Western Region Group Calls For Regional Govts, Constitutions, And Unicameral Legislature In Nigeria
This was stated in a press statement issued by the group on Wednesday, advocating that each region in Nigeria should be allowed to be ruled independently with its government.
The Western Region Organization (WRO) has demanded the implementation of a unicameral legislature and a regional government in Nigeria.
This was stated in a press statement issued by the group on Wednesday, advocating that each region in Nigeria should be allowed to be ruled independently with its government.
The group emphasized the need for each region to have its own government, allowing for independent rule and decision-making, in the statement signed by its Secretary General, Dr. Akin Fapohunda, on behalf of its executive committee members.
The WRO criticized the National Assembly’s lack of political will to implement fundamental reforms since 1999, which has hindered the country’s progress. It argued that Nigeria’s current system, with 36 states and 774 local governments, has led to a misallocation of resources and excessive recurrent expenditures by political office holders.
The group said: “As it has now turned out, Nigeria and all of us citizens have been wobbling and fumbling since the events of 1966 altered the trajectory of our progressive development.
“Most remarkable is the absence of the political will by the National Assembly since 1999 to authorize fundamental reforms of our governance framework, as would have liberated all citizens and set us all on the positive path towards the deployment of our inalienable self-determination energies about being best of neighbours to one another as members of the respective ethnic nationalities.
“It is in view of the foregoing that the National Assembly ought now to be prevailed upon to do what is fundamentally right by the people of Nigeria.
“Years of gingerly tinkling with the 1999 Constitution have not produced significant outcomes, as to douse continuous agitations for fundamental changes in our governance framework. “Our balkanization into 36 States and 774 Local Governments have continued to drain our resources in favour of recurrent expenditures by political office holders.
“The Federal Government is a behemoth comprising almost 1,000 MDAs as articulated in the Oransaye Report. Many more are being created regularly, notwithstanding our situation of local and international debt peonage. It is time we lift the veil off our pretense about transforming from a mere country to a nation. We are seemingly not on the right course.”
The group noted that about two years “before the forthcoming 2027 cycle of elections, we are now at an epochal junction of history that requires an act of courage that will set us on a different course politically”.
“A no action now, would be another 3 years of postponement of the inevitability of change,” it said.
The thrust of the proposal being canvassed to be presented by the group to President Tinubu is that Nigeria should be set on the course towards systematic decentralization, following the dictum of unity in diversity.
It identified the first element of the proposition as: “An Amendment to the 1999 Constitution that will enable the Zones/Regions to produce their respective 2nd Tier Constitutions, as would permit the infusion of differentiated local tenets, culture, and situational worldview to be determined by the respective constituent peoples.”
The other two are: “An Amendment to the 1999 Constitution to embody a Reworked Exclusive versus Concurrent List of Functions in favour of 2nd Tier Federating entities: a Fundamental reduction in the 68 Exclusive items to no more than 15, towards a decentralized development system that will empower the Federating entities.
“An Amendment to the 1999 Constitution to permit Referenda to obtain public consent for all subsequent amendments of the Federal and Regional Constitutions.”
It identified the tangible deliverables as follows: Two-tier Governance Levels – Federal and Regional Structure; Uni-camera Federal Legislature (the Prime Minister and the Executive Council to comprise members drawn from the elected members of the Parliament); Regional Constitutions, separate and distinct from that of the Federal Government; Proportional representation based on the outcome of all elections; and Systematic Regionalization.
It noted that the systemic regionalization should affect the judiciary (Court of Appeal and Supreme Courts); security architecture (not just the police), with citizens/civil society stipulations and control outside the reach of the executive government and the socio-economic systems (agriculture, education, transportation, infrastructure, culture, and tourism). health.
Others are revenue generation and remittance of stipulated dues to the Federation account and all electoral contests and census.
