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NIGERIANS MUST AGREE ON TERMS TO STAY UNITED – EX-GOV VICTOR ATTAH

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NIGERIANS MUST AGREE ON TERMS TO STAY UNITED – EX-GOV VICTOR ATTAH

A former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Victor Attah, has expressed the need for Nigeria to draft a new constitution that will be based on conditions unanimously agreed on by all regions of the country.

He said that the current 1999 Constitution was forced on Nigerians by the military, and insisted that things have been the way they are in the country because Nigerians are being forced to stay together without an agreement of terms to do that.

Attah, who governed Akwa Ibom from 1999 to 2007, was a guest on the Friday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.

“So, what we should look at is how do we get back to a state of conditions and terms that will be agreeable to all Nigerians, if we don’t do that, we are wasting time,” Attah said on the programme.

“Let me tell you a very quick story. About two weeks ago, there was a story about a young girl of 14 who poisoned the groom and the guests at her wedding because she was being forced to the union she does not subscribe to. What that suggests is nobody on this earth will agree to remain in a union if they have not subscribed to the rules and conditions of staying together.

“So, we must not continue to force Nigerians to stay together without first of all allowing them to spell out the terms and conditions under which they want to stay together.”

“So, we must not continue to force Nigerians to stay together without first of all allowing them to spell out the terms and conditions under which they want to stay together.”

He said that Nigerian Constitution of 1963 accommodated true federal system, but that has been abandoned since for what he referred to as the authoritarian system in place now.

“For me, what is wrong is the constitution. We so not have a Nigerian constitution by Nigerians and the system must change,” he insisted.

There have been a lot of agitations in the country with some regions declaring that they want to secede from Nigerian. However, Attah believes those moves are triggered by frustration because nobody really wants to leave the country.

“My conviction is that nobody really wants to go but they are just tired and fed up with what is going on in Nigeria.”

He said that this discussion has been ongoing for a long time, but the government had turned a blind eye to it, forcing some people to say that they want to go because they are not allowed to be what they want to be in Nigeria.

The ex-Akwa Ibom governor said that if the country operated the constitution they are operating today in the 60s, Obafemi Awolowo may not have been able to declare free education in the then Western Region.

    • Dons Eze

    DONS EZE, PhD, Political Philosopher and Journalist of over four decades standing, worked in several newspaper houses across the country, and rose to the positions of Editor and General Manager. A UNESCO Fellow in Journalism, Dr. Dons Eze, a prolific writer and author of many books, attended several courses on Journalism and Communication in both Nigeria and overseas, including a Postgraduate Course on Journalism at Warsaw, Poland; Strategic Communication and Practical Communication Approach at RIPA International, London, the United Kingdom, among others.

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