A former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku has advocated for the conversion of thirty-six states in Nigeria to six federating units.
Emeka Anyaoku
A former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku has called the National Assembly to convert the existing six-geo political zones into federating units saying the present thirty-six states were not viable.
With the new proposal, the present thirty-six states would serve as development zones.
According to Radio Nigeria, Chief Anyaoku made the call at the Inaugural Conference organised by Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, ISGPP held at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan.
The Former Commonwealth Secretary said there were landmark developments during the early years of Independence when Nigeria practised a true federalism with four regions as federating units.
According to the Elder stateman, the periods of the regional government were the days of significant exports of groundnut from the Northern Region, cocoa from the Western Region, rubber from the Mid-West and palm produce from Eastern Region.
The Chairman of the occasion and former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who decried the high rate of corruption in the country enjoined the National Assembly to open its budget for public scrutiny.
He called on the Federal Government to address the problem of unemployment while on-going efforts must be intensified to enhance the security of lives and property.
A guest speaker and a Professor of International History and Politics from USA, Richard Joseph wondered why Nigeria blessed with the best of human and material resources was still underdeveloped.