The agitation for the return of Nigeria to the regional form of government is trying to tear the senate apart, as Southern and Northern Senators have disagreed over the issue.
The Senators expressed their views at the sidelines of the ongoing two-day retreat on the amendments to the 1999 constitution organized by the Senate Committee on Constitution Review in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) in Kano.
However, Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, assured Nigerians that regionalism was not part of the ongoing review of the nation’s constitution.
Senators from the southern part of the country described it as a welcome development that would improve the economy, tackle insecurity, and fast-track infrastructural development, while senators from the northern part vehemently opposed it.
Senator representing Oyo North Senatorial District, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, disagreed with those condemning the regional system of government.
“In those years, the North was known for the pyramid of groundnuts, the South West was known for cocoa, we should be able to do that,” Buhari said.
However, the Leader of the Senate said the issue of regionalism could not be changed through constitutional amendment.
Abdul Ningi, a Senator from Bauchi Central Senatorial District told journalists that his people would never support the idea because they did not enjoy any form of development when the system of government was practiced in the defunct First Republic.
On his part, the Chairman of, the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, advised Nigerians against the establishment of the Zonal Development Commission for regionalism.
He said the various geopolitical zonal development commissions were strictly for the social and economic development of their areas.
Similarly, former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, said the idea of true federalism was no longer fashionable because many countries in Africa had discarded it.
He advocated the creation of strong institutions that would enhance good governance and curb corruption and insecurity.
Also, the Chairman Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TetFund, Senator Muntari Dandutse, representing Katsina South Senatorial District, disagreed with the proponents of regional government.
He said the essence of the ongoing retreat was to improve on the defects and anomalies discovered in the nation’s constitution over the years.
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