Why Nigeria Remains Indivisible Despite Agitations– Ex-Ondo PDP Guber Candidate

There is a growing call by separatists spearheading various groups agitating for the disintegration of Nigeria, after recording mixed feelings of a century amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorate in the Year 1914, under the auspices of Lord Frederick Lugard.

To this effect, several groups, including the Indigenous People Of Biafra IPOB, led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State Of Biafra, MASSOB, led by Chief Raph Uwazurike, The Oodua Nation Now, Movement for the Actualization of Niger Delta Republic, etc. have emerged to pursue their separate ways.

Nonetheless, a former governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede, SAN, has described the self-determination agitations across the country as a mirage.

According to Jegede, SAN, unless a section of the 1999 Constitution was amended such agitation could not achieve its desired result.

Punch reports that Jegede spoke during the fifth Oodua Youth Coalition’s Annual Public Lecture and contained in a statement by the president of the group, Oluyi Tayo, on Tuesday.

The statement partly read, “While self-determination is a legitimate aspiration and it is in itself a recognized by law and international conventions, we must understand that self-determination has its first antagonist in Section 2(1) of the Nigerian Constitution. That section reads: ‘Nigeria is one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign state to be known by the name Federal Republic of Nigeria.’

Meanwhile, it could be recalled that it has been the lopsidedness in the country’s structure and the hardship the various nations pushing for secession have undergone since 1960 that have perpetually kept the agitation alive.