The Motion for the creation of more states moved by the Action Group on April 4, 1961, in Nigeria’s House of Representatives remains the most far-sighted attempt to address nationality tensions.
"Every coup in Nigeria has promised to end corruption and tribalism. None ever did."
Afenifere must now decide: will it become the Yoruba Party in substance, if not in legal form?
The lack of judicial and policing powers to the so-called federating units has made them incapable of protecting their own people. States that have passed anti-open grazing laws cannot enforce them. They watch helplessly as lives and livelihoods are destroyed by marauding herders. This impotence is embedded in the structure of the Constitution, which refuses to allow states or Nationalities to defend themselves.
The current system has dismantled our foundational regional models, like development banking. Amotekun exists, but toothless, lacking judicial authority.
In advanced economies, subsidies are common tools of political economy and statecraft. Demonizing them in Nigeria while insisting their removal is a prerequisite for growth ignores our own history, especially the Western Region’s developmental model driven by state intervention, still remembered with pride almost seventy years after the abolition of the Region as a semi-autonomous geopolitical entity.
The Church must push for Constitutional Restructuring through Nationality Referendums, the only viable path to justice, peace, and development. The Christian community must rally not around candidates, but around a cause: the Re-Federalization of Nigeria through Nationality Referendums.
Therefore,the Yoruba Referendum Committee cannot support either the Northern Governors Forum's demand for "state police" or their call for the National Assembly to expedite action on the demand.
Hakeem Baba-Ahmed: A Wake-Up Call for Yoruba Elite
This is why we are once again calling on the Yoruba elite to seize the moment by ensuring the passage of the Bill for a Referendum by the Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun,Ondo and Ekiti States' Houses of Assembly. We cannot be reacting to what the "North" does or doesn't do, especially now that we have been served a 6-month notice.The ball is in our court.
It is regrettable that the Vice President would criticize “photocopying” foreign Federal models, when it is well known that the 1979 Constitution drafted under military rule and predecessor to the 1999 Constitution, was modeled closely on the American presidential system. Nigeria’s very political architecture is imported—from the Parliamentary system at independence to the Presidential model adopted post-civil war. Nigeria did not invent these systems; it inherited them. Even the country itself is a foreign creation, drawn up by foreign powers without the consent of its Indigenous nations.
Our response must be decisive: Yoruba State Assemblies should pass a Referendum Bill into law, secure gubernatorial assent, and make preparations to conduct a Referendum.
. Consequently, presidential administrations were not bound by the conferences' conclusions because they lacked Legitimacy. However, these same presidents derived legitimacy from being democratically elected, meaning any solution must also be legitimized by a democratic process.
Open Letter to Gen Akinrinade et ak (2)
......On both sides, the aspirations and expectations of the peoples and nationalities of Nigeria are left out of the equation, making them passive recipients of whatever power decides to give
