An economist and traditional ruler of Daffo in Bokos Local Government Area of Plateau State, Da Jonathan Sunday Akuns, has dismissed the rationale behind promoting the League of Northern Democrats (LND).
The royal father stated that, at a time when patriots and advocates for national stability are pushing for a truly people-centered constitution for Nigeria, the idea behind the LND is outdated and serves as a major distraction.
“Ordinarily, it might have been a welcome development, but the use of terms like North, northern, northerners, Northern Elders’ Forum, Arewa Consultative Forum, Arewa Republic, and any derivatives such as League of Northern Democrats is off-putting.
“The concept of the North and its derivatives is defunct and archaic, merely a geographic description of spatial direction. Nigeria emerged from Britain’s unilateral decision to unify the territories of ethnic nationalities through war, law, and the praxis of settler colonization,” he said.
Akuns, who is at the forefront of the movement to reinstate the 1963 Republican Constitution, maintained that “the claim to a geographic description of spatial direction to impose a monolithic entity called the North is a cryptic grab of the territories of diverse ethnic nationalities, which should not be encouraged in any form of discourse or literature.”
The monarch recalled that, at the inception of colonialism in 1861 in Lagos territory and subsequently in 1900 with the rest of the territories of other ethnicities, what is known today as Nigeria existed based on ethnic homeland statecraft.
“Each homeland was identified by its ethnic tribe, such as Hausa Land, Ron Land, Kanuri Land, Nupe Land, Tiv Land, etc.
“Colonialism extinguished the sovereign status of each ethnic cohort that is now a component of Nigeria. Decolonization began on October 1, 1960, leading to self-rule from October 1, 1963, with four heterogeneous federating units bound by a republican, not unitary, Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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“As of today, in 2024, there are 36 composite administrative subunits of the federation and 774 third-level components reflecting the diversity of ethnic autochthony. So why should anyone be enamored with such appellations of defunct and archaic entities like the acephalous North or any of its derivatives? Such an approach is clandestine, surreptitious, and a subtle push towards subjugation.
“My ethnic territory is situated in a spatial location of Nigeria that was well-documented as the Middle Belt Region. The ongoing national discourse about restructuring is simply a federalism self-retrieval process where the survival of the Nigerian federation is anchored on homogeneous or heterogeneous federating units derived from the mantra of ‘We the People.’”
Furthermore, Akuns urged the promoters of the LND to join other well-meaning Nigerians in ensuring better statecraft, stressing that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should not be distracted by political positioning at the expense of national cohesion.
Reiterating that the 1963 Constitution holds greater promise for preserving Nigeria’s stability, the former executive of Nigeria’s Central Bank stated that reviving the Republican Constitution will align with the country’s democratic aspirations.
“The founding legal code, or 1963 Constitution, is one that is ‘of’ the people, not one that is ‘for’ the people. The concept of the North is grotesque, devoid of nativity, and seeks to be ‘for’ the people, never ‘of’ the people. The realities are truly divergent, reflecting the plural diversity of every ethnic land in Nigeria,” the traditional ruler added.
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