presidency with, you can donate 5%, but the donation should not be less than 1%. So, the 1% or 5% is not for any road, not for development purpose, it will just be for the running of the presidency, and you know that in the presidency, people just travel around to commission projects and pay courtesy visits. That is what the money is meant for, because there will be nothing for the presidency, it will not attract tangible resources. It will not be attractive. For instance, as the President of Oduduwa University, what am I doing? What is my role? I’m just overseeing things. When whoever is the President is coming, he comes in good clothes, rides good cars, that is all. He has nothing to do with even where he comes from. If he comes from the South-West, for example, he has nothing to do with the region. The only thing he gets from each region is 1% – 5% of their resources, or their declared incomes. It’s going to be a good idea, all these agitations, problems will stop.
With our present structure, how do we dissolve into your formula in such a way that it won’t create crisis or like you said, without firing a shot?
The way I have researched, it is such that the regions are like countries of their own. We already know our region, the South-West, and others know there. So whatever each region has is theirs, just like a country on its own. But we are doing everything together; that’s why I said the name should change from Nigeria to United Regions of Nigeria. It is as good as breaking, but breaking such that there are no problems. You see, Nigeria has a structure already. We have the President,the ministers,we have the parliaments,we have the states and so on and so forth.
Now,you know when we say South-West, it is not just one state, it is about six states, so the six or seven states are just as good as one country on its own. So, whatever they do among themselves, they can have their parliaments, they can have their Presidents, so the Vice President is indirectly their President, according to the formula, because the country must donate somebody to the top for the ceremonial position of President. The regional Vice President will carry two functions now; he wears two caps, but the word President must not be used so as not to create the wrong impression that it is an independent country.
That Vice President is the President of that region. I believe politicians can look for one name for this theory. I know in Ghana, for example, they have regions, they have President and Ministers and so on, but the regions are not independent. This time around, if the Hausa/Fulani are asking the Igbo to leave the North, next time, it may be the turn of the Yoruba to be asked to leave the North. The same with the Hausa people in the West; they will ask them to leave.
Who then controls the police and the military?
You are taking me back again. There is a region, so it must have its own police, its own soldiers, its own everything; the President will just be ceremonial. There will be no Nigeria Army again,no Nigeria Police, and so on. Rather what we will have is South Western Region Police. Even in America, you have all these states and they have their own police. But the problem with Nigeria is that, you know that they are talking about state police, they believe that a state like Lagos can be so powerful because it has money to attack the federal police. But these days, such thinking is no longer relevant. It is going to be as beautiful as what you have in the United States of America because some states will be very powerful and very rich. Look at what is happening in Lagos because of the money they are getting. Some regions will excel..
What if there is external aggression,like people attacking from Republic of Benin or Cameroun or from wherever? How do you handle such a problem?
That is why we are united. Immediately attack region alerts other regions, they donate soldiers because Nigeria is still there, United Regions in Nigeria. But my only fear with the theory is that we can also face ourselves. If there is an election in a region and there is a dispute, others may intervene.
As the proponent of the theory, what is the way out?
What is the best way to stop two friends from fighting? When the regions understand themselves very well, then they become more friendly. And they must have built checks and
