A delegate representing the North West at the ongoing National Conference, Alhaji Magaji Dambatta was froced to apologize to members of the Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms of Government for referring to a region of Nigeria as “so called South East”.
His remarks raised tempers in the committee and there were shouts of point of order.
Another Northern delegate representing Borno State, Dr. Haruna called on Dambatta to apologize, saying that if the late Sarduana of Sokoto were alive, even he would not use such language against other Nigerians. However Dambatta stood his ground and refused to apologize.
This caused a delegate representing Elder Statesmen, Gen. Ike Nwachuckwu to call the attention of the Chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi to the remarks made by Dambatta.
Nwachukwu rminded his fellow delegates of his personal sacrifices during the civil war and called on Dambatta to apologize for his derogatory remarks.
Dambatta then responded,
“The comment where I said the ‘so called South East’ it is the same way I will refer to North West zone. In the context of my argument, I was talking about the creation of states and that no where in our constitution were geo-political zones mentioned.
“Also, there is nowhere in the recommendation of the Committee where zones are referred to as a tier of government, they are not recognized by the constitution therefore they are not constitutionally valid, that was my point.” “Secondly, when I was making my argument, it was not against the creation of additional state in the Southeast, I was referring to selectivity of the Committee. In one breadth, they said one State should be created by a fiat. And in another they said others should be on merit.
“All I am saying is that all states to be created should be on merit, including the one being recommended.
“To Dr Haruna, who regretted that I made that statement, I want to state that I am a nationalist, I was in the vanguard of nationalism since 1951. I am sure there is no one in this hall, except perhaps Richard Akinjide that was a nationalist then, not even Edwin Clark.
“I was in the field for the fight for our independence. I am not a parochial person, I am a nationalist, I respect every person in Nigeria. I stand by word that all the provisions in the constitution there was no reference to the zones as a tier of government, it is not valid, that was my point.”
His remarks were met with more shouts of disapproval which caused Kutigi to ask him to formally withdraw his statement and apologize.
Dambatta then responded, “Because of my disposition and my standing in this country and the service I rendered for the development of this country, I did not mean any offense with my remarks. “If anybody is offended I did not mean it and I apologise to them or him. I did not mean to offend anyone. In that regards, I apologise to those who feel offended.”
Leave a Reply