Constitution review: Northern, southern senators disagree on regionalism

Southern and Northern Senators have disagreed over the agitation for the return of Nigeria to the regional form of government.

They expressed their views at the sidelines of the ongoing two-day retreat on the amendments to the 1999 constitution organised by the Senate Committee on Constitution Review in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) in Kano.

While senators from the northern part of the country who spoke on the issue vehemently opposed it, those from southern Nigeria, described it as a welcome development that would improve the economy, tackle insecurity and fast -track infrastructural development.

The Red Chamber through the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, has however assured Nigerians that issue of regionalism was not part of the ongoing review of nation’s constitution.

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A ranking Senator from Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Abdul Ningi, told journalists, said his people will never support the idea because they did not enjoy any form of development when the system of government was practiced in the defunct First Republic.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, advised Nigerians against mistaken the establishment of the Zonal development commission for regionalism.

He said the various geopolitical zonal development commission was strictly for the social and economic development of their areas. Similarly, former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, said the idea of true federalism was no longer fashionable because many countries in Africa had discarded it.

He advocated the creation of strong institutions that would enhance good governance and curb corruption and insecurity.

Also, the Chairman Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TetFund, Senator Muntari Dandutse, representing Katsina South Senatorial District, disagreed with the proponents of regional government.

He said the essence of the ongoing retreat was to improve on the defects and anomaly discovered in the nation’s constitution over the years.

However, the Senator representing Oyo North Senatorial District, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, disagreed with those condemning the regional system of government.

Buhari said, “In those years, the North was known for the pyramid of groundnuts, the South West was known for cocoa, we should be able to do that.”

However, the Leader of the Senate, said the issue of regionalism could not be changed through constitution amendment.