Case for the creation of states on linguistic bases – Tribune Online

Chapter Four of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s press release of 18th August, 1975.

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

This is the list of the 51 linguistic groups about which I have written in some of my books and statements, NOT of tribal or dialect groups. I am sure it will interest many people, including myself, to have a list of the 200 ethnic or linguistic groups about which we have, again and again, been told, and the parts of the country in which they live.

It is clear, therefore, that under the linguistic principle, the number of States in the country cannot in the long run exceed 51. Having regard to the size and wealth of the country, this should not, by any manner of means, be a worrying prospect. In the meantime, however, I have advocated eighteen States, simply because, from my knowledge of the minorities, I had thought that most of them would not be viable. And viability, in my considered view, is a matter of administrative relativity. Consequently, I have grouped together minorities which are geographically contiguous, and which, I believe, being together, would be administratively viable, and free from the fear of majority ethnic domination.

Those who advocate the creation of States only on the ‘principles’ of GEOGRAPHICAL CONTIGUITY, ECONOMIC VIABILITY and the like, are risking uncontrollable proliferation of States in the country. In the long run, we might find ourselves having to cope with well over 200 States. Perhaps this large number wouldn’t matter now since States are, in any case, fast becoming Provincial Units or inflated Local Councils.

When all these have been said, however, the STARK REALITY remains that on this issue of new States, many Nigerians just cannot be bothered about scientific principles. ‘Politics’ they contend, and quite rightly, ‘is the art of the possible’. So that whilst political ideals must remain the goal of action for those who believe in them, the reality of every situation and epoch must, in practical terms, be given due recognition when absolutely necessary.

The naked truth about the position in Nigeria now is that, because of a number of factors mainly subjective and emotional, partly environmental and historical, and to not a little extent personal, many leaders in Nigeria are implacably bent on having the territories of their birth carved out as separate States.

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From purely pragmatic and realistic points of view, therefore, and because I believe that disillusionment awaits the protagonists in the not-distant future, I THINK THAT EVERY GROUP WHICH ASKS FOR A STATE SHOULD BE GIVEN. SO FAR AS CAN BE JUDGED FROM THE MEMORANDA WHICH HAVE REACHED MY HANDS, MANY OF WHICH HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED, NO ONE HAS UNREASONABLY ASKED.

To give to some and deny to others on grounds which are not dictated by objective and generally accepted principles; to approve the creation of Kanuri State and deny that of Kwararafa; to approve Yoruba Eastern and deny Wawa; to approve Bauchi State and deny Calabar-Ogoja-Ikom State; to do any of these and, withal, to refuse to merge the Ijaws of the Midwest with those of the Rivers as well as leave the Gwaris and Kamberis scattered in four States and two States respectively, would be to give gratuitous and unmerited joy to some and cause avoidable grief to others who are equally deserving. In any case, it must be borne in mind that the creation of new States now will only serve as an invitation and encouragement to others to demand their own separate States in the very near future.

In closing my observations on this topic, I would like to make two brief points.

Firstly, I would like to invite the close attention of the Irikefe Committee and the Supreme Military Council to the memorandum of the Itsekiri Community, published in the Daily Times, asking for Itsekiriland to be made an Autonomous Province within the Midwest State. Short of a full-fledged State for every minority group, and short of grouping such minorities together into separate States of their own, the Itsekiri formula is, in my view, the answer to the fears of linguistic minorities throughout the country. All those concerned should carefully study this formula as well as the Constitutions of the USSR and Yugoslavia with special reference to the provisions for minorities.

Secondly, the present Federal Military Government should not allow itself to be bogged down by any controversy or problems arising from the immediate creation of States, to the extent that such controversy or problems would be used as a pretext for delaying the return to civilian rule. To do this would not be in the national interest and would surely and totally destroy the raison d’être of the last coup as our people see it.

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK