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From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Lagos State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode and his counterparts in Oyo and Ogun states, Abiola Ajimobi and Ibikunle Amosun as well as Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, were among Yoruba leaders who submitted memoranda in support of true federalism, yesterday.
They submitted the memoranda at the All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on True Federalism zonal public meeting at the International Conference Centre, at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State.
Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, chaired the meeting, where more than 100 memoranda were submitted. Some of those who were given opportunity to give brief insights into their memoranda spoke in support of true federalism.
Lalong was accompanied by former governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime; wife of former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Rachael Akpabio, and other committee members.
The meeting was held less than two weeks after the Ibadan Declaration by the Yoruba Summit on the Immediate Restructuring of Nigeria into regional lines, as contained in the 1963 Constitution.
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees; Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), a socio-cultural organisation -Atayese, and others, also submitted memoranda.
It was gathered that issues in the submitted memoranda included creation or merger of states, derivation principle, devolution of power, federating units, fiscal federalism and revenue allocation, forms of government, independent candidacy, land tenure system, local government autonomy, power sharing and rotation, resource control, and type of legislature for the country.
Lalong, in his remarks, said: “I want to emphasise that the committee has not taken any position on any of these items. If you hear any member of the committee saying anything, that is precisely a personal opinion, not the opinio n of this committee. Our responsibility is to collect your opinions, put them together and present them to the headquarters of the party as we collect them here. No dilution.”
Chime, who is the team’s secretary, in his address, also said the committee came to Ibadan to collect and collate memoranda.
“I believe and we believe that you must have fully expressed yourself in your various memoranda. Our assurance to you is that whatever you submitted will be fully considered by the committee and by the party. Government will subsequently be advised, so, we can actually realise what we have all come here to do.”
Earlier, Ajimobi, in his address said: “It is my take that Nigeria adopts the United States of America’s model of two-tier federal arrangement whereby there will only be the federal and state governments. Under this arrangement, local governments will be operating completely under the states, while revenue allocation formula should be reviewed upward in favour of states to about 35 percent and the federally-collected revenue shared between states and the local governments.
“Not only that, power should also be devolved to states as a major step towards achieving the much-needed rapid development in the country. This should be backed by the principle of resource control, whereby each state will have a total control over the resources in their domain.”
Chief of Staff to Ogun State governor, Tolu Odebiyi, who represented Amosun, said he agreed with other states in the South west on their stand on fiscal federalism, resource control, state police and in other aspects.
Alaafin, in the memorandum he submitted, on behalf of traditional rulers, said Nigeria should be restructured to correct the setback the country has experienced from the time the military took over the reins of government in 1966.
He said the foundation of Nigeria was set on regional government by three founding fathers of modern Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the South Western Region, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of South Eastern Region, and Sir Ahmadu Bello of Northern Region, which gave every region the opportunity to develop at its own pace.
The monarch stated that when Lagos had about 20 million population going by the first census conducted in the country, Kano was next. Within 10 years, he said, Kano was split into about 44 council areas but Lagos remains 20 council areas.
Ambode was represented by former deputy governor of the state, Prince Abiodun Ogunleye while Oyo State governor was represented by his deputy, Otunba Moses Adeyemo.
