Mr.chippychappy:


I agree with Mr Kaita's position on this . Regional autonomy is fraudulent and doesn't make any sense . If anyone wants to say something they should be bold enough to say so instead of hiding behind this so called "Regional autonomy" crap

No one is "hiding" behind anything even if it pleases you and Kaita to think so. Kaita is clearly feudalistic because those agitating for regional autonomy have made it crystal clear what they want. The mistake you and Kaita makes is to assume that regional autonomy = Yoruba autonomy. Once that basic mistake is made, there is then zero attempt to view what others are saying dispassionately.

•Regional integration is not to break up Nigeria. It is rather to renew the Nigerian federation and deliver its capacity to deliver the greatest good for the greatest number of Nigerians, in the six geo-political zones. Simply put, it is regional growth as a strategy for national integration.

•Regional integration is erected on the pillars of true and fiscal federalism, aimed at weaning Nigeria from centralised sharing of resources, which has created mass poverty; to regional creation of wealth, which has the capacity to create mass prosperity.

•Also, South West legislators in the National Assembly must lobby their colleagues, across party lines, for the repeal of anti-federal laws in energy/power, mining and minerals. If regional federalism must deliver the goods, states constituting the regions must have legal backing to prospect economic activities in such areas as mining and minerals, railway, aviation and other strategic areas like energy/power in which the present laws give the Federal Government absolute or near-absolute monopolies.

someone just made a good note up there. We already have one nigeria,why call for 6 autonomous region? What good can a six autonomous region give us that a 36 autonomous states can't!

It is only those benefiting from the massive corruption in the current polity that are advocating for the continuation of the unholy and redundant 36-state structure. Come to think of the financial cost of having 36 governors, 36 state houses of assemblies with a minimum of 30 constituent members per state, at least 15 commissioners per state with their peripheral special assistants and other unrealistic political parasites. Isn't it better, wiser, efficient, reasonable and financially sound to have just 6 governors for all regions and just 6 houses of assembly? I suspect those supporting the current Nigerian structure are benefiting indirectly from the present 36 state configuration. Otherwise, who in his/her sane mind would call regional restructuring a fraud?

Tony Spike: It is only those benefiting from the massive corruption in the current polity that are advocating for the continuation of the unholy and redundant 36-state structure. Come to think of the financial cost of having 36 governors, 36 state houses of assemblies with a minimum of 30 constituent members per state, at least 15 commissioners per state with their peripheral special assistants and other unrealistic political parasites. Isn't it better, wiser, efficient, reasonable and financially sound to have just 6 governors per region and just 6 houses of assembly? I suspect those supporting the current Nigerian structure are benefiting indirectly from the present 36 state configuration. Otherwise, who in his/her sane mind would call regional restructuring a fraud?

People can't seem to connect the dots. The point you raise has been repeated over and over again. What percentage of our last federal budget was recurrent expenditure again? And the budget before that? And the budget before that? And yet people still expect government to have enough money to do a million and one things all at once.

For me whatever reduces the power of the federal government, reduces waste, reduces bureacracy, reduces room for corruption, and makes government more grass roots driven is welcome. In a developing country like Nigeria it would be nice to start seeing budgets where 80% plus of planned resources are used for actual development and not running bureacracy and corruption that happens massively on both federal AND 36 state levels. And you wonder why we are poor.

You have 100 Naira, you want to build a house and you spend 80 Naira hiring secretaries and accountants and 'taking care of them', while you spend only 20 Naira on building materials and builders and engineers and architects. Does that sound like a good policy? People shout about the Chinese miracle, it is quite important to note that a lot of the members of the communist party are technocrats.

What many Nigerians don't know is that we had more fiscal discipline under the military, even though freedom was curtailed. The military had more funds for capital projects because we had no duplicated houses of assembly in each state frittering our collective wealth on endless jamborees. I support regionalism 100%, let any region that so chooses waste their God-given resources on recurrent expenditures, that will be their problem. After all, the FG will not be blamed for the decisions of their wasteful regional leaders unlike the current structure.

hum