State of nation: South West leaders plan mega rally, Nigeria

State of nation: South West leaders plan mega rally

Yoruba leaders have disclosed plan to hold a mega rally in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, where over 100 groups will gather to protest the current state of the nation which they described as a failure.

The gathering scheduled to hold on September 7 will be chaired by Afe Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and would address the agitation for restructuring.

At a press conference in Lagos yesterday, Chairman of the Organising Committee for the rally, Dr. Kunle Olajide, said the South West will take a crucial decision at the rally, which would affect the future of the country.

Some prominent Yoruba leaders who were present at yesterday’s press conference were Reuben Fasoranti, Ayo Adebanjo, Prof. Banji Akintoye, Dr. Amos Akingba, Supo Shonibare and Mr Yinka Odumakin, among others.

Olajide said the South-West is united in its call for restructuring because it believes it is in the interest of all for the country to be reorganised in such a way that power is devolved to the federating units.

He said: “We need to remind ourselves that after Nigeria was declared a republic in 1963; the East, West and North agreed on a federal structure. The federating regions were autonomous and had exclusive control of the resources within their regions, while paying appropriate and agreed taxes to the Federal Government.

“With the coming of the military in 1966, and the civil war that followed, the Constitution agreed to by leaders from different parts of the country was jettisoned. In its place, a unitary constitution, which was wrongly labelled as federal, was adopted. We all know, it is federal only in name. The constitution formed the basis of what is now in operation as ‘the 1999 constitution as amended’. It was the handiwork of some military men representing no one but themselves.

“Unfortunately, what was foisted on all of us as a constitution is not working, judging by the cries of marginalisation from every part of the country. The political space is such that the bureaucracy is widely making growth impossible and corruption inevitable. Successive politicians have promised to correct the present lopsided structure, which is in favour of the government at the centre in order to win elections, and once elections are over, nothing is done in this direction.

“Under the current structure, impending failure of the state is evidenced by highest global percentage of out-of-school children, largest internally displaced persons in a country not at war, 72 percent poverty level in 2016 and increasing terrorism, rampaging Fulani herdsmen, kidnapping and over 65 percent unemployment. “Historically, the South-West had attained a firm foundation for development. But since the incursion of the military, the South-West has struggled to maintain this trajectory as a result of an over centralised military pull which continues to bring the best down to the level of the rest.

“The Yoruba as a nation is now united. We prefer to exist within Nigeria and it is on this basis that leaders of Yoruba and all the representatives of all facets of our people would be converging in Ibadan to appraise these issues and fashion out a workable way out of the ongoing quagmire the nation faces.”