Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide has strongly criticized a proposed Senate bill aimed at permanently designating the Ooni of Ife and the Sultan of Sokoto as the exclusive Co-Chairmen of the Traditional Rulers Council, saying the move marginalizes other traditional rulers across Nigeria’s diverse ethnic and geopolitical landscape.
In a statement released on Sunday in Enugu, the group’s National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Ezechi Chukwu, expressed concern over what it called a disregard for fairness and constitutional principles.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the controversial bill has already passed second reading in the Senate.
Chukwu described the bill as deeply flawed and divisive.
“The Senate in this vein has failed in its capacity as the highest legislative carrier and custodian of the nation’s democratic mandate.
This bill is not only inequitable, discriminatory and ethnocentric, it is equally distasteful, reprehensible and objectionable.”
“It lacks all the ethical considerations, objective metrics and unbiased categories for national unity and social justice in a pluralist nation-State like Nigeria,” he said.
Ohanaeze called on the Senate to urgently withdraw the bill and undertake a review that accounts for ethnic diversity, cultural sensitivity, geopolitical balance, and inclusive governance.
“It is only by so doing shall the bill foster national unity, peaceful co-existence and social stability,” Chukwu added.
He emphasized that elevating only two traditional rulers above others would undermine the spirit of federal character enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution and erode the respect accorded to monarchs from other ethnic nationalities.
