million have six regions. It is a statement of fact that any country that allows the federating units to be independent will develop rapidly and there is always socio- political cohesion and unity in the country.
“It is high time we realised that the problem began after the military truncated the regional system of government in 1966 and introduced a unitary system of government. From that time, Nigeria has continued to walk in the wilderness without any form of appreciable progress.
“We need to realise that the founding fathers of the country knew what was best for us when they bequeathed a regional system of government to us in 1960.
“Therefore, for Nigeria to make any meaningful progress and stop this vicious -cycle of motion without movement, we must return to regional system of government, which was the original plan for Nigeria”, he added.
The OPC publicity scribe stated also that the Yoruba socio-cultural organization supports the new proposal for a United Region of Nigeria, even as he urged the Committee that was saddled with the responsibility of reviewing the constitution to know that now is the right time for Nigeria to go back to regionalism.
“The Committee on the Review of the Constitution are on the verge of making history and whatever they do today would definitely affect the nation either positively or negatively.
“As much as the OPC, under the leadership of our amiable leader, Iba Gani Adams, supports the proposal of all the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria for a United Region of Nigeria, I am also using this opportunity to appeal to members of the Committee on the Review of the Constitution to see themselves as ambassadors of the people and make sure that the wishes of Nigerians on the review of the constitution to regionalism remains their utmost priority”, he stated.
