The well read and opinionated professor who spoke on Wednesday at the ongoing National Conference, said Nigeria should change its name to The United States of Songhai(USS).
Oyebode, a representative of Ekiti State at the conference, said this would follow the pattern set by Kwame Nkruma when he changed the name of his country from Gold Coast to Ghana.
He said that it was obvious that Nigeria, as the name of the country, has outlived its usefulness.
He said: “I propose that we change the name of Nigeria to United States of Songhai just like Nkruma changed Gold Coast to Ghana.”
He said that the country is operating caricature federation.
Oyebode noted that the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, aptly said the country is running 'feeding bottle' federalism.
He drew the attention of his fellow delegates to the fact that the conference is running without legal backing, saying: “We have embarked on a voyage without a compass.”
The conference, he added, should consider the issue of fiscal federalism, true federalism, resource control or self determination.
I'm not surprised though that this suggestion is coming from Professor Oyebode, who taught me jurisprudence in my final year in Unilag. Many law students who passed through the brilliant professor will understand more what I mean...hehehe.
I'm a little disappointed however that the learned professor didn't elaborate on why 'The United States of Songhai' will be more appropriate than Nigeria. For those who are not familiar with the word 'Songhai', it means a member of a people of West Africa living mainly in Niger and Mali.
No comments:
Post a Comment