CREATION OF MORE STATES INDEPENDENCE

I beg to move the following amendment:

To delete the words of the motion after ‘territorially’ and substitute ‘of Benin and Delta Provinces in the Western Region excluding Akoko Oke District in Afenmai Division and Warri and Western Ijaw Divisions in Delta Province, provided.

1. That the remaining part of the Western Nigeria shall continue to be a region under the Constitution.
2. That a prior agreement shall be reached between the major political parties in the area of the new region on the following matters and that such agreement shall be embodied in the Act of Parliament establishing the new region, namely:
3. a) constitution of the new region;
4. b) constituency delimitation;
5. c) fiscal arrangement;
6. d) interim administration;
7. e) date of first election to the new regional legislature.
8. That the rest of the Federation shall simultaneously be divided into the following regions:
9. i) NORTH EAST, that is, Bornu and Sardauna Provinces
10. ii) CENTRAL, that is, Ilorin, Niger and Kabba Provinces

iii)  MIDDLE BELT, that is, Adamawa, Bauchi, Plateau and Benue Provinces, and southern part of Zaria Province

1. iv) NORTH-KANO Province, Northern Zaria and Kaduna Capital territory
2. v) NORTH-WEST – Sokoto and Katsina Provinces
3. vi) EAST, that is, Old Owerri and Old Onitsha Provinces

vii)  CALABAR, that is, Old Calabar Province

viii) RIVERS, that is, Old Rivers Provinces and Western Ijaw Division

1. ix) OGOJA, that is, Old Ogoja Province’

Mr. Speaker, Sir, the text of the Amendment speaks for itself. Hitherto, the Action Group had adopted two distinct but co-ordinated approaches to the issue of more states in Nigeria. The first approach is idealistic. The Action Group believes, as a matter of fundamental principle, that if the unity of this country is to be lasting and if our people are to have abiding peace and happiness, each ethnic or linguistic group in Nigeria must be assured of political self determination within the Federation. In other words, ethnic or linguistic group should either have a region of their own now or should have a definite and invincible assurance that, granting financial and administrative viability, they will have a region of their own in the future.

Furthermore, the Federation of Nigeria is monstrously abnormal in structure in the sense that one of the three Regions is not only bigger in territory and population than the other two put together, but has also in actual practice succeeded in placing itself in a position where, at its arbitrary and capricious pleasure, it can bend the will of the entire Federation to its own. This abnormality must be terminated if every section of our country is to enjoy the full fruits of freedom in an independent Nigeria. And the termination of this abnormality does mean the breaking of the Northern Region into more Regions than the two hitherto advocated.

The second approach of the Action Group to this problem is pragmatic. As a matter of expediency, we believe that the creation of one of the Regions advocated by us is a step towards the eventual realization of our dream. It is for this reason that we have always supported the demand for the creation of the Mid West Region. But the parties now in control of the Federal Government have been unashamedly illogical, spiteful, unprincipled and opportunist, in their approach to the creation of more States in Nigeria. There can be no rational ground for their insistence on creating the Mid West Region when demands for the creation of other Regions in the East and in the North are ruthlessly silenced, or, at the very best, contemptuously ignored.

Since the motion for the creation of the Mid West Region first came to this House last year, we have had a chance of knowing more of the evil designs of the NPC and the NCNC against the Action Group which is the champion of the minority group, and against the majority ethnic group of the Western Region. It is an open secret that the Federal Government plans to use every artifice to install the NCNC in power in the Action Group in the rest of the Western Region. NCNC spokesmen have been very loud in their boast that during six months of control by the Federal Government of the administration of the Mid West Region and of the Yoruba West, the fortunes of the NCNC would have been sufficiently advanced to enable them to win the succeeding elections in the two Regions.

In my letter to the Prime Minister dated 13th July, I made some important points which can bear repetition on this occasion, and with your permission, Mr. Speaker, I quote in extensor from the letter.

‘In order to ensure co-operation on the part of all shades of political opinion in the Mid West in all the sub-sequent steps necessary for the creation of the new State, I have the following concrete proposals to make. First, a conference of political parties with following in the Mid West should be convened by you. The Action Group and the NCNC who are the only parties with the following in the area should have equal representation at the conference. The Governments of the Federation at the conference. The Governments of the Federation and of the Western Region should be represented as such and in equal manner at the conference. The Western Region Government is entitled to be represented because it alone is bound to be affected by some or the decisions that will be taken at the conference. The conference will be presided over by you, supported by official advisers. Agreement at this conference will be reached by compromise as was the case at the series of Nigerian Constitutional Conference over which the Secretary of State for the Colonies presided.

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK

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