donjon:

The salaries of 6 regional thieving bastards will be more than what we pay 36 governors!
Dont you know each region is equivalent to a small country?
What kind of crappy talk is this anyaoku saying?

Sorry but you don't seem to be making any sense at all. Yar Adua is the president of a country of over 140million people, I am guessing by your deductions we should be paying him over 5billion a month or something ridiculous like that, but we aren't. Your arguements are null and void because the salaries are not set based on how big the region is or how many people are governed.

semid4lyfe:

Foolish Man! He voted for Nigera to be suspended from the Committee of Nations and he has the audacity to say it? Only in Naija! Like someone said, he's a traitor and deserves to be shot.

@ topic
Splitting the Country into 6 region/developmental areas will result in complete marginalisation of the minority ethnic groups in these regiòns. It would also result in a lop-sided pattern of development as the government of the day will gravitate the developmental projects to their areas.

What would Nigeria be doing in the committee of nations? Why shouldn't he have the audacity to say it? If the Nigerian government has to be forced or shamed into doing the right thing, then I say, SO BE IT.

With regards to marginalisation, are ethnic minorities not already being marginalised in Nigeria? So what are you talking about?

The fact of the matter is, 36 states is a major drain on the already paltry income of the nation. 36 states means more bureaucracy without anything to show for such a structure all these years except more staff to pay, more governors and hence more commissioners, ssgs, and government employed civil servants (which is a lot) to sustain. When you consider all that needs to be done, we do not have that kind of money to be throwing around. Nigerian government has to be drastically streamlined, if anything, it would at least improve efficiency.

@Beaf,

It will definitely be unfair to play catch up. Disadvantaged states should buckle up. That is the name of the game.
Once the legislative and budget parameters have been set, here is no reason for lethargy. We must hold everyone accountable.
All hands must be on deck and we must hold our tormentors at bay, face them, eyebal to eyeball.Left to me, the ball should start rolling from
derivation. lets face it and everybody will wake up. Why do we need to depend on ND when we can all pull our boot straps and find a buck
from our own environment?This is one of the fall outs of the delinquency I am talking about, which supports a lame duck presidential/ federal
arrangement that ties the states to the apron strings of Abuja.This should never be the case. Make the states your focus and no one will bother about Abuja and the only tool
available is derivation.

I will have to subscribe to this idea.

"Is this another biafra agenda in disguise"

I think the issue of tribalism is superficial and has no practical relevance in solving today's problems of poverty, corruption,illiteracy and insecurity,etc. its an attendant of illiteracy. with the power of education, the issue of minority and majority would die out with time. what we need are dedicated leaders and participating public, because thats what democracy is all about. The EU is agood example , countries like Germany and France with a long history of conflict, can sit at a table and co-operate. Rather think of being Gauls and Germans.

DS IS NAIJA OF SWEET TALK BUT LITTLE ACTION. WE KNOW D RIGHT THING 2 DO, BUT DOSE IN POWER WON'T LET IT HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

will that solve the problems in Nigeria? Will that fix the issue of corruption in the country? i dont think this idea would work. it can only be implemented when the country is already stable to some resonable extent,

is dis the right time for scrapin?, ur president is die+ing

This is the solution to our problems. thank you sir.

3kay945:

is dis the right time for scrapin?, your president is die+ing

He will not die now.

@~bluetooth,check the colour of that ur tooth one more time. its pple like u who derail everything in this country with ur tribalistic horseshit. and @donjon,i wonder what u have been writing on NL to have racked up such number of posts. something like this ones that u posted.? may the Lord have mercy.

The suggestion of Anyaoku is good. Yes the problem is the people but it's easier to change the structure to that that will allow for reduced cost of administration, easy accountability, and competition amog federating regions as it was in the first republic. Each region can decide to focus on areas of developmental priorities without the overbearing influence of the federal govt. Nigeria will be better with 6-8 federating regions; each having its own police and supreme court and controlling at least 50% of its natural resources, and 80% of other resources while the central govt have 50% of natural resources and 20% of others like VAT. Each region will have to publicly declare how much is been given to the central govt from regionally generated incomes while the income generated from the natural resourses like oil, mining etc will be published as it is been done at the moment.
The federal govt have nothing to do with local govt then. There will be no need for state. In place of state we should have Mayors for most 'cities' e'g, Lagos metropolies, Ibadan, Akure, etc depending on the agreed populatiuon as will be agreed by each regional constitution.
EAch region will also contribute equal number to the various armed forces and federal police.
If a country like UK with population of less than 62million and with only four major ethnic nationalities could be operating like 4 countries- England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, I don't think we should be afraid to allow each regions to have a measure of control over how they are governed.
In England each borough (like local govt), have its own police, so why are we afraid to have regional police?
Our arrangement is so central to te point that it's difficult to know who to hold accountable for our problems.

the problem has always been amalgamation of 1914,bringing unequal and totally different people together, the solution as things are now is true federalism as it is practised the world over, from my knowledge of government in secondary school,in a federal unit the center(FG) is just supposed to act as a supervisory body for the constituent units(states), but the amalgamation wouldnt let an average politician who feels his or her states would lag behind based on the aforementioned principles of federalism accept this, like it has been rightly pointed out its the people and not the policies that makes a country great, most european countries still make use of ceremonial monarchies and they fair well,america has the funniest judicial system,where the jury are picked randomly and their verdict most times is what the judge pronounces yet it works just fine for them , anyaoku has a point but i feel he can do better by instituting sanctions against nigeria in the international circle to influence good conduct from our policy makers.


sense b4 slogan[s][/s]

If what we've been operating have not been able to change the lives of ordinary Nigerians for the better, then it is wise to change.We may not make any progress if we continue with the present arrangement with over 30 unviable states and the federal govt telling states how to create local govt. How could we call this federal system if the local govt are receiving allocation from abuja like states, the chief security officers for the states (governor) does not control any security apparatus and even VAT generated goes to Abuja for sharing? It's a confused arrangement and can only benefit the politician who became rich from looting the treasury and with the stolen wealth positioning their descendants and cronies to continue ruling the nation.
Let's go back to regions- Yoruna/western, Ibo/ East central, Rivers+akwa Ibom+cross river/niger delta, midwest/edo+delta =4 from the southern protectorate, Hausa/fulani or nother west, northeast/, northcentral/kaduna+niger, middlebelt etc.
The federal govt has nothing to do than focus on defence of our international borders,  currency, religious secularity, international relation etc.
If we continue doing things as we are then we will continue getting the same result we've been getting- inefficient govts and corrupt leaders.

Pres-elect hit the nail on the head. GBAM!

The problem of Nigeria is not administrative structure but a people problem, There are more active bad people in nigeria that active good people, period the majority of nigerians are passive.

I laugh in Emekuku!!!!
All these Nigerian leaders have nothing to do
They're all jobless nonentities.

Chief Anyaoku is a very smart man. The 36 states structure is a mockery of federalism for a country about the size of Texas. It makes no sense at all. This is one of the reasons why corruption is so difficult to stamp out of Nigeria. Decentralization of corruption, not to talk of unviability of most of these Mickey Mouse states.

^^^^^^^
@davidif

These are the same guys allowed by the constitution to deliberate and agree or disagree
on which direction we should take . You see wahala. Tell Oni of Ekiti to close shop and go to Ibadan
and you will see fireworks. Not after fighting this hard to be guvnor. Or can you tell the people of Akwa
Ibom to surrender their state?

olap001:

I'm definitely skeptical about this proposal. I could see it working if it is administered properly but this could actually bring more division between the already tribalistic Nigerians. Bringing states with the same views together unifies them and some radicals could see this as an opportunity to promote hatred.

My concern too. Allowing people to run their affairs is ordinarily a good idea but it may be hijacked by ethnic warriors to settle scores everytime they lose out at the federal level. An election in Ekiti recently, as against party politics, almost turned to Yoruba vs PDP affair. It could be worse if say we had zonal party like AD against PDP. I personally think the whole west Africa should be a union by now but divisions along myopic ideas will now allow.

If there is problem in Nigeria, it is the Hausa, Yoruba or Ibo causing it. If there is trouble is in Ogun, it is either Egba or Ijebu. Always blaming the other tribes has ensured backwardness in all spheres of our lives in Africa.

GOOD THINKING, GOOD PRODUCT.

This is a good idea but I see many people going to the opposit direction.

Well I don't blame them, but I blamed the amalgamation of 1914 without proper consultation.

I hope you all realise that even with 36 states structure nothing is working in terms of development, how much more 6 unit which is larger.I am sure with 6 zone structure more areas will be left out of development.We better speak about how to make what we have work not how to start what will never work.

KnowAll:

Mr Anyaoku is talking nonsense,  is he saying the Old Western region which was controlling everything from Mushin in Lagos State to Ogwashuku in Delta State,  Iseyin in the Northern part of Oyo State to Auchi in Edo State, would the Administration in Ibadan will it be able enforce and realise the kind of development we have seen in places like Osogbo, Warri, Akure, Ado-Ekiti, Abeokuta, Benin, Asaba and Metropolitan Lagos.  Even a dummy knows that the development in the aforementioned towns will be rudimentary to say the least when compared to what we have on the ground today.

I think Anyaoku has spent too much time abroad and is not fully conversant with what is on the ground in Nigeria. When last was he in Akure, Abeokuta, Benin or Osogbo he should take a hike.

Going by your logic, the only way for a town to develop is to become a state capital. This a very flawed view of how development occurs. No wonder every village and hamlet is asking for their own state.
The old western region did a lot of things better than what we have today. Education, health care delivery, road maintenance, internally generated revenue etc. Many of the states in Nigeria today cannot survive for six months without a handout from the federal government.

Megadeals:


Going by your logic, the only way for a town to develop is to become a state capital. This a very flawed view of how development occurs. No wonder every village and hamlet is asking for their own state.
The old western region did a lot of things better than what we have today. Education, health care delivery, road maintenance, internally generated revenue etc. Many of the states in Nigeria today cannot survive for six months without a handout from the federal government.

Thank you o jare.

easier said than done! would Anyaoku do that if he mistakenly becomes the president?

I some how agreed to scraping of the existing 36 states, history have that nigeria was better manage during the regional government.Gowon intruduced the creation of states to prevent igbos from breaking away,but ever since that time their has not been any significant improvement in the nation economy.
Take south west for instance alot was achieved ranging from creation of University of ife (that was rank among the best university then) Cocoa house(the tallest building in nigeria) Nta Ibadan (first television station in west africa) odua investment just with gain from cocoa exportaion.

Nortern and Eastern region too recorded alots of economics achivement from groundnut and palm oil respectively.Our leader just need to sit down and analyse the current situation carefully.Nigeri aneed to be restructured.

I love dis idea. But a civilian cannot make dis happen. I pray that a coup takes place so that it can be enforced by an iron fist. I think thats what we need in dis country.