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South-South governors call for true federalism

    ABIDJAN

    Governors of six South-South states said on Saturday they could only commit themselves to a united Nigeria if true federalism was practiced and where fairness, justice and equality existed, `The Guardian' reported.

    In a final communique issued at the end of their meeting the governors said many of Nigeria's problems were due to "the departure from the practice of true federalism".

    Citing their state of underdevelopment, and because of the application of Sharia in the north, governors in the oil-rich south have been clamouring for a confederal rather than the current federal make up of Nigeria.

    However, President Olusegun Obasanjo, who commanded a federal army division in the southeast to keep Nigeria one during the secessionist civil war in the 1960s, has dismissed calls for a confederation.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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