Asari Dokubo has called for a referendum to determine Nigeria’s continued existence as one country, arguing that the country’s political and revenue-sharing arrangements favour the northern region at the expense of the South.
Dokubo, in a statement titled “No Referendum, No Election,” urged Nigerians to examine what he described as structural inequalities in the distribution of political representation, oil revenue and local government allocations.
He argued that the North enjoys an advantage in the House of Representatives because of its higher number of seats, making it difficult for southern lawmakers to overturn decisions through voting.
Citing figures in his statement, Dokubo said the North has 191 members in the 360-member House of Representatives, while the South has 169.
He broke down the northern representation into 92 members from the North-West, 48 from the North-East and 49 from the North-Central, including the Federal Capital Territory in his overall calculation.
According to him, the South-West has 71 representatives, the South-East 43 and the South-South 55.
He said, “The question is, how dare you upstage these people in a vote? Even if South-East, South-South and South-West joined together, they cannot upstage the North.”
On revenue allocation, Dokubo alleged that the northern states receive a disproportionate share of the country’s oil revenue despite having no direct contribution to crude oil production.
He claimed that the North-Central receives 20 per cent, the North-East 16 per cent and the North-West 21 per cent of oil revenue, while attributing 3.97 per cent of contributions to the South-West, 25.07 per cent to the South-East and 70.64 per cent to the South-South.
Dokubo further questioned the distribution of resources among Nigeria’s 774 local government areas, noting that the 19 northern states have 419 councils, compared with 357 in the 17 southern states.
Referring to data he attributed to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and published by the Federal Ministry of Finance in April 2013, he alleged that the distribution of revenue did not reflect the contributions of the different regions.
He argued that the imbalance was responsible for the South’s developmental challenges and accused northern political interests of resisting restructuring because of the benefits they derive from the existing arrangement.
“Those hoping for a hopeless hope for restructuring should wake up. The North will never allow restructuring because they know that they can’t survive on a level playing ground,” he said.
Describing Nigeria’s continued existence as one country as unjust, Dokubo declared that the country needed a referendum to determine the future of its constituent nationalities.
“One Nigeria is the biggest fraud ever and must end,” he said.
“What the people of Nigeria need is a referendum to end this evil contraption called Nigeria and an emergence of the stifled nations within.”
He urged Nigerians to speak out against what he described as systemic oppression, calling on citizens to share his message to raise awareness.