The South-West’s position on restructuring

IF there is any group of people who have been in the vanguard of the call for the restructuring of Nigeria to allow for healthy growth in its body politic, it is the Yoruba people of South-West Nigeria. The clamour began at the conference held in Ibadan on January 9, 1950, with delegates from the East, the West and the North, which were the three regions at that time, in attendance.

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The conference was called at the instance of the colonial masters to discuss the details of a proposed new constitution being put together by Sir Macpherson, the colonial leader at that time. The meeting came on the heels of the defects in the earlier Richard Constitution.

After a series of hot sessions, it was unanimously agreed, among other resolutions, that a federal system of government must be adopted in the three regions. It was not until the colonialists were departing that a truly federal constitution named the 1960 Constitution, agreed to by leaders from all the regions, came into being.

The constitution recognised the three regions and granted them adequate autonomy, a development which saw the West doing well in all spheres under the leadership of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The intervention of the military led to the unitarisation of the country. Since then, the clamour to restructure has grown louder, even during and after military interregna.

To ensure the momentum is sustained, the South-West region has been meeting with leaders of the Middle Belt groups, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the South-South groups with discussions centring on the concept of restructuring of the country. In July, 2017, a Yoruba summit was held in Ibadan where it all began under the chairmanship of Chief Afe Babalola SAN. Leaders from other ethnic groups from the South-East and the South-South were in attendance. After hours of deliberations, the position of the Yoruba on restructuring, which was also adopted by Ohanaeze Ndigbo and others, was given as follows:

1. That Yoruba insists that Nigeria must return to a proper federation as obtained in the 1960 and 1963 constitutions. This has been our position since 1950 Ibadan conference and developments in Nigeria over the last fifty years reinforce our conviction.
2. That Yoruba are clear that restructuring does not mean different things to different people other than that a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria can only know real peace and development if it is run ONLY along federal lines.
3. That the greatest imperatives of restructuring Nigeria is to move from a rent-seeking and money sharing anti-development economy to productivity by ensuring that the federating units are free to own and develop their resources. They should pay agreed sums to the federation purse to implement central services.
4. That the federating units- whether states, zones or regions must themselves be governed by written constitution to curb impurity at all levels.
5. Nigeria shall be a federation comprised of six regions and the federal capital Territory, Abuja.
6. The Federal Government shall make laws and only have powers in relation to items specified on the legislative list contained in the constitution of the Federation.
7. The Regions shall in turn be composed as states.
8. Each Region shall have its own constitution containing enumerated exclusive and concurrent legislative lists regarding matters upon which the regions and the states may act or legislate.
9. Contiguous territories, ethnic nationalities or settlement shall be at liberty through a plebiscite, to elect to be part of any contiguous region other than the region in which the current geo-political zone or state boundaries places them.
10. States as presently comprised in the geo-political zones into which they fall, which shall become regions, shall continue to exercise the executive, legislative and judicial functions currently exercised at that level of government.
11. The States with a region shall determine the items on the legislative lists in the Regional constitution for the purpose of good government and the administration and provision of common inter-state social, economic and infrastructural requirements. Residual powers shall be vested in the states.
12. The power to create states shall be within the exclusive powers of the region which shall be obliged to create a state provided a plebiscite is conducted, following a request by an agreed percentage of the residents of the ethnic nationality within a state. The procedure for conducting a plebiscite and the percentage of any ethnic nationality shall be out in the regional constitution.
13. The power to create local governments and assign functions to them shall be vested in the states.
14. States shall be entitled to manage all resources found within their boundaries and the revenue accruing therefrom. The issue of the entitlement of littoral states to offshore resources and the extension of such rights from the continental shelf and rights accuring to the federal government shall be determined by the national assembly.
15. The sharing ration of all revenues raised by means of taxation shall be 50% to the states, 35% to the regional government and 15% to the government of the federation.
16. For a period of 10 years from the commencement of the operation of the new constitution (or such other agreed period to be enshrined in the federal constitution) there shall be a special fund for the development of all minerals in the country. The Government of the federation shall raise this sum by way of additional taxation on resources at a rate to be agreed by the National Assembly. The National Assembly shall set up a body to manage the funds with equal representation of nominees from each of the Regional governments and shall also set out and out and specify the guidelines for the administration of the funds exclusively for this purpose. The president of the Federation shall appoint a chairperson for the entity so formed.

That these agreed positions of the Yoruba shall form the basis of negotiations with our partners in the Nigerian project for a united Nigeria based on justice, peace and fair play.