CREATION OF MORE STATES

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

A speech given in the House of Representatives, Lagos, on 14th January, 1960.

Second, the matters which should be discussed and agreed upon both at the first and resumed meeting of the conference should include the following: the Constitution of the new Region; allocation of revenue to the new Region; safeguard for minorities within the Region; new report of constituency delimination, that is to say after a decision has been taken at the first meeting of the conference as to the number of regional constituencies which the new Region should have it would be your duty to appoint a Committee to delimit such constituencies (the Commission would, as in similar cases in the past, have consultations with the Action Group and the NCNC representatives before arriving at its recommendation); arrangements for the interim administration of the Mid West Region, that is, between the coming into existence of the Region and the holding of general election. In this connection I would ike to point out that if the precedent of the Southern Cameroons is to be followed with reasonable modifications.

Then the present Members of the Western Region Legislature representing the Mid-West should constitute the interim legislature of the area. This interim legislature will appoint, from among its own Members, persons who would constitute the Executive Council and thus be responsible for the interim administration of the new Region.

‘Third, it is essential that the Federal Government should make a categorical statement that the rest of the Western Region! will ipso facto remain a corporate regional entity under the Constitution. This statement should not have been necessary but for the statements which some Federal Government spokesmen have made and which are incompatible with the provisions of the Constitution. It has been said that after the creation of the Mid-West Region, what will be left of the Western Region will be regarded by the Federal Government as not legally constituting a Region under the Constitution. This view is clearly an erroneous one. In the interest of the people, the Federal Government must not be allowed to fall into the temptation of committing such a grave error as this. A categorical statement by the Government on the lines suggested above will make the constitutional position abundantly clear and allay any misgiving on the issue.

‘Fourth, it is, in my opinion, imperative that the agreement reached at the Conference proposed in paragraph 6 above, and the Federal Government’s categorical statement on the position of the rest of the Western Region should be reduced into legal terms and should be made to form the Schedule or Schedules of the Bill for an Act of Parliament to create the Mid West Region.’

The Prime Minister’s reply, Mr. Speaker, was non-committal. He said, inter alia, as follows – and with your permission, Sir, I quote two paragraphs from the Prime Minister’s letter. ‘Now to the specific points you raise in paragraphs 6 to 9 of your letter. The Conference suggested by you of political parties with a following in the Mid West which you asked me to convene is a good idea. But I consider it as a little premature. Such a suggestion can be seriously considered after the Federal Parliament’s Resolution has received the blessing of the Western Region Legislature, which is all that remains in order to perform the proper exercise of putting the Constitutional provisions into effect.

‘The other point relates to a request for a categorical statement to the effect that, in the event of the creation of the Mid West State, the rest of the Western Region of Nigeria will still remain a Region under the Constitution. This is an undertaking that the Federal Government cannot give. You will readily appreciate that the issue of the creation of States is not a matter for the Federal Government as a Government. It is a matter, firstly, for the people affected; secondly, for the political parties with a following in the area; and, thirdly, for the Federal Parliament and Regional Legislature.’

I have listened very carefully to the very short speech made by the Prime Minister in moving the Motion on this subject, and I can find no answer at all to my queries, nor solace for the anxiety of the people of the Western Region in particular and of the minority areas in general.

It goes against the grain, in my view, and it appears to me to be a subtle assault on the Constitution, that the Federal Government can unjustly and in an indecent haste try to force the creation of the Mid-West Region upon the overwhelming majority of the people of the Western Region, without giving the prerequisite guarantees, and without the fullest possible consultations with the accredited representatives of the people concerning procedure. The whole of this business, if I may say so with respect, smacks of ill-will and spite.

There are many here, and outside this chamber, who may be startled – and I have no doubt that the Prime Minister himself was stalled by the number of States now proposed for simultaneous creation. Some will charge us with inconsistency for making this proposal. If we were inconsistent, then I say that we are in very good company. It is the most dramatic volte-face in our history for the NPC and for the Prime Minister in particular – the one-time uncompromising opponent of the creation of any new States at all – to become the foremost advocate and champion or at least the undisguised godfather of the proposed Mid West Region.

In our case, we have never at any time changed place to take an opposite point of view to the creation of more States. We have always advocated the creation of more States, and it is merely a courageous and enlightened advance towards the ideal if we now call for the creation of 11 States instead of 6. The truth, however, is that whatever we demand, whether we demand the creation of 6 States, or 11 States, or even 40 States, we are still acting within the ambit of the principles by which we have always been guided.

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK

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