Kaduna declaration: Group insists on restructuring

….says quit notice to Igbo is notice to Southern Nigeria

The South West Think Tank (SWETT) has drawn the attention of Nigerians to a letter written by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum to the acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, pointing out that the outcome of such may spell doom for the unity of Nigeria.

The group also pointed out that the response of The Governors Forum to the letter was too weak and not in any way an attempt to address the issues raised.

SWETT in a release signed on its behalf by Chief Femi Davies wondered why the governors chose to make a general statement on the Arewa Youths position rather than being categorical.
“Instead of making a blanket statement over such national security threat, the governors should have made attempts to identify the conflict areas and seek to redress them peacefully, they are rather playing god without any single suggestion on a way out of the present mess that we find ourselves.”
According to them, “as a group we are totally in zinc with the position of the Southern Nigeria Youth Coalition on the need for restructuring.

“The letter from the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum is a mind game by the Northern people who are being clever by half, sidestepping the monumental damage they have done to the Nigerian project, while highlighting the so called sins of the Igbos.

“It should be noted that the danger posed by Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen are far more devastating than the Igbo rhetoric. While the Federal security agencies displays hopelessness in tackling Boko Haram, other lesser challenges are promptly stacked with much effort and many innocent persons arrested and clamped into detention.

“We hereby state equivocally that since there is no way to separate an Ijaw from Igbo, a Yoruba from Edo, who reside in the North, we take the quit notice as an affront on the entire people of Southern Nigeria.

“We are also disappointed that the governors missed a golden opportunity to kick start the process of reclaiming our nationhood, by seriously reviewing the root causes of general discontent with the present arrangement.

“SWETT is of the opinion that our highest elected leaders should not just continue mouthing the worn out phrase of “un negotiable unity “without acknowledging that there are problems with the constitution we operate,” they said.

The group added that the way forward was for the nation to restructure and a short cut to this is the re-adoption of the 1963 Constitution. “The recommendations of the last National Conference is a ready made book on how the states can develop at their own pace via regional integration and economic cooperation within the six Federating units.”