Opinion: Abused Decree No. 34 and the Demand for Restructuring, By Eric Teniola
Sunday May 24 was the 54th anniversary of the Promulgation of Decree number 34 by Major General Johnson Thomas Umanakwe Aguiyi Ironsi . Few people remembered this. It was the decree that transferred all the autonomous power of the four regions then to the centre. These were the Northern Region, Eastern Region, Western Region and Mid-Western Region. Decree 34 came into force on May 24, 1966.
To further cement the mighty powers in the centre, the military, in 1978 and 1999, established those powers in the exclusive legislative list in the Constitution. Today, no doubt, those powers have been abused, hence the urgent demand for restructuring. If not for the obloquy or rather the scurrility of the mighty power in the centre under the guise of this is our-turn syndrome, there would not have been a demand for restructuring.
When General Ironsi promulgated the decree he also banned the eighty-two political parties that existed before the coup of January 16, 1966.
On May 26, 1967, the Military Governor of the then Eastern Region, Lt-Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu addressed the joint meeting of the advisory committee of Chiefs and Elders and the consultative assembly of the Eastern Region in Enugu. He declared on that day “the ill-fated Decree No. 34 was promulgated after it had been discussed and approved by General Aguiyi-Ironsi’s Supreme Military Council which composed as follows: Lt-Col Hassan, Lt-Col Gowon, Lt-Col C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, Lt-Col G.T.
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