An Elder Statesman, Dr. Chike Obidigbo, has asked President Bola Tinubu to initiate an Ethnic Nationalities meeting to revisit Nigeria?s amalgamation document, which he said expired in 2014.

Obidigbo, in his New Year message titled ?Criticality of Urgent Ethnic Nationalities? Conference and National Referendum?, noted that the British colonial merchants did not seek the consent of Nigeria?s ethnic nationalities before merging the component units into one country.

He said It has become very imperative for all the ethnic nationalities to come together and organise a referendum and resolve the way forward.

?To make the best of 2025, therefore, President Bola Tinubu should convoke a meeting of ethnic nationalities to revisit Nigeria?s amalgamation document, which expired in 2014.

?Let us stop deceiving ourselves. We all know that Britain, the colonial merchants of fortune, did not seek the consent of Nigeria?s ethnic nationalities before merging the component units into one country.

?However, in the wisdom of the British adventurers, a proviso was made for possible review after one hundred years of experimentation. From 1914 to 2014, Nigerians have seen that the forced amalgamation has not worked out, and may never work.

?The country has tried a parliamentary system of government, there have been many military regimes and staggered presidential democracy.

?But, amid these efforts at evolving an equitable and acceptable system of self-governance, Nigeria has continued to totter in political instability. It has become very evident that the country can no longer be sustainable as one administrative unit, unless and until we sit down to discuss the way forward.

?There have been calls for separation from the major component ethnic nationalities, including the Hausa (for Arewa Republic), Igbo (for Biafra) and Yoruba (for Oduduwa Republic or Yoruba nation) among many others.

?In the light of the foregoing, it has become very imperative for all the ethnic nationalities to come together and organise a referendum and resolve on the way forward.

?This is about the best way to stop further restiveness and the disgraceful slaughter of our youths in various parts of the country, especially in the far North, Middle Belt, East and West,? he said.

The Elder Statesman suggested that the plan for a referendum should replace the ongoing efforts by the National Assembly to further review the 1999 Constitution.

He maintained that previous constitutional reviews and Electoral Acts have failed to cure the inbuilt lopsided political structure and systemic mischief that Britain welded into the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorates and Lagos colony to create Nigeria.

?Interestingly, Year 2025 is of very great interest to Nigeria, because the year would mark the second anniversary of the 2023 dubious general elections. ?That being the case, to make peace, unity and sustainable development possible, the country must resolve through a referendum, to conduct its politics with truth, fairness and equity in mind.

?The current Nigerian leader, President Tinubu, should not shirk the responsibility of revisiting the political structure of Nigeria in the erroneous belief that he can do what other leaders before him could not do. It has become very obvious to all well-meaning Nigerians that the country is unworkable with its current historical, cultural and uneven political backgrounds,? he noted.

Obidigbo also said that Nigerians need to come together to interrogate the lopsidedness that gifted the Southwest with another Presidency after 16 cumulative years as President and Vice President.

He said when the 19 Northern Governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) resolved that 2023 was the turn of the South to produce the President, they stopped short of declaring that the position should rightly go to the South East, based on their partisan and selfish designs.

The Elder Statesman further noted that within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the same lack of contrition and statesmanship led some PDP governors to declare the presidential ticket open even with the historic sacrifice and support by the South East for the party in all of the 24 years of eight election cycles.

?Nothing could be this unfair to a people that work harder than any other tribe for the unity of the country. That former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Rivers State governor, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, jostled for the ticket in a free-for-all, exposed their lack of respect for fairness and knowledge of history.

?That is so because in 1999, PDP was the ultimate beneficiary of the power distribution arrangement that gifted the South West the presidential slot leading to the fielding of all Presidential candidates on all the registered political parties from the zone.

?Recently, Alhaji Abubakar announced that 2027 would be the turn of the North to throw up the President. I felt that was a very unkind and unstatesmanlike statement for the former Vice President to make. Alhaji Atiku threw away a golden opportunity to write his name in gold in Nigeria?s political history in 2023.

?If only the Waziri of Adamawa had reflected and recognised the contributions of late Dr Alex Ekwueme and South East to the growth and development of PDP, especially the massive support given to the Obasanjo/Atiku Presidential ambition and Presidency, he should have been at the forefront in canvassing for South East to pick the party?s presidential ticket in 2023, more so when his running mate in the 2019 poll was from South East,? he noted.

He said the South East, unfortunately, lacks political leadership. Obidigbo regretted that most of the so-called political leaders are always on their own, bereft of popular followership.

The people will rather take directives from Simon Ekpa, in faraway Finland, to sit at home every Monday, rather than listen to their governors or political office holders.

?This ugly situation may likely continue that way until Igbo politicians learn to eschew their deep selfishness and play for the collective Interest. The hurry to align with outside elements to undermine group interest and shadow-boxing among themselves should be avoided before people would take them seriously.

?The recent jostling over the membership of the South East Development Commission (SEDC) shows that the present crop of political representatives are just there to fend for their personal intentions and aggrandisement.

?It is indeed disheartening that, months after President Bola Tinubu signed the SEDC bill into law and constituted the members, petty political interests have combined to delay the screening of committee members and eventual take-off of that important interventionist agency,? Obidigbo added. (Nigerian Tribune)

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