• As southern Kaduna demands state

The Yoruba ethnic group in Kwara and Kogi states has demanded a merger with their kith and kin in the South-West region in Nigeria through boundary adjustment.

According to the National President of the group, Pa Joseph Aderibigbe, who was the first Secretary to Kwara State Government when it was created in 1967, the group had submitted a memorandum to the 9th National Assembly’s Committee on Review of the Nigerian Constitution, with a demand for the merging of the Yoruba of Kwara and Kogi states with their kith and kin in the South-West Region through boundary adjustment.

The forum lamented that “the Yoruba of Kwara South occupying seven out of the 16 local government areas in the state and their counterparts in Kogi state were not given any say to determine where they wanted to be and who they wanted to live with before lumping thm in the Northern Protectorate, contrary to their right to self determination as enshrined in the United Nations Atlantic Charter.”

S’Kaduna demands state

Meanwhile, the people of Southern Kaduna have demanded Gurara State out of the present Kaduna State, “for peace, equity, justice and development” in line with the report of the 2014 National Conference.

The ethnic nationality also recommended that the six geo-political zones should be increased to eight where the states “would choose which geo-political zone to belong based on historical, cultural, linguistic and other affiliations.”

The demands were contained in the memorandum by the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union on the proposed amendment to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, sent to the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Constitutional Review.

The document titled, ‘Constitutional review to address the entrenched imbalances and inequities in the structures, institutions and practices that have subjected ethnic and religious minorities to discrimination, disempowerment an subjugation in Nigeria and in Kaduna State in particular,’ was signed by the President of SOKAPU, Jonathan Asake, and Secretary-General, Stephen Mallan.

SOKAPU said there was the need to revisit the issue of state creation, as some states like Kaduna State were more than two times the population and land mass of many states in the federation.

“We recommend the creation of the Gurara State out of the present Kaduna State, for peace, equity, justice and development, not just for the people of Southern Kaduna, but to the benefit of Nigeria as a whole.”

Credit: The Punch