26052018 - Buhari battles the challenge of CHANGE

SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 26, , 2018—39
RESTRUCTURING:
Day Ndigbo
spoke boldly
with Awka
declaration
•Ekweremadu
•Nwodo
By Vincent Ujumadu
MAY 21, 2018 has become
remarkable in Igbo land as
it was the day Ndigbo were
united with one voice to make bold
their position for a better Nigeria. The
day, which has been dubbed by the
Igbo intelligentsia as the ‘Famous
Awka Declaration’, was the highpoint
of years of brainstorming exercise by
leaders of all the arms of the apex Igbo
socio –cultural organization, the
Ohaneze Ndigbo, which articulated
the stand of Ndigbo in the envisaged
restructured Nigeria project.
Professor Charles Chukwuma
Soludo, former governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeria, CBN, who read the
Igbo agenda to the highly cerebral
audience that included leaders from
other ethnic groups in Nigeria,
including the Afenifere, the Niger
Delta, the Middle Belt, among others,
said it was the result from accumulated
years of work by successive regimes of
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, as well as the
various Igbo think-tanks, especially
the submissions of the Igbo Leaders of
Thought for the 2014 National
Conference; Igbo positions for the
1994 Constitutional Conference and
2005 and 2014 national conferences.
It also included the report of the
committee set up by South East
Governors on the review of
the 1999 Constitution; the
report of the World Igbo
Summit by the Igbo
Renaissance Centre, Uturu,
Abia State; various
submissions and reports by
Aka Ikenga; IzuUmunna;
NzukoUmunna; the Igbo
intelligentsia; the World Igbo
Congress; reports of various
meetings and conferences of
Igbo stakeholders and
leaders, among others.
After collating the reports
from various groups, the
Ohanaeze Planning and
Strategy Committee and the
organizing committee for the
Awka Igbo Summit on
restructuring also embarked
on town hall -style
consultative meetings in
The concept of
state of origin
should be
scrapped from
the
Constitution of
the Federation
and replaced
with state of
residence
Abuja, Lagos, and Enugu where inputs
from major segments of Igbo society
were gathered. Memoranda and
inputs were also received from over 40
pan-Igbo groups, the
nongovernmental organizations,
NGOs, and individuals, after which
draft was presented and debated at the
National Executive Committee and
the Imeobi of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
Essentially, the Igbo are demanding
a new Constitution for Nigeria. Under
this, there should be a constitutional
conference, backed by a law enacted
by the National Assembly, where the
people of Nigeria would agree on a
new, truly federal Constitution.
Similarly, a Constituent Assembly
should be constituted to agree on a
new Constitution for a new Nigeria,
which should be approved by the
people through a referendum to give it
legitimacy and validity. Thereafter, the
National Assembly should repeal Act
24 of 1999 (of which the 1999
Constitution is only a Schedule),
thereby effectively voiding the 1999
Constitution.
Other demands include that under
the presidential system of government,
which Ndigbo agreed should
continue, the various regions should
determine the type of government to
operate at that level;. the tenure of
office of the President should be a
single term of six years
and there should be five
Vice Presidents, one from
each of the geopolitical
zones or Regions, except
the Region or zone of the
president, and each also
to serve for a fixed term
of six years. Each of the
Vice Presidents will be
assigned supervisory
responsibility over two or
more ministries such as
Defence, Internal Affairs,
Foreign Affairs, Finance,
Infrastructure and Works,
so as to give every zone a
sense of belonging and a
strong voice in major
decision making. The
office of President should
also rotate among the six
•Soludo
geo-political zones of Nigeria.
There should also be six regional
governments, each comprising the
current states within each zone and
other states that might be created
within the zone from time to time, just
as the existing six geopolitical zones
should be enshrined in the constitution
as the basis for sharing national
political, economic and social
amenities, offices and opportunities in
an equitable manner among the zones.
The recommendations further said:
“Ndigbo demand that Nigeria give
effect to the recommendation of the
2014 National Conference which states
that “in the spirit of reconciliation,
equity, fair play, and justice, there shall
be created an additional state for the
South East zone; and all other requests
for state creation shall be considered
on merit. One additional state in the
South East should be the irreducible
minimum. But if states remain the basis
for sharing resources and opportunities
in Nigeria, we demand an equal
number of states per geopolitical zone
or region.
“Local Governments should be
scrapped from the Constitution of the
Federation and should be in the
exclusive list of the Regional/State
Constitutions.
“Whether the Regions or States
become the federating units, and
whether or not equal numbers of states
are created in each zone, Ndigbo
demand that equality of the six
geopolitical zones should be
enshrined in the Constitution.
Politically, representation at the federal
cabinet as well as the twin chambers of
the federal legislature should be based
•Obiano
on equality of zones or regions.
Furthermore, sharing of revenues,
distribution of infrastructure by the
Federal Government, and federal
character principle will be applied on
the basis of equality of zones.
“The concept of state of origin
should be scrapped from the
Constitution of the Federation and
replaced with state of residence. As an
alternative, minimum residency and
civic rights and responsibilities should
include that any child born of
Nigerian parents anywhere in Nigeria
will acquire the indigene ship rights of
the area at birth, and any Nigerian
citizen who has resided in any part of
Nigeria and paid taxes there for a
period of ten years can acquire the
indigene ship rights of the area,
except for the right to their traditional
stool.
“There should be a two or three-tier
police structure with defined
responsibilities namely, a Police Force
for the Federation and controlled by
the Federal Government, and the
Regional/State Constitutions to
establish separate Police Forces for
each region and each state. The Police
Force at every level will be headed by
a non-partisan professional. The
power to appoint and remove such a
head of police will be vested in an
independent body.
“There should be a truly federal
system that gives control of resources
to the component units and replaces
the current system of unconditional
transfers with conditional transfers
from the centre. States should have
control over all the natural resources
within their territory. Fiscal federalism
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