The renewed clamour for the return of Nigeria to the regional form of government has polarised the Senate as those from North have expressed their opposition to it while their counterparts from the South have endorsed the proposal.
The disagreement came at a two-day retreat on the amendments to the 1999 Constitution holding in Kano. The retreat is organised by the Senate Committee on Constitution Review in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) as part of the process of amendment of the constitution.
A ranking Senator from Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Abdul Ningi, told journalists that his people will never support the idea because they did not enjoy any form of development when the regional system of government was practiced in the defunct First Republic.
Ningi said that though the agitation for a return to regionalism has been going on for some time, the 1999 Constitution remained the ground norm and cannot be changed overnight.
“Having said that, it is also imperative to also know that it isn’t just enough for anybody to come and say he is the representative of one ethnic group or another at the National Assembly.
“The only people that are given this mandate, to look at the Constitution and amend it are of course, members of the National Assembly.
“We have seen how the regional government was operated in the past. My part of the country that I am representing didn’t enjoy the development of that so called regional government that was based in Kaduna.
“We aren’t going back there again! I am speaking for my senatorial district. It is either the Nigerian Federation or nothing.
“As far as regional government is concerned, my constituency, my people aren’t for it. What we need is the reform of the current Federal Government structure and fiscal federalism because there is nothing like true federalism,” he said.
Chairman Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TetFund, Senator Muntari Dandutse, representing Katsina South Senatorial District, also disagreed with the proponents of regional government
“We should not have myopic thinking about ourselves. There is no section of this country that is not blessed.
“What is important is that we should have good governance, a credible and responsible accessibility of the resources that we have, because Nigeria is blessed.
“We have all the comparative advantages that will move this country forward, unless of course we are serious and determined,” he said.
