Senate Minority Leader, Senator Abba Moro, has dismissed calls for Nigeria to return to a regional system of government, warning that such a move would amount to retrogression and undermine the country’s hard-won unity.
Speaking during Prime Time, an Arise Television programme on Wednesday, warned against calls for Nigeria to return to a regional system of government, describing the idea as a step backwards.
“Well, I think that a moment of confusion arising, like I used to say, from the feelings and opinions of individual politicians has given rise to a lot of permutations. And one of it is the clamor in some quarters for a return to regional government.
“And you want to recall that we had regional government in this country before, and then we moved on, and some crisis of some nature precipitated the civil war.
“Arising from the civil war was the creation of two states to break regional concentration, to put Nigeria on a stable path to nationhood. And we moved on from there to some 19 states, 21 states, and to 36 states plus FCT, the 37th state so to say. And so if you’re asking for a return to regionalism at this point in time, to my mind, that is retrogression,” Moro said.
The Benue South senator argued that the nation’s political evolution, from regional governments to the current 36-state structure, was aimed at fostering unity and preventing concentration of power.
He stressed that reversing this progress would undermine Nigeria’s stability and nationhood.
