Yemisi Izuora
The United Nations and the international community have been urrged to take urgent steps to prevent a major crisis in Nigeria.
The Southern Nigeria and Middle Belt Forum (SNMBF) based in New York, United States made the plea in a statement at the weekend.
The group also said while it welcomed the release of Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore and others, the action was not enough urging the government to strike out the case of treason preferred against him.
The forum is the platform of Southern and Middle Belt peoples in Europe, United States and Asia with 21 state chapters in Nigeria.
In a communique signed by it’s President Sidney Imohbio and Secretary General Napoleon Akhuemonkha after it’s general meeting held in New York, the group said Nigeria is faced with inherent contradictions that may spill over to a major conflict unless the country of 180 million people is restructured to guarantee self determination.
The group urged government to uphold espect for human rights and sense of belonging to citizens, calling for a replacement of the 1999 constitution with the recommendations of the 2014 Confab report, decentralisation of the security architecture and a complete overhaul of the political system to reflect the principles of Federalism.
The meeting was attended by hundreds of Nigerians in diaspora with strategic focus on socio-political developments in Nigeria.
Reports said the deliberations were centered on some striking critical issues including a review of the 1999 constitution and the undue over concentration of power at the centre which the group said has stifled economic and political development of the country.
The communique observed that while the constitution was being drawn, a large section of Nigerians was excluded compared with the South African constitution that drew one million memoranda representing the wisdom of the eleven nationalities in South Africa.
It said “Nigeria is facing hemorrhage. Thousands of people are being killed, illicit arms are everywhere, savage murders and bandits have taken over the land in the face of a helpless regime whose primary concern is the brutal control of political power to it’s maximum advantage. The consequence is a country that persistently drifts into a state of anarchy.”
The group said the only way Nigeria can move forward today is to suspend the so called 1999 constitution and declare the document and contents of 2014 national conference as our new constitution.
“This will ameliorate the tension, bad blood and mutual suspicion pervading the entire country without further delay.”
In reference to the second issue of concentration of power mainly in the center, the group considered it as a deliberate design to deny or whittle down the rights, interests and feelings of the units that are not in compliance with the whims and caprices of the operators of government in the center.