National Assembly May Be Planning Division of Nigeria
It’s not yet clear the main motive of the National Assembly at this moment. All activities of the federal lawmakers right now seem to be towards the division of the country. It’s working on amending the 1999 constitution.
On May 29, President Bola Tinubu was at the national assembly complex where he addressed the lawmakers. Also, the old national anthem was reintroduced. Tinubu told the members of the Arewa Consultative Forum a day later that the old anthem was a priority to him.
The “Nigeria we hail thee”, emphatically talks about the ethnicity though it calls for unity amidst diversity. The old anthem one way or the other reminds the people of the country that they are one by some factors and that they should always remember their identity other than that of the country.
There have been reactions to the old anthem and most of them hinge on the timing of the reintroduction. Nigerians say that the anthem is coming back at a time inflation is soaring and hardship is more rampant. But they don’t seem to care about the main motive of the government.
Yesterday, another move of the national assembly came to limelight. The lawmakers have introduced a bill to return the country to the regional system of government. Till 1967, Nigeria was in four regions (North, West and East; Mid-West was later carved out of the old Western region).
It’s true that Nigerians have yearned for the return to the regions. The country currently has 36 states yet the lawmakers want a return to the old system which will invariably make the regions powerful and partially independent of the federal government.
The proposal before the national assembly clearly allows exit of the tribes from the country. That’s secession, what the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra and Eastern Security Network want. The National Assembly is tilting towards dividing the country.
It read, “Every Ethnic Nationality and People in Nigeria has an unconditional right to self-determination within here delineated territories.
“The sovereignty, powers and authority to formulate the articles of association towards any reform of the Central Federal Government of Nigeria, at any other time shall lie jointly and severally with all the ethnic nationalities occupying their respective territories.
“Every Ethnic Nationality and People in Nigeria has the right to a full measure of self-government which includes the right to establish institutions of government in the territory that it inhabits and to equitable representation in the Federal and Regional Governments.
“A “Ethnic Nationality or People” for the purpose of this Constitution, is a group of people who have or share large measure of a common culture or similar customs, mutual intelligibility of language, belief in a common or related identities, a common psychological make-up, and who inhabit an identifiable, predominantly contiguous territory.”
Follow us on social media
