The Kwara South Consultative Forum (KSCF), a socio-cultural group in Kwara south senatorial district, has demanded a merger of Yoruba people of Kwara and Kogi State with the Southwest Region of the country through boundary adjustment
According to the Nigerian Tribune, the demand was disclosed in a memorandum to the ninth National Assembly’s Committee on Review of the Nigerian Constitution.
The group demanded that Yoruba-speaking people in the five local government areas of Kwara state should be part of Kwara Yoruba to be merged with the proposed Western Region through a Referendum.
The forum whose national president, Sir Joseph Adeniyi Aderibigbe is a former Secretary to the Kwara State Government at the take-off of the state in 1967, lamented that the Yoruba of Kwara South and their counterparts in Kogi state was not accorded their rights to self-determination before merging them with the Northern Protectorate.
This, according to the group, is contrary to their right to self-determination as enshrined in the United Nations Atlantic Charter.
“The search for freedom, liberty, independence, and self-determination for our people, born and unborn, therefore continues. We want a group and region to which we truly belong, where respect between us and others is reciprocal. We can no longer tolerate second class citizenship, marginalisation and domination in a place and state that is supposed to be for all of us who live in it.”
The group furthered that “The bureaucracy paraphernalia of the presidential system are so numerous and unwieldy that its maintenance constitutes a huge drain on the resources of the government. Too much power is concentrated in the executive arm, particularly the President, to the detriment of the legislature that represents the actual federal nature or character of our people.
“Corruption is rife and more pronounced under the presidential system as is currently being witnessed in the country. The nation’s experience since 1966 has shown that a parliamentary system would attract less corruption and abuse of power, be more responsible and responsive to the nature of Nigeria’s federalism.
“The adoption of a Parliamentary System of Government would reduce the power of the executive that oversees our national security and foreign affairs. Besides, we recommend that the National Assembly should be a unicameral, part-time institution. This would drastically reduce the cost of governance and the spate of acrimony associated with elections and representation.”
