There’s really nothing worthwhile to celebrate until the country is restructured and fiscal federalism entrenched, the Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged (CENTREP) has averred.
This was in a statement signed by its executive director, Oghenejabor Ikimi, and made available to journalists in Warri, Delta State on Sunday.
Ikimi opined that the country was founded on fraud and deceit, noting that the nation should be restructured into six zones to engender growth and development at a pace comfortable for each zone.
“We hereby call for the restructuring of our dear nation as there is nothing to celebrate nationwide since the advent of our present democratic experiment, except massive corruption and massive under-development to say the least.
“Nigeria as an independent nation is built on a fraudulent federal system of government where component states are made to be subservient to the central government.
“No wonder our nation is structured to fail hence nothing works in our present day polity.
“We run an expensive presidential system of government in the whole world with 811 chief executives, that is, the president at the centre, 36 states governors in the various states of the federation and 774 local government chairmen at the third tier of government with the resultant effect of a haemorrhage in our oil dominated economy.
“Alaska, which is a state in United States of America, is four times the size of Nigeria. Alaska has just one governor.
“On this occasion, we join other well-meaning Nigerians to call for the true restructuring of our nation into six regions in line with our six geo-political regions, with each region made to control her own resources and to contribute a token to the central government.
“We submit that the only solution to our present political, economic and social challenges as an independent Nation is the observance of true fiscal Federalism as each region would be allowed to develop at her own pace.
“True federalism, no doubt, would encourage healthy competition amongst the regions which we believe would catapult the growth and development of our nation as the giant of Africa.
“We opine that as long as the centre is stronger than the Federating States, our Federation would remain a fraud, and the result of the said fraud is the present earth-quaking level of corruption and under development been witnessed in our present day polity, hence the urgent need to restructure of our Nation to fast track our development as a nation,” the statement noted.
and then