Posted by By FEMI BABAFEMI on
Foremost nationalist, Chief Anthony Enahoro has described current agitation for power shift among the nation's geo-political zones as a time bomb that is capable of tearing the country apart if urgent steps are not taken to address it.
Foremost nationalist, Chief Anthony Enahoro has described current agitation for power shift among the nation's geo-political zones as a time bomb that is capable of tearing the country apart if urgent steps are not taken to address it.
According to the elder statesman, the clamour for the control of power in 2007 by each of the geo-political zones is an indication that too much power is concentrated at the centre which has made it attractive to the extent that every part of the country is becoming increasingly agitated in their quest to produce President Olusegun Obasanjo's successor.
Pa Enahoro, who was the chairman of the just concluded ethnic nationalities conference (PRONACO) said the struggle by the north to regain the presidency and the campaign to keep power in the south beyond 2007, have put the country in a precarious situation.
The situation, according to him, is made worse because the nation's elite and indeed the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have foisted a serious problem on the country by going into an alleged pact to return power to the north at the expiration of President Obasanjo's tenure.
"Though people said that there was an agreement in PDP when Obasanjo was coming to power that power should go back to the north after his tenure, that agreement could not be binding on others who are not in PDP," Pa Enahoro stated.
He, however, explained that the crisis over power shift is a complex one because; "the ruling class and the party have already created the time bomb such that it is also difficult to say that power should not go back to the north."
To him, the clamour for the return of power to the north in 2007 "is a fait accompli for Nigeria because the ruling class has foisted that problem on the nation." He, however, said "at the same time those who are not part of that arrangement can resist it because it can't be binding on them."
Enahoro who first moved the motion for the nation's independence in 1957 noted that "the clamour has become so heated because of the concentration of too much power at the centre and as such, every geo-political zone wants to have power."
He said that the only way to douse the fire threatening the unity of the country is to amend the nation's constitution in a way that will allow for the devolution of power from the centre.
According to him, the only way out of the imbroglio is for "power to devolve to states and regions and as such, there will be less agitation just like what obtained in the past when power was basically at the regions and the centre became less attractive."