A socio-political group, God and People Prayer Parliament (GAP-Parliament), has renewed its call for regional autonomy in Nigeria, while commending President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for what it described as his efforts toward restructuring the country.
The group also urged the National Assembly to split the present South-South geopolitical zone into two regions (Midwest and Niger Delta ) regions to enhance accessibility and administrative efficiency.
In a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Dr. Dele Oluwatade, GAP-Parliament argued that the proposal for 42 states under a regional arrangement would be excessive and would only increase the cost of governance.
According to the statement:
“We wish to call on the South-South legislative caucus of the National Assembly to urgently look at the South-South Zone with the view of dividing it into two regions. It’s the most disadvantaged region of all the regions. Take a map of Nigeria and look at South-South Zone.
“Moving from the eastern part to the western part you have to pass through South-East compulsorily. Even from Benin, you have to pass through the South-East. Even from Warri, you may have to go through Ughelli to Onitsha, to Aba and so on because of the terrain. We advise that South-South be divided into two regions: the former Midwestern Region should be resurrected, and then Niger Delta Region.
“The two of them are very viable. Let our distinguished senators, Oshiomhole and Akpabio, and other House of Representatives members quickly look at this South-South peculiar situation and see if it can be divided into two.”
The group further proposed a drastic reduction in the number of states in the country, insisting that fewer states would reduce governance costs and free up more resources for development.
It said:
“We suggest that the number of states in Nigeria should be crashed to 12, to reduce drainpipe democracy effects of multiple governors with multiple personnel and pleasure orientations. Each extra governor in a region is a drainpipe of scarce resources. If the number of
states are less, there’ll be more money to contribute to the center from the fewer states or from the region.“More money. Yes. There’ll be reduction in overhead, political overhead, administrative overhead, assistance overheads, special assistance, special this, special that. There’ll be reduction in overhead costs, and therefore, more money is available to be shared out.”
The statement maintained that Nigeria’s challenge was not the number of states but the high cost of governance.
According to the group:
“California is half of Nigeria’s size. The number of chief executives of states in Nigeria is too top-heavy compared to America. If America should divide itself with our Nigerian formula, USA will be 360 states, 360 governors etc, she will not have any money to help anybody.
“Let our states be proportional to our resources. Limiting or determining how many states a region should have is interfering with the political territorial integrity of the region. Allow the regions to administer themselves as they want.”
The group also argued that any return to a regional system of government must include constitutional safeguards which, it claimed, were omitted during the First Republic.
It stated:
“We want to also draw the attention of the National Assembly to the fact that to successfully run a regional government, terms and conditions apply.
“What led to the fall of the first regional government was because the terms and conditions were omitted. They left them behind in the UK, because the UK, our political mother, has been running its own since.”
According to the statement, the missing provisions include a referendum clause, an exit clause, an intervention due process clause and an excision clause.
Explaining further, the group said:
“The central government needn’t have jumped into the Western Region to meddle in a regional political problem of the Western Region. The central government was not invited. Central government just jumped into the system as the superpower of the country and disorganized Western Region, which snowballed to where we are right now.”
