Nigeria’s deputy senate president, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has called for the collapse of the 36 states of the federation into six geopolitical zones.
According to the legislator, the move is a drastic restructuring of the country to avoid continually hindering of development.
The abolition of the 36 states, he said, would release the latent potentials for growth by the regions, which he said, were, over the years, foiled by the reckless derailment of the country’s federalism by successive military governments.
Ekweremadu’s positions were offered in his new book, Who will love my country: Ideas of building the Nigeria of our dreams, which is due for public presentation tomorrow, April 27 in Abuja.
The Deputy President of the Senate praised the nation’s founding fathers, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamadi Azikiwe and Sir Ahmadu Bello, for espousing federalism as the basis of the country’s federation at independence.
He said that suggestions that fiscal federalism would bring about distortive growth were untenable, affirming that even in a forest, not all trees are equal.