By Adadareporters
The federal government should work towards the restructuring of the country and enthrone true federalism ‘as entrenched in the 1960 and 1963 constitutions’.
The Southern and Middle-Belt Forum stated this after its meeting held Thursday in Abuja. In attendance included the forum’s leader, Chief Edwin Clark; Chief Ayo Adebanjo, leader, Afenifere; Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, president-general, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide; Dr Pogu Bitrus, president, Middle Belt Forum; Chief Cornelius Adebayo, former governor of Kwara State; Obong Victor Attah, former governor of Akwa Ibom State, and Senator Emmanuel Ibok-Essien, national chairman, Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF).
The forum stated that, “Without restructuring, the future of Nigeria and democracy remain bleak and must, therefore, be carried out immediately.”
The forum rejected the trend where some sections of the country ‘are continually marginalized in the number of states, local governments, and even appointments into the Federal Executive Council’.
The forum further requested that the Southeast be appropriately represented on the Federal Executive Council similar to other geo-political zones, and insisted that ‘Nigeria must always remain a country where all citizens and sections enjoy a full sense of belonging and equality’.
The forum commended the political class, especially the leading presidential candidates in the 2023 presidential election, for their recourse to constitutional means in redressing their grievances, adding that it would make its position known on Thursday’s Supreme Court judgment which affirmed President Tinubu winner of the 25th February 2023 presidential election.
SMBLF charged that efforts ‘be redoubled to assuage the daily depreciating living standards of Nigerians’, and called on the federal government to ‘urgently salvage the naira, which continues to depreciate daily’. It also advised FG to ‘take urgent steps to release Nnamdi Kanu since a court of competent jurisdiction has ordered so’. In view of the forum, ‘doing so will promote peace and security in the South East’.
The forum insisted that, “The Federal Capital Territory remains the national patrimony of all Nigerians’, and condemned ‘the present efforts by some to arrogate exclusiveness’.
It also called on President Tinubu to take an urgent look at the 2014 National Conference Report, concluded by 494 of the country’s leaders, as well as the All Progressives Congress (APC) Report on True Federalism, with a view to borrowing a leaf from it.
The meeting resolved to set up a strategic committee on restructuring, and expressed readiness to interface with the federal government, the National Assembly, and all other stakeholders on the enunciated issues.
