Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Friday Essay: Why the South-East Should Stop Agitating for an Additional State - and Insist on Geo-Political Federating Units - by Bolaji Aluko

Prof,

Recent views such as the position just published today that some Nigerian Generals may have been supplying guns to BH to kill their fellow human beings and perhaps their "sisters" and "brothers" should make us doubt even whether a geo-zonal Nigeria without such umbrella as state can even function.It is almost as if within some short distances, clouded by ethnicity(or even "dialecticity") people would hardly tolerate each other on objective grounds of citizenship.

Do you really think that there are enough mental resources(not material)-values,ideas,dispositions available to run Nigeria even on a Geo-zonal level without an inter-mediate state structure which somehow many times narrows problems for workable solutions?

May be you may have time to educate me/us better.

A view on how such Geo-zonalism can change this scenario at least administratively without state structures implied by state creation in the Nigerian context would be important to know.

Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi,Ph.D
Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy
Great Zimbabwe University
Zimbabwe/
UNIABUJA.




--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 5/5/14, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Friday Essay: Why the South-East Should Stop Agitating for an Additional State - and Insist on Geo-Political Federating Units - by Bolaji Aluko
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "NaijaPolitics e-Group" <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>, "naijaintellects" <naijaintellects@googlegroups.com>, "nigerianid@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>, "NiDAN" <nidan-group@googlegroups.com>, "Ra'ayi" <Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com>, "Yan Arewa" <YanArewa@yahoogroups.com>, "OmoOdua" <OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com>, "ekiti ekitigroups" <ekitipanupo@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Monday, May 5, 2014, 10:24 AM


Dr. Ugwuanyi:
I have not based my counter-argument merely on
land mass or population, but zeroing in on the issue of
equity/equality, argued that that narrow view is far less
attainable economically and politically than the broader
campaign for a geo-zonal political arrangement, and that
that arrangement is even more to the advantage of the SE
than any other zone.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko
On Monday, May 5, 2014, 'ugwuanyi Lawrence' via USA
Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
wrote:


I think applying  the theory of land mass as a basis for
state creation is politically unfair and unjust

What is a land?

The Nigeria Delta land that is the soul of modern Nigeria
would likely have a land mass that is less than one
twentieth of the entire country.Would you compare the
meaning and worth of this land to other lands that harbour
Nigerians who are the political consumers of  wealth of
Niger-Delta area?


I think land should amount more to people and wealth than
anything else.A state is for people and not for  land.

I think it may be important to examine the population theory
and look at whether the population of South East does not
justify the demand.But while doing this recall that the
South East are dispersed in several parts of Nigeria
where believably they might be "serving" a
population factor  there as well  even they often lose
in  political bargain living in these places.

In the Nigerian universities  you  will shocked by the
number of students that do not get admissions because of the
quota idea that recommends the state of origin as a
criteria.The south east often suffer most here.I think
people should look at viability theory of state creation and
how it lead to a more functional organ of administration of
governance and justice.


You probably need to pass through Lokoja or Awka or Asaba to
see the wonders of state creation in terms expanding the
social space for development even as most states often
harbour "demo-oligarchs" who attempt to affect the
larger political gain of state belonging.The state organ as
deficient as these may be still appears to be a viable organ
for running Nigeria even as it may be wiser to design or
imagine a
platform to coordinate these states at zonal level in
between the state and  the "octopal federal
structure" that generates and "federates"
Nigerian problem.

I hope I am wrong to think that the  the voting powers and
the gains of political bargaining at the upper legislative
levels may be the reason for  a deeper resentment for
additional state for South East.



Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi,Ph.D
GZU-Zimbabwe.




On Saturday, May 3, 2014 4:29 AM, Mobolaji
Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>
wrote:


 

_________________________________________________________________



Friday Essay:  Why the South-East
Should Stop Agitating for an Additional State - and Insist
on Geo-Political
Federating Units


by


Mobolaji  E. Aluko, PhD

alukome@gmail.com

May 2,
2014

_________________________________________________________________



My People:


Ignoring Abuja FCT, there are thirty-six (36)
states among the six (6) "informal" geo-political
zones in the
country, which means that on average each geo-zone has six
(6)  states.  However while the North-West geo-zone
actually has
seven (7) states in its embrace, the South-East zone has
only five  - while all the other four zones
have six states each.  This  "inequity" (a la
South-East)  is largely the basis for the agitation of one
more state for the South-East BY the South-Easterners.


It is NOT a valid agitation.  
First, the geo-zones are NOT constitutionally
recognized, and secondly
clearly the inequality/inequity will NOT be solved anyway by
the creation of an
additional state just in the South-East, unless
simultaneously two of the
states in the NW agree to merge, or failing that, two more
states are created
in the SE, while one more state each is created in all the
other states, while the NW the is left at status quo
ante.    Besides, quite frankly,
neither the landmass or the population of the SE or the
homogeneity of the Igbo people of the South-Eastern geo-zone
recommends this additional state -- just look at the map
of Nigeria, and the incredibly short distances between the
capital cities of
the South-Eastern states.


What is fair is fair.


Now, objectively, the creation of more states
does not mean
a bigger national economic pie.  Rather given
a set pot of pie size X (say trillion naira), previously
divided among 36
states will now be divided among 37 states.  For the
7-state geo-zone of NW, this
means  7*(1/36 - 1/37)/(1/36)*100 or 7*2.7%
or 18.9% reduction  in economic pie,  for the new 6-state
geo-zone of SE, a (6/37-5/36)/(5/36)*100
or 16.8% increase in the pie, and for each of the other four
6-geozones, it
would be a 6*2.7% or 16.3% reduction.


This is therefore a deal in which ONLY the
South-East gains
economically, despite equality of states with four other
zones. 


It is a bad deal for all but one.


Now suppose we divide the X pie on the basis of
EQUALITY of
zones, so that each got X/6. Then,  the
7-zone NW would get  X/6 instead of 7X/36
- or 14.3% reduction - at least less than 18.9%. the
South-East will make a 20%
increase if it remains at 5 states - which would be MORE
than 16.8%.  On the other hand,  each of the six-state
zones would have zero
change - yes zero. 


It is therefore not a bad deal for all but
one.


But before I leave.....


For existential reasons, all the Southern States
support the
new geo-political federating-unit arrangement - except
unwisely, t the
South-East would settle for one additional state in that
stead.  The NC 
would be able shake loose of the Northern hegemony - in some
sense.  Four out of six is mathematically better than
one of out six - and that is what will benefit
Nigeria.


More reason why we should all go for the
geo-political
arrangement...


And there you have it.

 



Bolaji Aluko


_________________________________________________________________
<



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