BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
Former governor of Imo State and senator representing Imo West, Rochas Okorocha, has charged the National Assembly to remove clauses harbouring divisive messages from the Constitution to foster national unity in the country.
Okorocha gave the charge during the question and answer session of the one day 2nd quarterly public lecture series organised by the APC Press Corps on Thursday in Abuja.
The former governor while fielding questions arising from the lecture titled Sustaining a United Indivisible Nigeria: a Myth or Reality delivered by the governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje, said the agitators are asking for equity, fairness and equal rights not dividing the country.
“National Assembly must remove those clauses in our Constitution like state of origin, religion, tribe, quota system, etc if we want to unite Nigerians. What are they doing other than encourage division among us?”
He noted that all the agitations are because the people are hungry; feel they are neglected and rejected by government and no justice in the land.
Okorocha emphasized that quota system is an enemy to unity adding that the people should be given a level playing ground, fairness and justice they are asking for so that peace and unity will return to the country.
“It is very clear that the people are asking for level playing ground, no more no less and when they see these things happen, they will drop every form of agitation.”
The lawmaker further noted that Nigerian citizens love one another, maintaining that they believe in one indivisible Nigeria and called the ruling class to work for the unity of the country.
Tracing the root of Nigeria’s problems, the former governor said the British business men who forcefully amalgamated the people to form Nigeria for their selfishness caused every problem bedeviling the country now.
He said Lord Lugard and his colleagues knew that the people had different beliefs, ways of life, tradition, religion and culture and different behavioural pattern before bringing them together as one country.
According to him, “these British merchants were interested in the returns they had to make back home and not the oneness or unity of the people, hence they forced them to come together as one and even gave us a name “Nigeria” meaning Niger area. From that time of amalgamation, trouble ensued.
“We should ask ourselves, why the colonial masters lumped us together. Was it act of love? The answer is no. It was mainly for a business arrangement which is what is happening till today. So, they were here strictly on business and because they were not making profits from the north they had to amalgamate the north and south to maximize profits.”
Okorocha argued that the colonial masters knew that the people were different that was why they gave us the national anthem which said though our tribal tongue may differ, on brotherhood we stand. He called on the leadership of the country to work towards encouraging unity and progress of the country.
In another development, Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Abuja Council, Emmanuel Ogbeche accused the ruling class of working for the division of the country because their children have dual citizenship.
He said they will instigate problems and ferry their families out of the country while the down trodden that have no place other than Nigeria will remain here and bear the brunt of the matter.
