₦airaland Forum

Eastlink:
Kabba province remaining in the north was the decision of the colonial masters. Kabba province was suppose to be in the West if we follow due ethnic delineation. The same applies to Asaba province which ought not to be in the west and Benin province which suppose to be the rightful mid-west.

Some have suggested the abolition of the states and for the six geopolitical zones to become the federating bodies. Do you concur?

The states don’t have to be abolished. It is a matter of nomenclature. When we had Eastern Region, we had 12 provinces which Michael Okpara created. Ogoja province, Calabar Province, Uyo Province, Annang Province, Enugu Province, Onitsha Province, Owerri Province, Umuahia Province and Port-Harcourt Province, Degema Province. There were six provinces in the minority areas and six in the Igbo areas, and all these provinces had their provincial commissioners, had their assemblies and had their provincial scholarship boards.

I did my analysis while I was in Kirikiri Prison, the only problem with the form of government that we had with that structure was that it was lopsided. The structure of the regions at independence was such that one region, the North was said to have been bigger than the two other regions, East and West and when even Mid-West was created the North was still bigger than East, West and Midwest and in a parliamentary system based on population, the membership of the parliament allocated more seats to Northern Region than to all other regions put together.

If as they did in the North, they all decided to go into one party, a Northern party, and they elected all their legislators on that party, then they would continue to have the leadership of the country for ever which would not be palatable to the rest of the country. That was one fault in the disparity in the size of the regions.

The second problem I discovered was that within each region, you had majority group and a group of minorities. In the West, the Yoruba were the majority group, and the minority group was what grouped together in what became the Midwest. In the East, the Igbo were the majority and the minority group called themselves the COR State – Calabar, Ogoja, Rivers. In the North, Hausa Fulani were the majority group and the minority were mostly the Middle Belt and to some extent, the Kanuri.

So, you had a struggle within each region between the majority and the minority. So, I decided to cure these two problems that we must have parity of regions between the Old North and the Old South and that was why I decided to have parity of geopolitical zones between the North and the South.

And it also helped to have parity between the majority regions and the minority regions; the majority regions being in the Northwest, mostly Hausa-Fulani, Southwest, mostly Yoruba and the Southeast , mostly Igbo; and the minority regions being Northeast where you have the Kanuri with a number of ethnic groups in Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba; and in the North Central you have Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, Niger; and in the South you have the minorities in the former Midwestern Region and the minority of the Southeast region who together formed the South-South.

So instead of three regions, you now have six regions; three majority, three minority; three in the North, three in the South – parity between North and South, parity between majority and minority and the apportionment of representation would be as we negotiated with our colonial masters on the basis of which we got our independence.

Sincinnati:
So how many of your kinsmen running naked on this thread have you called to order? You were quick to write about how no one could have a reasonable discussion with you because a few people insulted you.

Yeah, I admit that you were insulted by ignorant folks who could be Igbos, but on this same thread people have been insulting and making disparaging remarks about Igbos for the creation of the South South, and I’m yet to see you call any of them out, seeing they’re here calling Igbos names on your own thread that ought to commend same Igbos for an honorable act.

Domineering and hateful has always been you guys preferred cliches when describing Igbos, yet history keeps proving you guys wrong.

There’s no denying the fact that your aim of creating this thread was not only to impart knowledge, you had an agenda. Everyone could see it in your following posts.

Igboid:
Lol!
Those threads were just you projecting your dead "ONE NIGERIA" agenda than anything else.

Sincinnati:
If people are left to decide the intent of creating a South South region, from your post, do you think they would call Igbos bigots, domineering, hate filled and other ad hominem you use to describe them?

Creation of the South South was never a mistake, it was purposely done by an Igbo man to give collective and weighty voice to the minority groups of the South, and till today, that idea has remained effective.

Why then do covert BIGOTs like you still term Igbos as domineering and hateful? If we are such, would an Igbo man have cared about giving a strong voice to the so called minorities?

Why are you people like this?

You created this thread to bash Igbos base on say some uninformed people have be ranting about the creation of the South South and how it alienated them from their historical/cultural neighbors in the South. But on a more reasonable thought, it should’ve been a thread to commend Igbos political liberalism then. Nevertheless, Bigots are Bigots, no mask can conceal you all.

The basic idea was to provide equality between the regions of Nigeria. During the 1st Republic, Northern Nigeria was bigger than the other 2 regions (East and West) combined and there were always fears that it would dominate the country. Dr Ekwueme decided to address this issue by creating a balance.

Furthermore, minority ethnic groups were always complaining that they were being dominated by the 3 big ethnic groups and so his idea was developed in such a way that the minorities would have a voice.

In his idea, there would be an Eastern Region which would be mainly made up of the Igbo ethnic group and a Western Region that would be mainly made up of the Yoruba ethnic group. There would then be a South-South Region that would be mainly made up of the southern minorities.

There would also be a North-Western Region which would be mainly made up of the Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups and a North-East Region which would be mainly made up of the Kanuri ethnic group. There would then be a North-Central Region that would be mainly made up of the minorities in the North.