Ohaneze Ndigbo unveils restructuring plan that involves paying geo-political zones 35% of revenue

OHANEZE Ndigbo president Chief John Nwodo has revealed that Igbo leaders have reached a consensus on how to go about restructuring saying that there is now a uniform agreement involving paying geo-political zones 35% of all revenue accrued.

Since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 2015, there have been growing calls for the restructuring of Nigeria in response to his perceived marginalisation of other ethnic groups. Igbos in particular feel highly marginalised by the Buhari administration and across the southeast, there have been calls for Ndigbo to secede from the country and recreate the defunct Republic of Biafra.

Such calls for secession have been rejected by Igbo elders and wise old heads in Ohaneze Ndigbo, who have suggested that restructuring the country in line with what was agreed at independence should be the way forward. Speaking in Enugu yesterday, Chief Nwodo revealed the pattern of restructuring the people of the southeast have agreed upon.

He added: “I don’t think you have read the Ohanaeze model on restructuring, it was agreed to by all. The case of Ebonyi State was tabled before an expanded executive council which included their traditional rulers and leaders of thought, local government chairmen and they all signed it.

“Ebonyi and Enugu were the two states who were saying if we restructure Nigeria on the basis of regional government, we will be losing our new found freedom and independence but Ohanaeze is saying let us write a constitution amongst the Igbo as to the kind of region we want, a high measure of autonomy. Under the western model, the states have sovereignty over their natural resources, they take 50% of all they get from their natural resources and they give the region 35% and give the federal government 15%.

According to Chief Nwodo, nobody within the southeast will oppose these proposals as they cater for everybody. At independence, Nigeria had an arrangement whereby regions controlled their resources, paid 20% to the federation account and then paid 30% into a common fund with other regions had access to.