Igbo in Diaspora insist on restructuring, fiscal federalism

An Igbo group in Diaspora, the Igbo World Assembly (IWA), has urged the Federal Government to consider the demand to restructure Nigeria to ensure true federalism or return the country to the 1963 Constitution based on regions or zones respectively.

The group also condemned the Federal Government’s shoot-on-sight order against South-East youths, noting that it was an act of ethnic cleaning and commitment of genocide.

In a keynote address delivered by its Chairman, Dr. Nwachukwu Anakwenze, at Nigeria’s 2023 Presidential Transition Inter-ethnic Peace Dialogue, yesterday, the group said true fiscal federalism would address issues affecting the country.

Anakwenze said that restructuring should be a means of tackling the worsening security situation and the agitation for secession.

“We need a Nigerian political structure that is based on equity, fair-play and balance and equal access to political power for the good of all.

“IWA feels that what Nigeria needs in the long-run is true fiscal federalism, which is a system of government based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and regional/state governments. The individual federating units need to have more control over their own affairs.

“The regional governments should control their resources and pay a percentage royalty tax to the Federal Government. The Federal Government should control issues in the single Exclusive List, such as military or foreign policy. We should return to agricultural businesses, as was practised in the sixties by past leaders,” he said.

The group, which insisted on the need to restructure Nigeria to ensure true federalism as it was in the 1963 Constitution based on regions or zones, said: “We need a Nigerian political structure that is based on equity, fair-play, balance and equal access to political power for the good of all Nigerians.”

On the demand for South-East to produce the president in 2023, IWA said all should make concerted efforts to achieve the request by conceding presidential ticket to candidate from the region.

The group, which said it would no longer tolerate the attack by armed herdsmen in South-East, also endorsed resolutions of the 17 southern governors, especially the banning of open cattle grazing and call for national dialogue.