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Restructuring Nigeria: Another way forward

By Editorial Board
20 March 2019   |   4:20 am
In discussing the burning issue of restructuring the political and administrative framework of Nigeria, the major question to be addressed is: how can we effectively manage ethnic and religious plurality and diversity in our federation...

Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) President Mohammadu Buhari delivers a speech during the party caucus emergency meeting on the postponed general elections in Abuja, on February 18, 2019. – National party leaders including candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo attended an emergency national caucus meeting of the party to discuss the way out following Saturdayís postponement of the general elections. (Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP)

In discussing the burning issue of restructuring the political and administrative framework of Nigeria, the major question to be addressed is: how can we effectively manage ethnic and religious plurality and diversity in our federation? Added to this is question on whether the political architecture of Nigeria is truly reflective of the federalist principles, which the founding fathers of Nigeria envisaged and practised. Up till the military incursion into politics and the subsequent subversion of the people’s will in 1966 and the civil war that broke out in 1967, the nation was governed along federalist lines, which consequently created an ambience for regional competition and development. Can we with any confidence affirm that the nation has fared better under a quasi-unitary system of government?

The answer is a resounding no! Our efforts so far have not engendered a true spirit of nationalism and a commitment to the Nigerian State. There is general dissatisfaction with the state of things as expressed by different groups and eminent personalities in the country. The Federal Government is perceived as a fumbling and bumbling Father Christmas who generates nothing yet claims to be the father of all in most inefficient manner.

Even the governing party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), was so concerned by the widespread agitations for restructuring Nigeria that in 2017, it commissioned a group of seasoned politicians to advise it on a policy-adoption trajectory. According to its mandate, “the committee was to distill the true intent and definition of true federalism as promised by the party during the last electioneering campaign, and to take a studied look on the report of the various national conferences, especially that of 2014 and come up with recommendations.”

The Governor El Rufai-led committee came out with profound suggestions on how to engage the calls for restructuring Nigeria because in its considered view, it was not a call that should be dismissed with a wave of the hand. The committee considered exploration of mineral resources, state police, devolution of power and resources between state, federal and local governments, federating units, form of government, independent candidacy, state creation, fiscal federalism, land tenure system, power sharing and rotation, resource control, state constitution, state re-alignment and border adjustment and the secular status of the federation. The recommendations were in favour of tinkering with the structure of the country.

But sadly, the president, Muhammadu Buhari, opted to kill the recommendations in a most anti-people, anti-collective spirit manner. Yet, the restructuring calls have come to stay.

The matter came up again for discussions recently during the Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership and the sage’s 110th anniversary when elder statesman and former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Sir. Emeka Anyaoku opined that, “the current agitation for restructuring was partly informed by what many consider to be Awolowo’s incontrovertible analysis and prescriptions for (a) successful management of Nigeria’s pluralism.” Continuing, Anyaoku asserted that ‘with Nigeria’s history and diversity” there is the “dire need of a governance architecture that devolves considerable powers to its component parts, with a centre that operates on inclusive basis.”

For the umpteenth time, we need to say that restructuring the Nigerian state means “a re-imagination of the state in tune with the spirit of the time. It is a continuous process in democracy.” In any business or political arrangement there is often the need to conduct a periodic or strategic assessment of how well policies and relationships have fared in the period under review. At such a time measures are adopted which give a renewed energy to the entire project. This is simply what Nigeria needs to do at this time of its history. Nigeria as currently constituted is not working.The federal bureaucracy, which we have created that promotes a monthly visit to the federal capital to share the proceeds of a single product is anomalous to the temper and practice of federalism.

It is apposite to recall that agitations have led to different governments revisiting the political composition of the country. Indeed, the nationalist struggle led by the likes of Sir Herbert Macaulay, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and others were essentially concerned with what political structure would be best for Nigeria. At independence, the nation opted for a federal state set along regional lines. Thence a healthy completion arose among the constituent parts of the federation. Those could be referred to as the halcyon years of Nigerian federalism. The regions were semi-autonomous and related with the centre only for federal issues such as currency, defence and external relations. No one section held back the other. The subsequent split into small states fitted the command- and-obey structure of the military.

But time and experience have shown that the nation is not homogenous and cannot be administered as a hegemonic enterprise. It is against this background that the call for a restoration of true federalism has come to dominate the political space.

The truth is that whoever holds back or tries to suppress calls for restructuring Nigeria is simply delaying the inevitable. Nigeria is not working. Nowhere in the developed world do we encounter a replica of Nigeria in terms of its approach to education, the economy, managing ethnicity and development policies. Oil in its crude and unprocessed form is the mainstay of the economy. The refineries are not functioning at full capacity. After nearly 60 years of independence and discovery of oil in commercial quantity, we still import finished products from other oil-producing countries. The states, ostensibly the federating units of the federation are not economically viable. We relish and practise prebendal politics to the detriment of efficiency and merit. The Federal Government pretends to manage secondary education and universities nationwide. But it is not working.

As this newspaper has consistently done, we call on the Federal Government to revisit previous documents on the restructuring struggle. The 2014 National Conference and the El-Rufai documents could serve as take-off point. The documents in question made fundamental recommendations on security, state police and other low-hanging fruits that could immediately change the gear of national development and stability.

Creation of state police and devolution of some powers to the states are two of these that the current administration could concentrate on without rocking the boat. As Buhari commences his second and final term in office as a democratically elected leader, it is imperative on him to focus on legacies. One of such legacies, in our view, is the issue of a re-configuration of the Nigerian polity. All hands should be on deck on this significant political project. In the main, the current holders of power should note that if they stick to old methods in a new environment there can be no real change.The time to change is now if we are not to engage the world as illiterates of the 21st century who can’t learn, unlearn and relearn.

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