My attention has been drawn to an orchestrated campaign calumny in some national dailies and social network on my stand/view on what was refer to as Yoruba Agenda.

In the said interview granted Western Post I stated categorically that I am not at the Confab for Yoruba Agenda neither am I in support of the reversion back to regional system of government. But some misguided elements are at work twisting my views to mean that I am out in subversion of Yorubas’ interest in the polity. Far from it….of what benefit is an agenda without fall back option(s). How are we sure the same set of people trumping ethnicity card are not doing so to feather their nest? In Yoruba word “Öro ni o so ara re nigba to baya” (literally means that word itself would speak when the time comes).

For avoidance of doubt, let me reiterate my points and clear any further ambiguity. I am at the National Conference on the platform of my Union-Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and not as a representative of my Yoruba ethnicity.

Therefore, I should be seen pushing for pan-Nigeria position. Does that make me less a Yoruba man?

On why I differ:

I differed on the restructuring of the polity and averred that it must go beyond cosmetics and sloganeering.  Nigeria has to go the whole hog to enthrone a confederal system: a loose federation where the zones have some measures of autonomy to drive their own development. It is a statement of fact that Nigeria has not been running a federal system of government since the encroachment of the military into politics in 1966, with the military establishment of a command structure of a unitary system of government which ultimately took away power from the people. What the country has been since then is not even federation.  It is some kind of backward,ill-defined federal system of government. It is doubtful therefore to say true federalism is feasible now, I don’t know whether the circumstances and the make-up of Nigeria are suitable for federation.  I don’t think so. I will go further than just restructuring.

For example, the present 36 states structure has an in built mechanism for the worst kind of inequities that affect the various nationalities that make up Nigeria. The 1963 constitution, which was federal in nature, was subverted by the military and the motive behind the state structure was largely ill conceived. Today, most of the states have no economic, or industrialpotential and are largely dependent on the central government.

However, the present six geo-political zones seem to have speak to most of the problems of inequities as it affects the various ethnic nationalities.

There is an inherent problem with these geo-political zones as some of the groups are dispersed across zonal boundaries, thus making them minorities in the other zone.

With this I will go for reconfiguration of this country. Why are we deceiving ourselves to say that we can be one inseparable nation?  While one is not advocating secession, the people out there, the majority of the people in different zones would like to run their affairs in their own way, by their ethos, by their own practices. They do not object to having the same nationality just for the sake of belonging to a country but in terms of doing things together.  I know that the people of Nigeria would desire to do things their own way.   In other words, they would prefer a loose federation. Truly a loose federation will be most suitable in our situation.

We can also increase the number of zones for instance, it is now six. We can increase to accommodate other ethnic groups but definitely this must not be in excess. We have clusters of ethnic nationalities for the zones, which can later attain its freedom to go their ways.   Free them and wish that we would make the young, generation attain their potentials”,

It is therefore worthy of note that the basic difference between a confederation and federation is that with confederation, the central government is very weak and the states could possibly have an option to quit the alliance. With regard to the federal structure, the Igbos need autonomy such as was guaranteed under the 1963 constitution. The successive military governments have continuously and fraudulently claimed to operate a federal system of Government. What the Igbos, Yorubas, the South-south and Middle- Belt want, is a true federation; the kind that operates in the United States. More so since the "Federal" Government still claims it is federal in nature, my take is that Confederation which in reality is true federalism as practiced in the US would suffice. Therefore, we need to moved away from the term 'federal' since the military establishment uses the term 'federal' to cover up itsmischief.