By Obafemi Awolowo
Apr 04, 1961
I beg to move the following amendment:
To delete the words of the Motion after territorially' and substituteof Benin and Delta Provinces in the Western
Region excluding Akoko Oke District in Afenmai Division and Ward and Western Ijaw Divisions in Delta Province’,
provided
- That the remaining part of the Western Nigeria shall continue to be a region under the Constitution.
- That a prior agreement shall be reached between the major political parties in the area of the new region on the following matters and that such agreement shall be
embodied in the Act of Parliament establishing the new region, namely
a) constitution of the new region;
b) constituency delimitation;
c) fiscal arrangement;
d) interim administration;
e) date of first election to the new regional
legislature. - That the rest of the Federation shall simultaneously be
divided into the following regions:
i) NORTH EAST, that is, Bornu and Sardauna Provinces
ii) CENTRAL, that is, Ilorin, Niger and Kabba Provinces
iii) MIDDLE BELT, that is, Adamawa, Bauchi,Plateau and Benue Provinces, and southern part of Zaria Province
iv) NORTH-KANO Province, Northern Zaria and Kaduna Capital territory
v) NORTH-WEST – Sokoto and Katsina Provinces
vi) EAST, that is, Old Owerri and Old Onitsha Provinces
vii) CALABAR, that is, Old Calabar Province
viii) RIVERS, that is, Old Rivers Provinces and Western Ijaw Division
ix) OGOJA, that is, Old Ogoja Province’
Mr. Speaker, Sir, the text of the Amendment speaks for itself. Hitherto, the Action Group had adopted two distinct
but coordinated approaches to the issue of more states m Nigeria. The first approach is idealistic.
The Action Group believe, as a matter of fundamental principle, that if the unity of this country is to be lasting and if our people are to have abiding peace and happiness, each ethnic or linguistic group in Nigeria must be assured of political
sell determination within the Federation. In other words, each ethnic or linguistic group should either have a region of their own now or should have a definite and invincible assurance that granting financial and administrative
viability, they will have a region of their own in the future.
Furthermore, the Federation of Nigeria is monstrously abnormal in structure in the sense that one of the three Regions is not only bigger in territory and population than
the other two put together, but has also in actual practice succeeded in placing itself in a position where, at its arbitrary and capricious pleasure, it can bend the will of the entire Federation to its own. This abnormality must be terminated if every section of our country is to enjoy the
full fruits of freedom in an independent Nigeria. And the termination of this abnormality does mean the breaking of the
Northern Region into more Regions than the two hitherto advocated .
The second approach of the Action Group to this problem is pragmatic. As a matter of expediency, we believe that the creation of one of the Regions advocated by us is a step towards the eventual realisation of our dream. It is for this reason that we have always supported the demand for the
creation of the Mid West Region. But the parties now in control of the Federal Government have been unashamedly illogical, spiteful, unprincipled and opportunist, in their approach to the creation of more States in Nigeria. There can be no rational ground for their insistence on creating the Mid West Region when demands for the creation of other Regions in the East and in the North are ruthlessly silenced, or, at the very best, contemptuously ignored.
Since the motion for the creation of the Mid West Region first came to this House last year, we have had a chance of knowing more of the evil designs of the NPC and the NCNC against the Action Group which is the champion of the minority group, and against the majority ethnic group of the Western Region . It is an open secret that the Federal Government plans to use every artifice to install the NCNC in power in the new Mid West Region and, if it could, to incapacitate the Action Group in the rest of the Western Region . NCNC spokesmen have been very loud in their boast that during six months of control by the Federal Government of the administration of the Mid West Region and of the Yoruba West, the fortunes of the NCNC would have been sufficiently advanced to enable them to win the
succeeding elections in the two Regions .
In my letter to the Prime Minister dated 13th July, 1961, I made some important points which can bear repetition on this occasion, and, with your permission,
Mr. Speaker, I quote in extenso from the letter.In order to ensure co-operation on the part of all shades of political opinion in the Mid West in all the subsequent steps necessary for the creation of the new State, I have the following concrete proposals to make. First, a conference of political parties with followings in the Mid-West should be convened by you. The Action Group and the NCNC who are the only parties with the following in the area should have equal representation at the conference The Governments of the Federation and of the Western Region should be represented as such and in equal number at the conference. The Western Region Government is entitled to be represented because it alone is bound to be affected by some of the decisions that will be taken at the conference. The conference will be presided over by you, supported by official advisers. Agreement at this conference will be reached by compromise as was the case at the series of Nigerian Constitutional Conference over which the Secretary of State for the Colonies presided. 'Second, the matters which should be discussed and agreed upon both at the first and resumed meetings of the conference should include the following: the Constitution of the new Region; allocation of revenue to the new Region; safeguard for minorities within the Region; new report of constituency delimination, that is to say, after a decision has been taken at the first meeting of the conference as to the number of regional constituencies which the new Region should have, it would then be your duty to appoint a Committee to delimit such constituencies (the Commission would, as in similar cases in the past, have consultations with the Action Group and the NCNC representatives before arriving at its recommendation); arrangements for the interim administration of the Mid-West Region, that is, between the coming into existence of the Region and the holding of general election. In this connection I would like to point out that if the precedent of the Southern Cameroons is to be followed with reasonable modifications, then the present Members of the Western Region Legislature representing the Mid West should constitute the interim legislature of the area. This interim legislature will appoint, from among its own Members, persons who would constitute the Executive Council and thus be responsible for the interim administration of the new Region. Third, it is essential that the Federal Government should make a categorical statement that the rest of the Western Region will ipso facto remain a corporate regional entity under the Constitution. This statement should not have been necessary but for the statements which some Federal Government spokesmen have made
and which are incompatible with the provisions of the Constitution. it has been said that after the creation of the Mid West Region, what will be left of the Western Region will be regarded by the Federal Government as not legally constituting a Region under the Constitution.
This view is clearly an erroneous one.
In the interest of the people, the Federal Government must not be allowed
to fall into the temptation of committing such a grave error as this.
A categorical statement by the Government on the lines suggested above will make the constitutional position abundantly clear and allay any misgivings on the issue.Fourth, it is, in my humble opinion, imperative that the agreement reached at the Conference proposed in paragraph 6 above, and the Federal Government's categorical statement on the position of the rest of the Western Region should be reduced into legal terms and should be made to form the Schedule or Schedules of the Bill for an Act of Parliament to create the Mid West Region.' The Prime Minister's reply, Mr. Speaker, was non-committal. He said, inter alia, as follows — and with your permission, Sir, I quote two paragraphs from the Prime Minister's letter: Now specific points you raise in paragraphs 6 to 9 of your letter. The Conference suggested by you of political parties with a following in the Mid West which you asked me to convene is a good idea. But I consider it is a
little premature. Such a suggestion can be seriously considered after the Federal Parliament’s Resolution has received the blessing of the Western Region Legislature, which is all that remains in order to perform the proper exercise of putting the Constitutional provisions into effect.
`The other point relates to a request for a categorical statement to the effect that, in the event of the creation of the Mid West State, the rest of the Western Region of
Nigeria will still remain a Region under the Constitution.
This is an undertaking that the Federal Government cannot give. You will readily appreciate that the issue of the creation of States is not a matter for the Federal Government as a Government. It is a matter, firstly, for the people affected; secondly, for the political parties with a
following in the area; and, thirdly) for the Federal Parliament and Regional Legislatures.’
I have listened very carefully to the very short speech made by the Prime Minister in moving the Motion on this subject, and I can find no answer at all to my queries, nor solace for the anxiety of the people of the Western Region in particular and of the minority areas in general.
It goes against the grain, in my view, and it appears to me to be a subtle assault on the Constitution, that, the Federal Government can unjustly and in an indecent haste try to force the creation of the Mid West Region upon the overwhelming majority of the people of the Western Region, without giving the prerequisite guarantees, and without the fullest possible consultations with the accredited representatives of the people concerning procedure.
The whole of this business, if I may say so with respect, smacks of ill-will and spite.
There are many here, and outside this Chamber, who may be startled — and I have no doubt that the Prime Minister himself was startled — by the number of States now proposed for simultaneous creation. Some will charge us with inconsistency for making this proposal. If we were inconsistent, then I say that we are in very good company.
It is the most dramatic volte-face in our history for the NPC and for the Prime Minister in particular – the one-time uncompromising opponent of the creation of any new States at all — to become the foremost advocate and champion or at
least the undisguised godfather of the proposed Mid West Region.
In our case, we have never at any time changed place to take an opposite point of view to the creation of more States.
We have always advocated the creation of more States, and it is merely a courageous and enlightened advance towards the ideal if we now call for the creation of 11 States instead of 6.
The truth, however, is that whatever we demand, whether we demand the creation of 6 States, or 11 States, or even 40 States, we are still acting within the ambit of the principles by which we have always been guided.
As I have said before, our manifest goal on this issue is that more and more States, based on ethnic or linguistic affinity, should be created in Nigeria until each of the ethnic or linguistic groups in our diverse community enjoys political self-determination within the Federation. Until this ideal is realised, until this goal is reached, consenting minorities can always be constituted into a separate State, as Government now wants to do in the Mid
West Region.
In determining whether a particular State
should be created or not, regard should of course, be had, among other factors, to financial and administrative viability. I am fully convinced that each of the ix States
proposed in this Amendment is viable.
HISTORICAL NOTE: THIS MOTION WAS PASSED BY VOICE VOTE ON THE SAME DATE (APRIL 4, 1961) . IT WAS GIVEN APPROVAL IN THE EASTERN REGION IN JUNE 1961 AND IN THE NORTHERN REGION IN SEPTEMBER
- HOWEVER, IT WAS LATER ON RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND HENCE WAS NULL AND VOID BECAUSE ONLY VOICE VOTE (NO DIVISION) WAS TAKEN.
