As long as Buhari continues to treat the National conference report as a trash, he will continue to have issues ruling Nigeria. That report represented a fair deal for all Nigerians. Only fools will believe that the present arrangement is sustainable. In addition to the issues of Boko Haram, we now have the Niger Delta Avengers. Who knows what next. All these agitations could have been assuaged by simply revisiting the conference report. It is therefore saddening to hear the president say that the Confab Report is trash. He even made an unsavoury comment of calling the exercise a waste of government funds.

It is appalling that Buhari seems to know Nigeria better than the over "492 delegates that represented a cross-section of Nigerians including the professional bodies group". Buhari alone seems to be more intelligent than retired Chief Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi (rtd), Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi and Dr Valerie Azinge. He appears to have better solution to Nigeria's structural imbalance than members of the Devolution of Power Committee, Political Restructuring and Forms of Government National Security; Environment; Politics and Governance; Law, Judiciary,Human Rights and Legal Reform, Social Welfare; Transportation; Agriculture; Society, Labour and Sports; Public Service; Electoral Matters, Foreign Policy and Diaspora Matters, Land Tenure Matters and National Boundary. Trade and Investment Committee, Energy; Religion; Public Finance and Revenue Generation, Science, Technology and Development Immigration. These committees had representations from the six geographical zones of Nigeria. Unfortunately, our president who is "Mr. Know it all" sees the Confab report more of a Jonathan document than a Nigerian document.

Mr President seems to know better than all Nigerians who hailed the far-reaching decisions of the conference. Unfortunately, because of Mr President's "I Too Know (ITK)" disposition, he wasted time in appointing Ministers. The ITK held him from listening to economic advises on forex management, the ITK held him from from reasoning on the dialogue option on Niger-Delta issue. This ITK is Buhari's biggest undoing and it is the biggest problem that Nigeria currently have!! I rest my case.

He should not only trash it, he should set it on fire.
What rubbish report?
They can approve the reports for other region apart from the yoruba groups in those regions.
The other 5 regions (apart from Yoruboids in NC and Niger delta) can have their confab approved for them.
The yoruba agenda is what we will ever accept.

THE YORUBA DECLARATION
1. It is right, necessary and inalienable that when a nation reaches a historical crossroad, it should pause and ponder its destiny and God-given duty to protect its heritage, advance its culture and safeguard the future of its unborn generations. The Yoruba Nation of Nigeria has since reached such a pass. It is therefore appropriate for it to seek its allotted destiny as prescribed by Providence so that it can take its rightful and just place among the ethnic nationalities of the earth.

2. Today, the Yoruba Nation is part of the Nigerian Federation in which neither the present generation of Yoruba people nor their ancestors had a say in its formation. It is in the light of this reality that Yoruba, on behalf of themselves and future generations, have set certain goals for the betterment of their society in the interest of justice, the rule of law, democracy and abundance of life. The creation of an autonomous Yoruba Region is the fulcrum of that destiny ordained by Providence that created the Yoruba where they have been since creation.

3. A self-governing and autonomous Yoruba Region is necessary to mobilize the energy of the Yoruba for progress and development, and to ignite their collective resolve for cultural renaissance, educational resurgence and social stability. The Yoruba of Nigeria believe that there is only one Yoruba Nation; it has a common interest; and one inescapable destiny.


THESE WE DEMAND
4 (i) It is the right of the Yoruba of Nigeria (living in Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states) to live under a regional government within the Federation of Nigeria.
(ii) The Yoruba Region shall have the right to negotiate with other nationalities of Nigeria along the laid down principles of true federalism, justice and equity.
(iii) The Region shall have the same rights, equal representation and obligations, being the rightful representatives of Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states, in its dealings with the other nationalities of Nigeria.
(iv) As it was before the coming of the military in 1966, the Yoruba Region shall have its own constitution that shall not be inconsistent with the constitution of a true federation.
(v) The Region shall have control over its destiny and shall be the master of its internal affairs, except in those areas which all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, at a properly constituted Constitutional Conference, shall agree should be under the aegis of the Federal Government.
(vi) Yoruba outside the present Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states, who wish to join the Yoruba Region, shall exercise the right to do so.


AFFIRMATION
5 (i) We affirm the right of the Yoruba of Nigeria living in Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states to live under one regional government of their choice within a democratic federation of Nigeria.
(ii) We affirm the right of Yoruba living in Delta, Edo, Kogi, and Kwara states, whose territories are contiguous with the rest of Yorubaland to demand that they want to join the Yoruba region.
(iii) We affirm the right of other nationalities and states to form their own regions within the Federation of Nigeria.
(iv) We affirm the right of non-Yoruba, and indeed, non- Nigerians, to live and work within the Yoruba Region. They shall be protected by law like every other citizen of the Region.
(v) We affirm that it is the right and, indeed, the duty of every Yoruba citizen to work for the creation of the Yoruba Region to protect the legacies of our ancestors, safeguard the heritage of the past, and bequeath a land of freedom and progress to future generations of Yoruba.

oduastates:
He should not only trash it, he should set it on fire.
What rubbish report?

You lot think the status quo is sustainable. Go ask Yugoslavia if you can find them again!!
You can keep pretending like the ostrich .. only time will tell

The Post-Colonial Period
11. By the time of Nigerian Independence in 1960, the Yoruba populated the Western Region (which was one of the federating units of Nigeria) and the Ilorin-Kabba provinces of the then Northern Region, another federating unit of Nigeria. The culture of the Yoruba was, as at that time, already anchored, among others, on
(a) Good Education and Continuing Education,
(b) Industry and Hard-work,
(c) Honesty and Patriotism to the fatherland.
Yoruba aspirations have since been violently eroded so much so that the question being asked has been “Which is the fatherland:
(a) Yorubaland
OR
(b) Nigeria?”

12. It is sad that the tendencies derivable from the now entrenched neo-feudal cultures tend to make the Yoruba (who believe in true federalism) a people marked for marginalisation, dispossession and oppression by successive operators of the central government.

13. While the market potentials and military strengths derivable from ‘One Nigeria’ are attractive, the contradictions in the present constitution bear no appreciable benefit for the Yoruba. Therefore, with regard to all matters of economy, internal security and social responsibilities, the Yoruba yearn to be autonomous, while they prefer to continue to collaborate with, but not to be subordinated to, other ethnic nationalities in administering the central government of Nigeria.

QUASI-UNITARY CONSTITUTION
14. While the Yoruba do not ask others to change their focus, they expect others to refrain from imposing their own goals and values on Yorubaland. But that is what the civil/military cabals have done, for decades, through ‘quasi-unitary’ constitutions and military governments since independence. In the process, they have destroyed the legacy of Yorubaland’s cocoa farms, tourism, environmental sanitation, industrial factories in Apapa, Ikeja, Ijebu and Ibadan, railways, roads, electricity, water supply, respectable universities, schools and hospitals – a situation which has now resulted in large-scale unemployment among Yoruba school–leavers and artisans, thereby exacerbating mass poverty and hunger throughout the land.


Culture Adulteration
15. The mix of the various cultures became highly adulterated and bastardized among Yoruba families, clans, villages, townships, cities and kingdoms during the British Colonial era, and since Nigerian Independence so much that Yoruba’s famous tradition of hardwork and honesty has been supplanted by fraud, street begging and gangsterism.

oduastates:
He should not only trash it, he should set it on fire.
What rubbish report?

See your hypocrisy.

During the locust years of Babangida and Abacha, when the military jackboots were firmly planted on necks of Yoruba elites, the Yorubas were the loudest voices wailing for a sovereign national conference.
Do you remember, or were you just a toddler then?

Loud cries from PA Adesanya, PA Ajasin, Soyinka, the Yoruba Intelligentia, and even non other than Tinubu rent the air and media spaces , calling for a sovereign national conference or confab to restructure the federation.

So what has now changed that makes the GEJ- initiated confab rubbish, in your words ?

Is it Hypocrisy Or is it just a case of bad Memory?

Kindly enlighten us.

SELF-DETERMINATION
21. Unfettered self-determination to do all the above, as a federating region of one Nigeria, is the only requirement currently lacking in the efforts to industrialize the Yoruba Nation.

22. After all, with adequate rainfall for large-scale agriculture, and with a population of over 50 million people (1991 census) the extensive fertile Yorubaland is

i) more populous than 20 countries in Europe i.e. Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republics, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland;

ii) more populous than 41 countries in Africa i.e. Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Equitorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, SierraLeone, Somalia, Swaziland, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe;

iii) more populous than 17 countries in the Americas i.e. Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El-Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela;

iv) more populous than 13 countries in the Middle East, i.e. Bahrain, Brunei, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirate and Yemen; and

v) more populous than 6 countries of Asia i.e. Cambodia, North Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.


STRATEGY FOR MOVING FORWARD
23. It is now certain that
(i) the purposeful transformation required is not realisable within the current Nigerian constitutional and political arrangements; and
(ii) it will be a barren experimentation to expect gangsters and fraudsters to execute the agenda. This is because the average Yoruba is contemptuous of anybody associating with office-seekers who do not possess the traits and virtues of dependable, tested and trusted leadership.

24. The problem under the present ‘quasi-unitary’ system of government, based on one central constitution (Nigerian version of federalism), is that Nigerians will, forever, struggle, individually and collectively but fruitlessly, with ignorance, superstitious beliefs, primitive cultivation of the land, technological backwardness, disease, injustice, corruption and lack of accountability, insecurity of life and property, youth unemployment, widespread poverty and mass hunger. 25. The next and only way out of the quagmire is the convocation of a truly YORUBA NATIONAL CONFERENCE to fashion out the Yoruba Constitution.

STRATEGY FOR MOVING FORWARD
23. It is now certain that
(i) the purposeful transformation required is not realisable within the current Nigerian constitutional and political arrangements; and
(ii) it will be a barren experimentation to expect gangsters and fraudsters to execute the agenda. This is because the average Yoruba is contemptuous of anybody associating with office-seekers who do not possess the traits and virtues of dependable, tested and trusted leadership.

24. The problem under the present ‘quasi-unitary’ system of government, based on one central constitution (Nigerian version of federalism), is that Nigerians will, forever, struggle, individually and collectively but fruitlessly, with ignorance, superstitious beliefs, primitive cultivation of the land, technological backwardness, disease, injustice, corruption and lack of accountability, insecurity of life and property, youth unemployment, widespread poverty and mass hunger. 25. The next and only way out of the quagmire is the convocation of a truly YORUBA NATIONAL CONFERENCE to fashion out the Yoruba Constitution.


DISTRIBUTION OF FUNCTIONS AND ALLOCATION OF AUTHORITIES AMONG TIERS OF GOVERNMENT.
26. In the present situation of Nigeria, characterized by arbitrary state boundaries, where nations - with distinct languages, historical, cultural and political affinities - have been bastardized during various military rules, a regional configuration (composed largely of citizens that are ethnically homogeneous, geographically contiguous, materially and humanly resourceful with demonstrable willingness to co-habit) shall be introduced to serve as the federating unit and as a useful co-ordinator of its regional activities.

Therefore, it is suggested that functions be allocated among the various tiers of emergent governments as indicated below.

27. (a) Exclusive Legislative List for the Central Government
i) Citizenship, Naturalization, Immigration, Deportation of Non-Nigerians, Extradition, Passport and Visa;
ii) Foreign Relations and External Affairs generally;
iii) Common Legal Tender, Currency, Coinage, Central Bank and Exchange Control;
iv) Defence, Armed Forces, Arms, Ammunition and Nuclear Energy;
v) Custom Duties and Aviation Control;
vi) Census, Territorial Boundaries and Election to the offices of President and Vice President;
vii) Award of national titles and honours;
viii) Federal Police and Federal Civil Service;
ix) Federal Pension and Gratuities;
x) Federal Public Holidays;
xi) Post and Telecommunication;
xii) Airways services.

27. (b) Regional Legislative List (to be held in concurrence with the States within the Region).
i) Transportation including: Airports, Railways, Water ways and Trunk Roads;
ii) Polytechnic and University Education;
iii) Borrowing within and outside Nigeria;
iv) Commercial and Industrial monopolies, Excise Duties and Control of Capital Issues;
v) Consular and Trade representation;
vi) Mines and Minerals (including petroleum mining)
vii) Copyright;
viii) Drugs and poisons;
ix) Incorporation of Companies, Insurance, Patents, Trade Marks, Business names, Profit and Capital Gains;
x) Energy and Electricity;
xi) Produce Inspection for Export;
xii) Banking; etc.
xiii) Creation of states;
xiv) Election to the offices of the Regional Prime Minister, National Assembly, Regional and the State Legislative Councils;
xv) Regional/State Police, Prisons, Evidence and Fingerprints;
xvi) Research in education, health, agriculture and technology, etc.;
xvii) School curriculum and general examinations;
xviii) Regional Public holidays;
xix) Regional Pension and Gratuities

27. (c) State Legislative List
All residual powers, in addition to all the functions listed under Regional Legislative List, should be given to each of the states. The powers and functions of the local governments in a State will remain as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of that State.

28. In the event of the Regional Legislature making a law on any function which has earlier been legislated upon by the state, such function shall be jointly negotiated, formulated, financed, implemented, controlled and co-ordinated according to the degree of the benefit derivable by each of the two or more authorities concerned. In other words, it will be a joint -venture approach.


CONCLUSION
29. It is imperative, if there must be progress and development, that each regional government should have absolute access to and control over all matters of internal security, social and economic functions. In other words, the restructuring of the polity for decentralization and devolution of authorities and functions is imperative now for more useful and durable internal security, social and economic infrastructures that can promote individual citizen’s inner-confidence, educational consciousness and welfare, and which can substantially reduce corruption and poverty in Nigeria.

30. Only a government which is indigenous to the Yoruba (and which strongly regards PERSON as the unit, the prime-mover, and the sole purpose of development) can achieve the aspirations of the Yoruba Nation. Whoever aspires to do it without the intellectual faith required will fail, no matter how much he tries.

@oduastates

So are you saying that Yorubas are preparing to pull out of the federation ?

If yes, then the body language of your political elites betray that line of thought.

plaetton:
@oduastates

So are you saying that Yorubas are preparing to pull out of the federation ?

If yes, then the body language of your political elites betray that line of thought.

This is regionalism with a weak centre.

oduastates:


This is regionalism with a weak centre.

OK.
This is what everyone has been advocating for long while now.
I also think that this was what the confab report stressed on.
So how does the confab report contradict this position?

plaetton:

OK.
This is what everyone has been advocating for long while now.
I also think that this was what the confab report stressed on.
So how does the confab report contradict this position?

Your confab makes it worse

oduastates:

Your confab makes it worse

Kindly elaborate.

The confab report, while having the best intentions, is a waste of time. The main crux of that report is the return of Nigeria to regionalism and true federalism. Since it is a well known fact that the North is staunchly against regionalism, just how is it going to be achieved? The North will vote out any bill for Regionalism so what is the point. Another thing I find hypocritcal about Yorubas is that they claim to want regionalism but the colluded with their northern friends to entrench unitary rule under Gowon

gartamanta:
to entrench unitary rule under Gowon

Under Gowon, are you sure it wasn't Ironsi?

gartamanta:
The confab report, while having the best intentions, is a waste of time. The main crux of that report is the return of Nigeria to regionalism and true federalism. Since it is a well known fact that the North is staunchly against regionalism, just how is it going to be achieved? The North will vote out any bill for Regionalism so what is the point. Another thing I find hypocritcal about Yorubas is that they claim to want regionalism but the colluded with their northern friends to entrench unitary rule under Gowon

So were the North not at the CONFAB? Did they not participate in the discussions!? Merely wishing away the obvious is the bane of Nigeria. Until we wake up to reality, I am sorry the peace we seek may remain elusive.

Buhari took the report to where it belongs - trash can.

That confab report should be brought back immediately..All this merry go round will never work for us if you like bring back pdp., its waste of time

OrlandoOwoh:
Buhari took the report to where it belongs - trash can.

... current spate of insurgency is taking Nigeria forward, I suppose.

Amitex:

... current spate of insurgency is taking Nigeria forward, I suppose.

Regionalism is the way forward. Read the presentation of the SW delegation.

abes:


Under Gowon, are you sure it wasn't Ironsi?

It wasn't Ironsi that abolished the regions and created States