Abuja—Chairman of the Southern Senators Forum, Senator Hope Uzodimma, Imo West, has called for the abolition of the state of origin provision from the nation’s statue books. He equally suggested that a referendum on restructuring may be the best way to handle the growing calls by Nigerians for restructuring.

Speaking as a guest speaker at the NUJ, Abuja Chapter’s press week,  Uzodimma who is also the Senate committee chairman on Customs, Excise and Tariffs, said the abolition of the state of origin provisions would help foster national integration

Speaking on journalism and the nationalism question, Uzodimma, who was also conferred with the NUJ award of the best senator of the year (2017), called on the press to champion the need to abolish state of origin clause in the constitution and settle for its replacement with state of residency.

He said this would ensure that “Nigerians will have the same rights anywhere they live in the country, irrespective of their state of origin.”

On the need for a referendum on the restructuring debate, the Senator said since the issue had become dominant in national discourse with opinions divided, it might be appropriate to subject it to a referendum for the people to decide “one of the democratic ways of settling contentions issues is through a referendum. This will afford leaders the opportunity to canvass the pros and cons of restructuring before the public and allow them to vote on the issues.”

Speaking specifically on restructuring, he admitted that there were clear signals that the present federal structure might not be working, noting “let’s face it, is our present structure really working? I have my doubts.”

If it were my state Imo could not have held back council polls for seven years without consequences, even when section 7 of the 1999 as amended guaranteed that local government must be democratically selected.