South East Politicians Should Negotiate With The North Ahead Of 2023 – Ike Ekweremadu

Ex-Deputy President of the Senate, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu has come out to say that Southeast politicians should dialogue with the Northern part of Nigeria ahead of 2023.

He revealed this recently while urging the Federal Government to devolve power to the states to end the country’s problems.

According to him, the rising wave of insecurity and the serious economic challenges have raised the need for devolving power to Nigerian states, and it will be wise of the FG to take the right steps.

He added that it is sad that as developed nations are setting targets to move away from oil, Nigeria is nowhere close to that because our federalism is wired for wealth sharing rather than wealth creation.

His words, “There is clamour for Igbo presidency today. And I believe it can only be realised if we engage ourselves in conversation with northern Nigeria to buy into our initiative.”

“Today, Nigeria is in the full grip of widespread insecurity- insurgency, banditry, abductions, armed robbery, and all manner of violent crimes. Nigerians have been offering solutions towards taming the rising wave of criminality.

“These include calls for decentralised policing, which I am a proponent of and also have a Bill to that effect currently before the Senate.

“Unfortunately, it appears the government is bent on doing the same thing over and over but ironically hoping to get a different result.

“In the same manner, many Nigerians, including yours sincerely, have been shouting it on the rooftops long before the current economic downturn occasioned by drastic and protracted decline in oil revenues, that the days of high oil revenues were numbered.

“The West and other developed nations are setting targets to move away from oil. Yet we are not even close to activating other abundant sources of income because our federalism is wired for wealth sharing rather than wealth creation.

“Even in the 7th National Assembly when we listened to the yearnings of Nigerians to amend the constitution to devolve aviation, power, railway, etc. from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List, it was never assented by the Presidency.

“Now that the chicken has come home to roost, let us hope that the Federal Government will listen to the voices of reason, devolve powers, and not continue with the micromanagement of the nation’s resources.”