It’s troubling that the political conversation of the moment is not centred on uniting the people towards making Nigeria great beyond 2027. Politicians are not debating constitutional and administrative loopholes that make the country perpetually underdeveloped despite abundance of human and material resources.
Now, the language has shifted to the love for tribes and kinsmen, a political tool to keep the people divided and unable to reason as countrymen and women who are collectively deprived and repeatedly dehumanised, despite trillions of earnings from sales of crude and taxes. The political class is the enemy but millions of Nigerians are too vulnerable to understand.
Whereas the National Assembly is engaged in the ritual of refurbishing the 1999 Constitution, the fundamental questions of nation building remain unanswered. The current occupants of political offices as well as those before them are not interested in answering those questions. The perks of office they misappropriate and their unfettered access to budgets, dwarf larger concerns of survival of the Federation.
Despite the cosmetic efforts, the country plunges deeper into economic and political uncertainty. Mutual distrust and suspicion among component units of the Federation are promoted, and exacerbated by political actors. Nepotism, ethnicity and political bigotry have become elevated as state policies, fueling predictions that the polity might soon be headed for disaster.
Chief John Nnia Nwodo, a former minister and President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-political group, warned last week, that Nigeria risks disintegration before 2027, if efforts are not invested to restructure the country. He lamented that the current political structure has failed to address the complex challenges that confront the country.
In his key-note address at the presentation of two books in Abuja, Nwodo noted that the unitary constitution that is misapplied to run the federal system entrenches injustice and stifles development. It is also responsible for the agitations across the country, he said.
Hear him: “Nigeria must restructure and give its component units sovereignty over its natural resources, provided they pay royalty or some form of taxation to the federal government to maintain federal responsibilities like external defence, foreign missions, customs and immigration. In this way, true democracy will evolve and the speed of development will increase.
“Emphasis must return to agriculture and education. Education must emphasise Renaissance digital orientation. Domestic security must remain in the hands of federating units. The secularity of the Nigerian State must be respected. These minimum conditions are not negotiable. If it does not happen, we will have no alternative but to go our separate ways.
“Processes to begin our restructuring as a nation must be concluded before the 2027 elections, to avert a situation where sections of the country may boycott the elections and present the country with a constitutional force majeure.”
Very weighty. These are sentiments shared across the country by millions of citizens whose expectations of a federal system have been dampened and trampled. Whereas the Constitution provides for the welfare and security of life and property, minority tribes in the Middle Belt face orchestrated annihilation in the hands of land-grabbing terrorists.
The laws forbid the people to defend themselves. They cannot carry assault rifles, but the terrorists bear dangerous arms. This is a paradox the operators and defenders of the status quo have no political will and capacity to address.They also have no interest in revisiting sections of the Constitution that enable internal strife and domination.
Politicians make matters worse when they export primordial and parochial sentiments into high office. In the matter of governing a complex setting such as Nigeria, the Constitution attempted to make it manageable when it recommended at Section 14 (3)(4) that the composition of the government of the federation, state and local government council or any of their agencies shall reflect the federal character of the country. The essence is to promote a sense of belonging and loyalty among the peoples of the Federation.
The failure to apply the Federal Character provision of the Constitution is among reasons many groups and constituents are agitating for creation of states and local government areas. They have witnessed marginalisation in the hands of larger ethnic groups with whom they are grouped within the state or local council.
They want a state of their own because there is no justice and equity in the present order. It is the same reason the agitation for Biafra has not gone away. The administration of late President Muhammadu Buharimade a big issue of nepotism and clannishness. This present government is making a bigger issue of it and living in denial, despite glaring data.
The Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in 2023, Rabiu Kwankwaso, made a claim that the North is marginalised under the Bola Tinubu-led federal government. Kwankwaso had accused President Tinubu of concentrating federal road projects in the South while abandoning the North, especially the Northwest.
Kwankwaso has his eyes fixed on 2027. As far as politicians are concerned, every ploy that attracts votes and could peddle influence among voters is useful. He was reported to be in talks with the All Progressives Congress (APC), for possible alliance. That is yet to materialise. Perhaps, Kwankwaso needed to remind Aso Villa that he remains the undisputed leader of the electorally-savvy Kwankwasiya crowd of Kano and neigbouring states. It is envisaged that without the Kano votes, the Northwest might be a herculean task for the parties come 2027.
The claim by Kwankwaso might after all be a political gimmick to rankle the Presidency and titillate the Northern electorate. It worked perfectly, going by the effusion of ethnic and partisan volleys that were fired from both ends. Instead of using data to verify the claim, loyalists of the two sides in the media and government wasted timeto escalate a conversation that is merely divisive.
The more accurate data show that this government has disregarded and marginalised everybody, apart from political appointees and their families. It is not an argument about ethnic or geo-political representation. They represent their pockets. All the roads in the country are used by all Nigerians who venture to move around.
The cattle that are sold largely in the Southern markets are transported on federal roads. The grains that come from the North are transported along federal roads, just as refined petroleum products are ferried along federal highways from the South to far Northern states. If all roads are good, everybody benefits. So, it is cheap politics to claim that certain regions are better served by this government while others are marginalised. The masses are all diminished across the regions.
The response by the Minister of Works, David Umahi, to Kwankwaso’s claim of marginalisation, is typically manipulative and outlandish. The minister loves to paint pictures that do not exist in real life. The fact that Tinubu flagged off 52 per cent of all legacy road projects in the North is at best a wish on paper. It will take decades and borrowed funds to actualise. It is just two years and many of these projects are at the mobilisation stages, if at all the designs have been perfected.
At the moment, roads across the country are in a mess, particularly federal roads, for which contracts have been signed since the Supplementary Capital Budget of 2023. Media reports and citizens’ iReports on social media across the country show that the federal roads are in very deplorable state. Instead of countering reports, the best the prophetic minister can do is show empathy and appeal for understanding.
It is only in Nigeria public officers don’t apologise for gross errors and complicity. The much-celebrated and costly Lagos-Calabar coastal highway is already failing on the sides. After commissioning 30 kilometers or so of it, reports show that erosion has washed away the sides. Minister Umahi claimed the project is still not completed after it had been commissioned by President Tinubu. What is clear, even to non-engineers, is that the project is a product of undue haste.
At a time other Trunk-A roads are poorly maintained, the argument for the N15 trillion highway does not align with today’s economic and procurement realities. Instead of apology from government, the minister talks down on citizens. In saner climes, someone should have resigned or be sacked for poor judgment.
In China and South Korea, someone would have been docked for contract scam. But here, ministers come on national television to brag and make jest of national calamities. They make the government very unserious for the moment and for 2027.
The United Kingdom’s Homelessness Minister, Rushanara Ali, a junior minister in the Ministry of Housing, just resigned over allegations that she evicted tenants from a property she owns and increased the rents by hundreds of pounds. She resigned over what was adduced to be conflict of interest because she had spoken out previously against exploitation of tenants. Not that she stole anybody’s money.
In Nigeria, a minister is reported to allocate lands to his children and he is not asked to step aside for an independent investigation. It was a non-issue.
Political bigotry has polarised the society and many citizens are unable to reason outside the prison of ethnicity and religion they erected for themselves. Someone even canvassed that the adoption of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), by the opposition elements to contest the 2027 election, is a plot against their region and the South. But when there was a coalition against Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, it was not a plot against the South. Twisted logic!
What cannot be denied is that hunger and poverty afflict everybody, irrespective of tribe. But the challenge is that ordinary folks refuse to know their enemies and unite against them.
Last week, the Country Director of Oxfam in Nigeria, John Makina, raised the alarm over the deepening inequality in the country. He remarked at an event in Abuja, that the top 10 per cent of Nigerians control the 90 per cent of the country’s resources and over 83 million Nigerians live with N3100 per day. That’s even fair. Millions more are yearning to reach that threshold. But they must be told that they hold the key to their liberation.
