The Minority Interest Rights Advocates in Nigeria (MIRAN) has welcomed the reported position of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and other well meaning Nigerians on the need to renegotiate the status of all nationalities in the union called Nigeria.
Iyah Iyah, the leader of MIRAN, a civil society coalition in response to the reported position suggested that restructuring will no doubt unlock forever the latent potentials of the nation’s ethnic minorities, an immeasurable asset caged by decades of hegemonic rule in Nigeria.
He however cautioned that the assimilation of smaller ethnic groups within the previous regional construct as being suggested in some quarters will likely be resisted as there no longer exists a monolithic region as it were in the first republic.
He affirmed that every ethnic nationality in Nigeria from the north to the south must be given the opportunity to decide on the union. Iyah further stressed that with the current impasse created by Boko Haram, the Fulani herdsmen, terrorism across Nigeria and the recent Niger Delta Avengers atrocities in the south, Nigeria urgently requires a re-modification of its political and economic order in all the 36 states of the federation to make it more impacting on the lives of her diverse citizenry.
“The union should first and foremost provide a level playing ground for all. This will breed a feeling of belonging to all components parts of the nation’s polity”, he said.
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