The North is
not intimidated by calls for restructuring of the nation and is ready to
discuss the issue if the right cards are put on the table.
This was part of submissions
following a two-day retreat by the Northern Senators Forum (NSF) in Katsina
State yesterday.
According to the Forum, the region
was not afraid of any “sensible and meaningful arrangement provided it
guarantees justice, equity, fairness and the unity of all Nigerians”.
It described the matter as
ambiguous, even to “proponents, without clear terms and directions on how to go
about it”, adding, the North would, at a later date, take a “well articulated,
firm and common position” on restructuring, in collaboration with other
northern members of the National Assembly.
The Forum
also resolved to map out a Marshall Plan for development of the region, saying
the proposition would be carried out in partnership with critical stakeholders,
its House of Representatives counterpart and the Northern Governors Forum.
A communiqué signed by NSF chairman,
Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said the Plan would be all embracing.
The retreat discussed “the huge
infrastructural deficit” in the North, noting that this challenge has weigh
down socio-economic advancement, hence “the need to design an all embracing
Marshall Plan for the development of the region”.
The NSF said: “The insecurity of
lives and property and the lack of capacity of the state to adequately
guarantee the most fundamental of rights are the most critical challenges
facing the region in particular and the country in general.
“The prevalent ethno-religious
crises in the region are politically motivated and have little or nothing to do
with religion. The alarming statistics of out-of-school children and the number
of learning institutions in the region explains why it is educationally and
economically backward, in addition to poor budgetary funding and bad
governance.”
Senate President Abubakar Bukola
Saraki had declared the retreat open on Tuesday, with the governors of Katsina,
Kebbi, Borno and Sokoto in attendance, alongside Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Sa’ad
Abubakar, former Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Coomasie, Prof. Ango
Abdullahi, Dr. Usman Bugaje and others.
Speaking earlier, the Sultan urged
politicians to improve the lives of Nigerians, berating those who merely use
the electorate to win votes. He also called on government at all levels to
implement programmes that could move the country forward.
Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba
social-cultural organisation, however insisted Nigeria needs a devolved
structure and return to a parliamentary system of government.
The group’s national treasurer,
Chief Supo Shonibare, warned that the country could not survive as a united
entity amid monumental infrastructural challenge.
In a phone call with The Guardian,
he said: “Afenifere welcomes urgent actual actions on our prescription that we
need to not only conceptualise. We have been doing that for years, but also
engage in practical actions on the discourse on the necessary structure able to
resolve the agitation for devolution, and the need to increase our ability to
reduce the costs of running government.
“It is good to want to increase the
country’s agricultural produce and explore the idle mineral deposits in the
North, one however needs a structure able to allow those in the North make the
necessary economic decisions without a ‘quango’ at the centre determining
issues of licensing and legal framework (but) able to assure investors of
speedy resolution of contact disagreements within the region where these
activities will be carried out.”
He described the Federal Government
as an unwieldy wasteful entity, absorbing 70 per cent of the country’s
expenditure with very little to meet infrastructural deficit requirements and
education.
Also, Second Republic politician,
Chief Guy Ikokwu, said each state or zone should be given responsibility as it
was during independence so that each state would take up the responsibility of
its children, workers, education, agriculture, industry and infrastructure.
“If the country is restructured, the
economy will rise. At the moment, the economy in the Northern and Southern
states are only growing by one percent. That is why there is a lot of criminality
in the country and lots of hunger such that people are now selling their
children for a bag of rice. It is something that has never happened in before.
With a restructured Nigeria, there will not be a do-or-die affair of who wants
to become president.”
Feel Free To Comments Here...
No comments:
Post a Comment