By Kelechi David
The Chieftains of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO have on Monday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to convene an ethnic nationalities conference on the way forward for Nigeria.
The chieftains, including former Military Governor of Lagos State, Ndubuisi Kanu, Amos Akingba and Ayo Opadokun, made the call while addressing Journalists in Lagos.
Mr Opadokun, who read the text of the briefing, entitled: ” NADECO, June 12 and the State of the Nation” said such assembly should be made up of leaders of ethnic groups elected through their cultural modalities of choosing representation, and not government nominees.
“The Nigerian state should accept that Nigeria’s prospect to genuine unity, growth and development can only be a reality if it respects the popular will being expressed by majority of Nigerians that our country should return to Federal constitutional arrangement.
“This demand is proven by the fact that until the unfortunate military insurrection against democratic government on January 15, 1966, federal and the regional governments were relatively productive and responding creditably to the genuine wishes and aspirations of their peoples.
“Restoration to federalism should not be based on partisan predilection.
“Centralisation of the vital public sectors by various decrees and the appropriations to the central government of all the regional major means of raising resources have crippled the component units since then.
Opadokun said that most states now depend on the monthly allocations to run their over-bloated bureaucracies.
He said that Nigeria should stop living a lie by calling itself a federation when it is in fact governed centrally under unitarism.
