Following approval by the Federal Government on the Sovereign National Conference(SNC), a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Dejo Raimi has warned that the corporate existence of the country should not be tempered with.

Speaking with CEOAFRICA reporter in Ibadan on Sunday, the 88-year-old politician noted that though, there was no guideline yet set for the proposed national dialogue announced by the President, Goodluck Jonathan during his national broadcast on the last independence day anniversary, he said that on no account should the corporate existence affected.

Raimi, a former Secretary to the Oyo State Government (SSG) said as he welcomed the national dialogue that had been canvassed for by some people for some years now, he would not support any view that support breaking-up of the country for whatever reason. He said, the government had not given any area that should not be touched, but, he expressed the view that “the indivisible of the country has constituted itself to a no-go-area because of the numerous advantages embedded in our being one indivisible entity.

“Aside the advantages of our God-given resources, our diversity, including our 250 languages out of which God makes three prominent, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo is also another plus for us to remain one,” he noted. He charged that everybody at the onset should bear it in mind that the conference would and should not be a place where some individuals would go and canvass rascally for dismember of the country.

Rather, he said the concern of every Nigerian at this time should be how to make the country a true federal one, stressing that, “for a long period of time, we have been operating a unitary system of government, yet, we call ourselves a federal country. “This is the time to correct the anomaly by ensuring that we truly operate a federal system as it is known all over the world.

The federating units should be strengthened while some of the items on concurrent list such as education and health should be removed and left in the hands of the states and local governments”. The elder statesman, who is the immediate past Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) also identified

revenue allocation formula as another area that should be looked into towards

addressing the perceived imbalance in the formula.

He was of the view that the current formula did not take into account some necessary factors, hence its unsatisfactory status before a lot of people and the persistent agitation for review by the federating units of the country. 

“The revenue allocation formula should be looked into, I don't think good

consideration has been given to population and land-mass, otherwise, almost all the states will not be crying that their allocation is too small,” he said.