South-South governors and other stakeholders from the geopolitical zone yesterday demanded that Nigeria be restructured to ensure true federalism and guarantee peace, security and stability of Nigeria.
They made this known in Port Harcourt in a meeting with a presidential delegation led by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, the meeting being a sequel to a last week botched meeting that is supposed to be held between the two parties.
The regions stakeholder also made other demand which includes relocation of the headquarters of all subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the region, revitalisation of the region’s Calabar, Port Harcourt and Warri ports, and immediate privatisation of the nation’s refineries to make them functional and boost the economy of the region.
The position of the zone was presented by to presidential delegation by the Chairman of the South-south Governors Forum and Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, at the meeting, earlier slated to hold on November 17, was cancelled at the last minute on the excuse that Gambari and some other members of the delegation had to attend an emergency meeting of the National Security Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja on the same day.
The sudden cancellation of the meeting angered leaders of the geopolitical zone who demanded an apology from the government.
This had generated anger from the leaders and stakeholders of the South- South region who felt insulted by the delegation.
However, speaking on behalf of the region at yesterday’s meeting, Okowa told the presidential delegation that the South-south is committed to restructuring the country to guarantee ‘true federalism’ and devolution of powers to the states to create and manage their own police and security architecture under a federal structure.
The regional leaders also demanded the relocation of the headquarters of major oil companies, NNPC subsidiaries from Lagos and Abuja to the South-south region and immediate implementation of the consent judgment entered in the Supreme Court Suit No: SC/964/2016 to enable the South-south gets its share of $55 billion shortfall of collection on deep offshore and inland basin production sharing contracts.
Speaking to the delegation, Okowa said: ‘True federalism’ guided by the principle of derivation, revenue sharing and control of resources by each state of the federation as it was the case in the first republic is what we want.’ According to him, the geopolitical zone desires a federation where its constituent units are constitutionally empowered to create their own structures like local government areas, manage their elections and control their judiciary.’
‘We are all aware of the huge endowment of this country. As such, it is imperative to stress that with a little bit of efforts, imagination, hard work, sacrifice and leadership, every state of the federation as of today, has the ability and capability to contribute to the national purse.’
‘This should be encouraged rather than the whole country depending substantially on a region of the country.’
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK