Dons Eze
ALL WE NEED IS ONE MORE STATE FOR SOUTH EAST – OZEKHOME TO REP
Professor Mike Ozekhome (SAN) has criticised the House of Representatives for their latest proposal for the creation of 31 additional states.
Ozekhome, who is a human rights lawyer, said all the country needs is one additional state for the South-East to equal other geopolitical zones in the country.
Ozekhome, who spoke in a statement made available to Sundiata Post on Saturday, flayed the lawmakers for turning a blind eye to the suffering of Nigerians, and focusing on irrelevant issues of creating additional 31 states that are inconsequential to the present economic realities.
He argued that the existing states cannot survive on their own as they always run to Abuja for survival, hence, what is the wisdom in creating additional 31?
The statement reads: “I am surprised and greatly disturbed to hear that members of the NASS are proposing 31 additional states to the present already behemoth,over bloated and unwieldy 36 state structure that Nigeria operates. I see this needless venture in the midst of more critical national issues as nothing but jesters playing out Baba Sallah’s Al Awada Kerikeri histrionics and buffoonery.
“How can they be talking about creating additional 31 states when over 2/3 of the present states are not viable entities existing on life support and merely dependent on the federal centre for monthly oxygenation under section 162 of the 1999 Constitution?
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“How can we be talking of going through the stringent provisions of section 8 of the 1999 Constitution for a meaningless exercise that adds no value to a nation gasping for existential breadth?
“How can they be talking about creating new states when hunger, starvation, squalor and melancholy envelope inhabitants of the present minion states that literally beg for crumbs from the Abuja master’s table?
“All that Nigeria needs now are only two things to correct the inherent injustices in our warped federalist system and move towards growth and development:one additional state in the South East to equal others; and a brand new Constitution that is legitimate, people-driven autochthonous, credible and referendum-compliant to help correct our deep fault-lines and lopsided federation that make some states mere vassals consumers of the national cake without knowing or caring how the cake is baked.
“The NASS should immediately drop this provocative,funny and phoney butterflies-chasing and stop insulting our collective intelligence. Their present venture amounts to rubbing hot pepper deep inside Nigerians’ already bruised bodies of gaping sores.”
