CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK
A Speech given to the House of Representatives, Lagos, on 14th January, 1960.
As I have said before, our manifest goal on this issue is that more and more States, based on ethnic or linguistic affinity, should be created in Nigeria until each of the ethnic or linguistic groups in our diverse community enjoys political self-determination within the Federation. Until this ideal is realised, until this goal is reached, consenting minorities can always be constituted into a separate State, as Government now wants to do in the Mid-West Region. In determining whether a particular State should be created or not, regard should of course, be had, among other factors, to financial and administrative viability. I am fully convinced that each of the 11 States proposed in this Amendment is viable.
ON THE SECOND READING OF THE BILL TO CREATE MID WEST STATE, CHIEF AWOLOWO MADE THE FOLLOWING CONTRIBUTION IN PARLIAMENT.
I rise to oppose the Second Reading of this Bill and, on very good grounds. I am astonished that the Government continues to tread the path of stubborn inequity in this matter. I do not wish to repeat the argument which has been constantly urged in this Hon. House against the creation of the Mid-West Region unless certain conditions are satisfied. Buy may I say this, that the Prime Minister himself did say here on a previous occasion, and he has reaffirmed that statement this morning, that after the creation of this State (the Mid West Region), no other State would be created in the Federation; or to use his own words, he would not tolerate a further break-up of any part of the Federation.
It is generally agreed by all of us – all sensible persons in any case – that our Federation is an usual one in the sense that it is unbalanced. You have the Federation in which one Region is more than equal to the other Regions put together. It is, therefore, imperative if the Federation is to continue in peace and harmony, that that monolithic giant Region should be broken up.
The Prime Minister, as Primer Minister, has no region of origin; but as Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, he comes from Bauchi, and therefore, he belongs to that Region which de- serves to be broken up if the Federation is to continue in harmony and peace.
I should have thought that after the Prime Minister had listened to public opinion on this matter, he would desist from treading this path which I described as ‘stubborn inequity’. It is inequity against the Western Region to insist on creation this State. It is inequity against the whole of the Federation to allow the Northern Region to remain as it is without breaking it up, and more so, to make a declaration to the effect that there can be no question of breaking it up.
The Prime Minister did say that if any Region makes the request that it wants its area to be broken up, that request would be acceded to. Our Constitution is very clear on the point. It is not up to a Region under this Constitution by this federal Legislature. In this particular case, the initiative has been taken by the Federal Legislature. The oft-quoted Motion of 1955, the Motion that was moved was very plain and clear; and to this effect, with your permission, I quote from the official report of the Western House of Assembly:
‘That this House prays Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom to make necessary constitutional arrangements at the proposed Conference in 1956 to give effect to the creation of a separate State for Benin and Delta Provinces.’
After that Motion had been moved, I then rose up as Leader of Government Business, or as the Premier of the Region, to say as follows:
‘In view of the issues involved in this Motion, I want to announce that the Government adopts no official attitude whatsoever toward it. Secondly, Members of the Government and of the Opposition who wish may support it without any restriction whatsoever.’
Sir, in other words, it was not a Government Motion; and secondly, the Government did not give it its blessings. It is, therefore, incorrect for anyone to interpret that Motion as suggesting that the Western Region Government made a move for the creation of the Mid-West Region at the present time. What is more, as we have pointed out here before, the
Willink Commission was appointed at the Conference that was held in 1957 and the recommendation of the Willink Commission was that no State would be created, and Her Majesty’s Government insisted that indeed no State would be created, before they handed power to the people of Nigeria. So, the present move to create the Mid West Region is that of the Federal Government, and the Federal Government must own up its own responsibility in that regard.
The other point I wish to make is that with the presentation of this Bill for an Act to create the Mid-West Region in the form that it has been presented by the Hon. Prime Minister, the people of the Mid West and of what is left of Kthe Western Region are being called upon to buy, so to say, a pig in a poke. Here, we have a Region without any legal identity whatsoever. What is the Constitution of this new Region? How many Members will sit in its House of Assembly? How many Members will sit in its House of Chiefs? What revenue will this new Region be entitled to? And so on and so forth.
It may easy for the people of the North or the legislators in the North and in the East to support the move that is being made now because they have no stake in the matter; but the Region that is to pay the price of this pig in a poke is entitled to insist on an examination of the pig so as to make sure that the price that is asked for it by the Federal Government is an appropriate one.
Then the Hon. the Prime Minister has repeated his assurance here that what is left of the Western Region would constitute a State. It is not enough that a mere oral assurance should be given in this House. It is important that the assurance should be in a statutory form.
It is a matter of plain common sense that when you divide an area of even a Local Government Council into two you have to amend the instruments of the two new Local Government Councils, in other words, you have got to make an instrument for the new one and amend the instrument of the remaining part of the Local Government Council area. In other words what ought to be done on this occasion, before we can give our support at all, is to present to this House a Bill containing the Constitution, or a Bill containing in its Schedule the Constitution of the Mid West Region and the Constitution of what is left of the Western Region, because legally what is left will not be regarded as a Region unless there is a Constitution.
It has been suggested here that after the passage of this Bill the Constitution of the Mid-West Region will be worked out. If you take the Mid-West Region out of the Western Region what is left is no longer the Western Region, because the Western Region is defined under the Constitution as having a given area, and that area is no longer there. What name do you give to it then? It follows, therefore, that after the passage of this Bill and when the Referendum has been held – if the Referendum ever succeeds – a new Constitution will have to be fashioned for what is left of the Western Region, and I say that that is the situation that the people of the Western Region as a whole cannot put up with.
May I repeat very briefly that it is not just one condition that has been attached to the creation of the Mid-West Region as a precedent? There are a number of other conditions, but two of them are vital. I have already mentioned one, that there should be a Constitution for the Mid-West Region and a Constitution for the rest of the Western Region as Schedules to this Bill. That is one. Secondly, there must be a statutory provision for an interim Government for the new Region. That is absolutely important. It is provided for in the Constitution that the Federal Government can administer the affairs of the new Region for some six months. It is an optional sort of provision not in any way mandatory. But the Federal Government is intending to administer the affairs of the Mid-West Region for six months. May I say that that plan outrages the political instinct of the people of the Mid-West Region and of the people of the Western Region as a whole on the ground that the NPC, which dominates the Federal Government, has no following in the Mid-West Region. In other words by allowing the Federal Government to administer the affairs of the Mid-West Region, you are in effect imposing upon the people of the Mid-West Region, a Party which is not of their own choice.
I repeat that unless suitable arrangements are made for an interim Government for the new Mid-West Region, we on this side of the House cannot support the Bill as it stands. I have said it before, and I may repeat it that we have a precedent for the request which we make. When the Southern Cameroons in these days were separated from the Eastern Region, the two Parties which existed at the time formed an interim Government. The Action Group and the NCNC exist in the Mid-West Region more or less in equal number, and I think that the two of them should in equal number form an interim Government of that area.
It is my view that if the Leaders of the NCNC in the Mid-West Region have the interest and welfare of the people of the Mid-West Region at heart all they should accede to a proposal for the constitution of an interim Government consisting of the Action Group and the NCNC in equal number. But if they oppose that they cannot have a Mid West Region.
I do not wish to take more of the time of the House on this matter, but may I say, in conclusion, that in principle we support the creation of more States in Nigeria, and, in particular, the creation of the Mid-West State. But in view of the fact that the procedure adopted by the Federal Government in their attempt to create the Mid West Region is unsatisfactory and in view of the fact that the very easy conditions which we have proposed have not been given effect to by the Federal Government, I consider it my duty to oppose this Bill. And, as I said before, it will also be my duty after the Bill shall have been passed and a day is named for a Referendum, to call upon all my supporters in the Mid-West Region to say ‘No’ to the Creation of the Mid-West Region.
CONTINUES NEXT WEEK
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