A former naval officer retired Cdr. Matthew Monde-Umo has advocated for the location of the three arms of government in separate regions in Nigeria to douse tensions of secession agitations in the country.
Monde-Umo made the call in Lagos with five publications he authored on how to move the nation forward.
According to him, locating the three arms of government in the three geographical parts of the country will help to foster national unity.
He urged Nigeria to emulate South Africa which distributed the capitals of each arm of the national government to different regions.
Monde-Umo said that South Africa was wise in making Pretoria the capital of the Executive arm; Cape Town, the legislative capital where parliament is located, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital and home to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
“Why would South Africa leave their Executive Seat of Government in Pretoria, keep the Legislature at Cape Town and then take the judicial seat to Bloemfontein? It is for peace, unity, growth, and development.
“They are more comfortable with this arrangement than they were before,” he said.
The ex-naval commander said that this change would enable the three new locations to start growing like Lagos, which, he said, remained the only state that could survive without crude oil in Nigeria.
Monde-Umo said: “When we have an arrangement where three places are growing along with Lagos, the probability is that a man from Sokoto, Kebbi, the Borno States, who the Chief Justice of Nigeria will settle in Igbo land.
“Yoruba man who wants to be the Speaker or Senate President would settle at the Ijaw area. The implications are that the tensions we now have will not be there.
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“The Igbo man who wants Biafra State will then discover that as other tribes are land owners in Lagos, they can also be landowners in Igbo land and in Ijaw areas.
“All of these are unifying factors for people to live together and find solutions to the problems confronting the nation. The people who are agitating for the state will discover that they have something to hold unto.”
The ex-military officer called for the cancellation of Northern and Southern Governors’ Forums and other groups reminding Nigeria of ethnic background and inclination.
Monde-Umo’s publications are: “Unchain Nigeria for Sustainable Growth”, “A Handbook of SAYEDO Memorandum”, “A Reconciliation of Nigerians to Nigeria at the Polls”, “Nigeria: Transiting a Tailspin Curve of 2020” and “Due Process in a Guided Democracy of 2023”. (NAN)
