Why confab proposed 18 more states —Prof Mimiko

ore lights were on Tuesday shed on the motive behind the creation of additional 18 states by the just concluded national conference as one of the delegates to the conference, Professor Femi Mimiko, disclosed that some of the states were created to protect the minority in the country.Mimiko, who is also the Vice Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, also said southern delegates to the conference supported the creation of the states, particularly in the northern part, to get the support of northern delegates on some of the demands presented by the south.Speaking at a reception orgnised bythe university to welcome him back to the campus after four months at the confab, Mimiko explained that the agitation by the minority ethnic groups in many of the states led to the creation of the states.The Ondo State delegate, however,said the 18 states that were sharedequally among the six geo-political zones in the country were proposedto further halt the alleged marginalisation of some groups in the country.Mimiko, who served as the Chairmanof Report Drafting Group of the Electoral Matters and Political Committee, also stated that some of the agitators used their demandsfor new states as bargaining tool toenable them support the proposals of other sections of the country.He, however, said the conference was a veritable avenue for the country to correct the anomalies associated with the existence of the country as a sovereign nation.According to him, the entire delegates to the conference worked assiduously to achieve the goal of ensuring that the country come out more united and stronger after the confab.He also said the pattern of deliberations and the line of arguments of the delegates showed that President Goodluck Jonathan did not have any predetermined agenda for setting up the conference.Mimiko said there was no time the President tele-guided the deliberations of the conference, saying this accounted for the smooth running of the affairs of theconference.

He, however, regretted that the Yoruba delegation for which he served as the Chairman of Researchand Strategy Team, was unable to push through the demand for regionalism.