NADECO also said beyond the recognition of June 12 as a Democracy Day, the Federal Government should name a national monument after the late Chief Moshood Abiola, who was the winner of the 1993 presidential election.
Members of NADECO stated this in Lagos during a press briefing to mark the 25th anniversary of the June 12 1993 victory of Abiola.
Secretary of NADECO, Chief Ayo Opadokun, who was in company with Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (retd.), Chief Amos Akingba and Dr Fred Agbeyegbe, said genuine development could only be pursued if the concurrent list of the 1960 Independence Constitution was restored back to the states.
Opadokun said Nigeria should stop living a lie by calling itself a federation when it is being governed centrally under “unitarism.”
He said, “The legitimate campaign of many nationalities who as a result of the current unitary/centralised government (pretending to be federal government) had been marginalised, ignored, discriminated against in the distribution and allocation of national wealth cannot be further ignored justifiably.
“Any further delay would amount to invitation to self-destruction. Imagine how dangerously difficult the Boko Haram, herdsmen and kidnappers onslaught had been.
“NADECO believes that by restoring the concurrent list of the 1960 Independence Constitution back to the states, along with the concomitant resources to execute those responsibilities, genuine development can be better pursued throughout Nigeria.
“That the 1960 independence constitution upon which Nigeria secured its independence based on several negotiations be the working paper for consideration, discussion and resolution of a representative assembly mainly of the ethnic nationalities which were the building blocks upon which Nigeria was constructed.
“Every Nigerian is from one ethnic nationality or the other. Nigeria was not created by Nigerians and we should stop the pretence of wanting to make Nigerians out of most people without being afforded the freedom of choice since we were forced into co-habitation by Great Britain for their socio-political interest.”
The group advised President Muhammadu Buhari to leave a lasting legacy by taking an immediate and bold decision to invite credible ethnic leaders, elected through their cultural modalities, to come up with a position.
On the naming of a national monument after Abiola, the NADECO chieftain said, “The Nigerian state should formally inaugurate posthumous Bashorun MKO Abiola as the President of Nigeria and that a national monument of consequence be named after President Abiola.
“We reject any attempt to falsely present him as a regional hero or icon by naming the University of Lagos after him or even presenting his matter as if it is mainly of a regional interest.”
