COMMUNIQUE OF YORUBA SUMMIT
HELD IN IBADAN ON 7TH SEPTEMBER 2017
PREAMBLE
Leaders and people of
Yoruba nation met in a solemn gathering at the Lekan Salami Stadium,Adamasingba
Ibadan to deliberate on the restructuring agenda and the future of Nigeria.
The
summit was attended by Yoruba leaders, governors, parliamentarians, Yoruba
social cultural groups, professional bodies, market leaders, youth groups and
friends of the Yoruba nation
After exhaustive
deliberations by the largest gathering of Yoruba people from the six south-west
states.kwara and kogi states, the following communique was adopted.
Summit recalls with
nostalgia, the great strides made by the Yoruba nation in the years of
self-government up until the abrogation of the federal constitution in 1966
evident in mass literacy, novel infrastructural strides and giant leaps in all
spheres of human development.
Summit noted that the
crisis of over-centralization has led to mass misery in across the country with
poverty levels at 72%, unemployment rate at 65% internal immigration and
internal displacement, security threat in form of Boko Haram, herdsmen and
organized crime.
Summit convinced that
Nigeria is careering dangerously to the edge of the slope except urgent steps
are taken to restructure Nigeria from a unitary constitution to a federal
constitution as negotiated by our founding fathers at independence in 1960, it
was resolved as follows:
1. That Yoruba insists that Nigeria must return to a proper
federation as obtained in the 1960 and 1963 constitutions. This has been our
position since 1950 Ibadan conference and developments in Nigeria over the last
fifty years reinforce our conviction.
2. That Yoruba are clear that restructuring does not mean
different things to different people other than that a multi-ethnic country
like Nigeria can only know real peace and development if it is run ONLY along
federal lines.
3. That the greatest imperatives of restructuring Nigeria is to
move from a rent-seeking and money sharing anti-development economy to
productivity by ensuring that the federating units are free to own and develop
their resources. They should pay agreed sums to the federation purse to
implement central services.
4. That the federating units- whether states, zones or regions
must themselves be governed by written constitution to curb impurity at all
levels.
Nigeria shall be a federation
comprised of six regions and the federal capital Territory, Abuja.
5. The Federal Government shall make laws and only have powers in
relation to items specified on the legislative list contained in the
constitution of the Federation.
6. The Regions shall in turn be composed as states.
Each Region shall have its
own constitution containing enumerated exclusive and concurrent legislative
lists regarding matters upon which the regions and the states may act or
legislate.
7. Contiguous territories, ethnic nationalities or settlement
shall be at liberty through a plebiscite, to elect to be part of any contiguous
region other than the region in which the current geo-political zone or state
boundaries places them.
8. States as presently comprised in the geo-political zones into
which they fall, which shall become regions, shall continue to exercise the
executive, legislative and judicial functions currently exercised at that level
of government.
9. The States within a region shall determine the items on the
legislative lists in the Regional constitution for the purpose of good
government and the administration and provision of common inter-state social,
economic and infrastructural requirements. Residual powers shall be vested in
the states
10. The power to create states shall be within the exclusive powers
of the region which shall be obliged to create a state provided a plebiscite is
conducted, following a request by an agreed percentage of the residents of the
ethnic nationality within a state. The procedure for conducting a plebiscite
and the percentage of any ethnic nationality shall be out in the regional
constitution.
11. The power to create local governments and assign functions to
them shall be vested in the states.
12. States shall be entitled to manage all resources found within
their boundaries and the revenue accuring therefrom. The issue of the
entitlement of littoral states to offshore resources and the extension of such
rights from the continental shelf and rights accuring to the federal government
shall be determined by the national assembly.
13. The sharing ration of all revenues raised by means of taxation
shall be 50% to the states, 35% to the regional government and 15% to the
government of the federation.
14. For a period of 10years from the commencement of the operation of
the new constitution (or such other agreed period to be enshrined in the
federal constitution) there shall be a special fund for the development of all
minerals in the country.
i. The Government of the federation shall raise this sum by way
of additional taxation on resources at a rate to be agreed by the National
Assembly.
ii. The National Assembly shall set up a body to manage the funds
with equal representation of nominees from each of the Regional governments and
shall also set out and specify the guidelines for the administration of the
funds exclusively for this purpose.
iii. The president of the Federation shall
appoint a chairperson for the entity so formed.
15. That these agreed positions of the Yoruba taken today shall form
the basis of negotiations with our partners in the Nigerian project for a
United Nigeria based on Justice, peace and fair play.
Chief Afe Babalola (SAN)
Summit Chairman
Dr. Kunle Olajide
Chairman Planning Committee
13:03:00
