Read the short letter posted by Chidi Mokeme below:
MR PRESIDENT YOU ARE RIGHT ABOUT THE UNITY OF NIGERIA BUT....... My
major concern about Mr President's speech is the dictatorial tone
applied, negating your fatherly factor and the concerns of dissenting
voices in a democracy, especially as it relates to the restructuring of
Nigeria.
These dissenting voices in my estimation does not include IPOB. Mr
President I agree with you that it is good to keep Nigeria united. But
to say that the type of unity we currently have is nonnegotiable smacks
of dictatorship.
In case you have forgotten the so called unity was actually
discussed by our fathers and the terms of unity Nigerians wanted was
agreed upon. But the military boys came in with violent disorder and
destroyed what was negotiated prior to independence and in 1963, and
gave us what you now describe as nonnegotiable, called 1999
constitution.
What the military led by one man gave us is unanimity and not
unity. They took away the content of what was negotiated that was
supposed to be nonnegotiable and gave us inequality, stifled systems
that undermines Nigeria's progress, development and prosperity. Indeed
our fathers had a detailed discussion and negotiation with the British
in the 50's about the kind of union that was acceptable us.
They all agreed on real federalism whereby each zone maintained its
own economy, peculiar political structure and institutions. These
included resource control, regional/state police and prisons and many
other creative structures that made Nigeria progressive pre-independence
to 1967.
Any document decided by Adulsalam Abubakar and his junta called the
199 constitution is without our general contribution ant it is largely
not acceptable. And the change required cannot be made by only a council
of state populated by retired generals from one region or national
assembly without equal representation from across the states and zones.
There maybe need for input from other well meaning Nigerians if we
are serious about carrying zone along. A unity based on inequality and
military imposition must be negotiable.
