‘True Federalism, Panacea To Ethnic Agitations’

True federalsim has been identified as the panacea to ethnic agitations in the country.
A legal practitioner, Barrister Innocent Ekwu, stated this in a paper entitled “Curbing Restiveness in Nigeria by Building Capacity for Peace and National Growth” delivered at the swearing in of the new country President of the UN-POLAC in Port Harcourt.
Ekwu said that the country would continue to be at war with itself until the various oppressive legal laws were dismantled in favour of equitable distribution of resources.
According to him, “Nigeria is an example of a nation in tug of war with its constituents and citizens.
“Unless and until these restiveness are resolved fairly and mutually by peaceful dialogue to dismantle all oppressive legal regimes such as the current revenue allocation formally for resource ownership.”
He identified the absences of basic social amenities in Nigeria as one of the reasons for citizens’ frustrations, poverty, anger, lack of patriotism and loss of faith in the state and its leaders.
He condemned the current revenue allocation formula in the country, stressing that a situation where a region that contributes nothing  the national coffers takes more revenue than the rest is `enough to stir up anger.
Breaking down the distribution of revenues among the component parts of Nigeria, Ekwu said that “the 357 local government areas of the 17 Southern states received 45.1 per cent of their 100 per cent contribution and the 419 local government areas of the 19 Northern states received 54 per cent of what they contribute: 0.00 percent.
“Where is justice equity and fairness in this kind of fiscal structure of oppression and economic slaver as a system ” he queried.
He said that for the federal government to build the capacity for peace for national growth and development, the faulty economic and fiscal structures and laws must be dismantled.