Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro), on Sunday, called on the federal government to rename the nation’s six geo-political zones to suit historical memory.
The group opined that the renaming of the geo-political zones will help in addressing some of the fundamental issues being used by non-state actors to mobilise public support in their quest for regional solidarity.
In a statement by its executive director, Mr Abdulrazaq Hamzat, the group said the description of Nigeria’s geo-political zones simply as North-West, South-West, North-East, South-East, North-Central and South-South, “is of no political significance, hence the need to adopt a more political conscious approach to closing the gap of regional agitation.”
It, therefore, urged the federal government to properly name the six zones to reflect the desire and aspiration of the people.
“People in various zones of Nigeria identify themselves by certain names and descriptions and running away from such political identity will naturally make them feel entitled to those identities.
“This is why none state actors simply invoke those identities, to which people have affinity and connections, to mobilize them in their quest for relevance,” PeacePro added.
The group recommended that the South-West region should be named Oduduwa region, North-West named Arewa Region, South-East named Biafra Region, North-East named Kanem Borno region, South-South named Niger Delta region and North-Central named Middle Belt region.
“The naming of these regions has political implication, because none state actors often use these names as rallying point to create division amongst the people in their quest to mobilize support for their activities and officially adopting these names automatically strip them of existing and historical concept to mobilize unsuspecting members of the public for their divisive activities,” he added.
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