The Yoruba Assembly has said it will demand regional autonomy and an ideal resource management system when the 2014 National Conference holds in Abuja later in the year.
The assembly, which is a coalition of thoughts and socio-cultural groups in Yoruba land, held a grand summit in Ibadan on Thursday, where the Yoruba agenda for the conference was formally presented and adopted at the House of Chiefs, Oyo State Secretariat.
Among those present at the meeting were the Chairman of the committee, Chief Olu Falae; vice-chairman, Gen. Alani Akinrinade (retd.); secretary, Mr. Kunle Olajide; and a former Chairman of Punch Nigeria Limited, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola.
Also present were the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on the National Conference, Chief Femi Okurounmu; a former Governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande; and a former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba.
Others were former Commissioner for Health in the old Western Region, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi; and a former judge of the International Court of Justice, Prince Bola Ajibola; monarchs from the region, leaders of various Yoruba groups, representatives of South-West state governments and the host, Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
While reading out the summary of the 15 issues on the Yoruba Agenda, Akinrinade said, “When the conference holds from March 10, 2014, the Yoruba people will make a proposal for a new Nigeria, consisting of a central union/Federal Government and six regional governments based on the current six geo-political zones, including all other Yoruba outside the imposed artificial boundaries; that is to say, in Edo, Delta, Kogi and Kwara states; and operating federal and regional constitutions, respectively.”
He further stated that the Yoruba would agitate for regional autonomy for the South-West within a united Nigerian federation.
Akinrinade added that the conference offered an opportunity for the ethnic group to actualise its agenda, especially with the “expiration of the amalgamation by mistake of 1914.”
The agenda is also seeking to bring to an end the presidential system of government in the country and ensure the return to the parliamentary system, and the right to self determination by each region, including the right to secede.
“The regional constitution will allocate functions to the three tiers of government in the Yoruba federation or region. States will be responsible for the creation of local government councils. However, any ethnic group or groups within a state wishing to align with any other state or to belong to a new region shall be allowed to do so if confirmed in a plebiscite by the affected people,” the agenda document reads in part.
Speaking on the agenda, Okurounmu appealed for unity among the Yoruba, warning that no state in the region must present a separate agenda.
He said, “We have a Yoruba Agenda already and if any state presents a separate agenda, we will lose our unity.”
The group also said that it would propose a new exclusive list that would address procurement of arms, ammunition and explosives; award of national honours; right to citizenship; issue on currency; defence; deportation of persons; diplomatic and consular matters; and external affairs.
The status of Lagos State is also on the agenda. The state is recognised as a mini-Nigeria and because of the pressure on its infrastructure and the role it plays as the economic nerve centre of the country, it was proposed that a budgetary provision that would be part of the first line charge in the Federation Account should be made for it.
On the taxation system, the group is proposing an ideal resource management system for a true federation with fiscal federalism and resource control, whereby a substantial part of the proceeds accruable from every region will be domiciled in the region and an agreed percentage will be contributed to the centre by the federating regions.
While it called for the establishment of a constitutional court to have jurisdiction over inter-government cases and election petitions, it also proposed the creation of a regional policing system because the present structure and system had failed to guarantee security of the citizens.
Speaking at the event, Ajimobi supported the call for regional autonomy, and also called for resource control system for each region.
He said, “We must ask that Nigeria becomes again a union of federated regions where each of us will be at liberty to restructure the current artificial state structure that we have. The sub-set of this is that we must canvass a return of the regions of the federal union to their separate constitutions as was present in the 1950s and 1960s.
“There is also the need for the ethnic groups to canvass that each of the regions should exercise control over their resources and only pay an agreed meagre percentage to the Federal Government.”
The Afenifere leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, who called for the support of the South-West delegates at the conference, also endorsed the agenda.
However, while prominent Yoruba obas and politicians like Okurounmu endorsed the agenda, some representatives of groups and government pointed out some grey areas and contradictions in the agenda.
Sola Ebiseni, who represented the Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, faulted the resolution of the Yoruba group that the new constitution should be submitted to the electorate for a referendum. He argued that Nigeria was currently operating with a fraudulent population figure, which would not be ideal for such an historic task.
“The registered voters we have today do not represent the true state of voters’ population in Nigeria,” he said.
However, the Yoruba in Kwara and Kogi states resolved to ask for boundary re-adjustment that would unite them with the South-West region.
The Yoruba people in the two states include the Ekiti, Igbomina and Bolo in Kwara State; and the Okun and Yagba in Kogi State.
The Chairman of the three-man committee, which drafted the agenda, Falae, said his committee held several meetings with the people in the two states in order to reflect their wishes in the generality of the Yoruba agenda at the national conference.
Falae, who is a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said, “We decided to visit our kiths and kins, who are in what I call the domestic Diaspora in Kwara and Kogi states, they are all here.
“We held several meetings with the Yoruba in Kwara — the Ekitis in the two local governments, the Igbomina and the Bolo people; and in Kogi, the Okun people and the Yagba people.
“We held several meetings with them singly and jointly to ensure that whatever we put in the agenda represents their own wishes.”
Falae added that the Ijaws in parts of the South-West zone were at liberty to canvass to be united with their people in the South-South zone.
The representative of the Kogi people at the conference, Mr. J.O. Yusuf, expressed delight over the initiatives of the Yoruba in the South-West to re-unite with their counterparts in other parts of the country.
He said at various levels, the Okun people in Kogi State had demanded that a state should either be created for them or they should be allowed to merge with Ekiti State in the South-West.
Yusuf said, “We want a state for the Yoruba in Kogi State and if this cannot be done, we want the boundary to be adjusted.
“This decision has been taken by the Okun Development Association; the Okun Elders Forum has met and resolved on this issue; that if we cannot get a state, we will like to be excised from Kogi State and merged with Ekiti State.”
The Itsekiri people of Delta State also used the occasion to restate their ancestral link to the Yoruba people.
They declared that they were an extract of the Yoruba race and also expressed their intention to work with the South-West people at the forthcoming National Conference.
Copyright PUNCH.
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