Restructuring: Imperative of Political Will

The clamour for restructuring of the country requires political will to drive the process. However, due mainly to the divergence of perspectives on the concept, especially between the north and south divide; restructuring may take a long while or just never happen.Evidently, the country is stagnated if not retrogressing because of its current structure. A situation where the states and local governments exist merely as an appendage of the federal government and derive their survival from the goodwill of the federal government will always stifle progress and growth at both levels. As long as growth and progress are clogged at these levels, true development will remain a phantom.

In Nigeria, the federal government has remained a big powerful central government that controls virtually all the affairs of the state governments.

It controls the sum of resources given to the states, approves the amenities they could put in place and even their ability to determine their destinies. As a result, under the present structure, no state or local government can grow or develop beyond the aspiration or wishes of the federal government.

Often times, a state government would require approval from the federal government to carry out certain projects and may not proceed if approval is not given. Presently, many Nigerians would prefer federal government to confer more powers on the states.

Yet, some are of the opinion that Nigeria is not ripe for this system. They insist that given the mechanics of a decentralized government, powers could easily be abused.

During his nation-wide address of August 21, 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari, said the National Assembly is the appropriate body saddled with the responsibility of addressing such matters. But the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has argued that his position cannot be taken to mean he is unwilling to restructure.

 However, a couple of weeks back  the president declared that calls for the restructuring of the country were propelled more by selfish than national interests.

Some of the questions begging for answers remain:

1. Is Nigeria ripe for restructuring?
2. Will restructuring be beneficial to Nigeria as a whole?
3. Would restructuring impact negatively on Nigerians in terms of economy, security, education…?
4. If the above questions are resolved in favour of restructuring, would the federal government muster the political will to do the right thing?

Clearly, from the dissonance in arguments between federal government and those speaking for the north and southern parts of the country, the impression being created is that some sections will benefit more from restructuring while others lose out. Whether this is true or false perhaps depends on how each divide views restructuring.

A former General Secretary, National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Union, NUPENG, Chief Frank Kokori, holds that “the reason agitations are going on in this country is because certain people feel they are marginalized, but I know that the whole country is marginalized because of bad governance and corruption.

He said:  “I am for real federalism. The federal government should be left with some residual powers on defence, currency, foreign affairs, and others while states should be given powers over other affairs.”

Dr. Bukar Usman, a former Permanent Secretary in the Presidency, however, has a different view. “The answer to the re-structuring question lies more in collective self-examination, in fundamental change of attitude, and in a public-spirited approach to public administration by the current operators of our constitution.

“It cannot be denied that the powerful centre is the outcome of intense agitations by Nigerians of the 1960s that the regions were too powerful and imbalanced and should be balkanised. The agitations were heeded and implemented to grant self-determination to some communities and preserve the unity of Nigeria,” he argued.

At a recent event, former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, cautioned that the situation in Nigeria would degenerate unless restructuring occurs.

‘’Taking into account the historical and current developments, including especially the continuing outrageous killings in the North Central zone of the country, I am proposing a restructuring of Nigeria into a true federation of eight federating units comprising the existing six geo-political zones plus a restored old Mid-West region and a newly created Middle Belt federating unit.

“The present mostly non-viable 36 states many of which can no longer pay the salaries of their workers, should be retained in the new federating units, but as development zones to be administered without their current costly executive and administrative institutions.

“It would be for each federating unit to decide if and when to create within it additional development zone(s) in response to any genuine cry of marginalisation…

‘’I therefore call on our governments and lawmakers to heed the growing warning signs of potential national disaster by agreeing to adopt a restructured true federalism which I believe will provide the best basis for the realisation of the Nigerian nation that we all desire,” he said.

“Taking into account the historical and current developments, including especially the continuing outrageous killings in the North Central zone of the country, I am proposing a restructuring of Nigeria into a true federation of eight federating units comprising the existing six geo-political zones plus a restored old Mid-West region and a newly created Middle Belt federating unit.”

Chief John Nnia Nwodo, President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, posits that: “you can’t have true federation without justice.” He further submitted: “The cause of under development is the fact that we do not have a restructured nation. I hereby call on Nigerians not to vote for any leader who is not prepared to speak to the problems of this country through restructuring. We need a leader who is not biased, that is the qualification for true leader.”

Nwodo at another forum announced emphatically that Ndigbo will not fight any war again, but will partner with other ethnic groups with similar ideology, to continuously engage the authorities through diplomatic warfare, in ensuring that Nigeria is restructured into a true federation as envisioned by the founding fathers of the country.

As stated by Major General Zamani Lekwot, (rtd): “All hope is not lost if we could restructure the country urgently, check population explosion, empower the judiciary, empower the police force and other security agencies, and create community police to fight insecurity and check foreigners invading the country without control among others.”

Spokesperson for Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, posits that the issue of restructuring would determine who Nigerians would vote for in 2019, noting that Afenifere would mobilise and champion the restructuring cause in the general elections.

Meanwhile, the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has through its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Muhammad Biu, said that it respects the views of Nigerians on any structure of government that will strengthen unity and peaceful coexistence for equitable development.

Prof. Epiphany Azinge, SAN, former Director General, Nigeria Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), gives more insight:-

“By 1966, when the army struck, Nigeria retained its federal structure and the parliamentary system of government. There were some peculiarities of the federal structure in place which made the regions very powerful. Devolution of power was such that each region controlled its resources to a large extent- to wit, North its groundnut, West its cocoa and East, its palm produce…

“With the military intervention began Nigeria’s romance with the unitary system of government… So by 1979, when the military returned power to civilian democracy, the constitution fundamentally altered the arrangement of devolution of powers…

“All subsequent constitutions followed to a large extent the pattern of the 1979 constitution, thereby throwing overboard the position of things as at 1960.

“… The question is, restructure from what to what? From states as federating units back to regions? To make the geo-political zones a component of our federation with constitutional recognitions or what?

“Second, is to agree in principle that there is need to restructure from what is the architectural blueprint that is currently prevalent. To restructure in the main is to change to a large extent what is currently in place…

“Areas of possible intervention are as follows: Federating Units: This presupposes an acceptance that Nigeria retains its federal status. The notion of confederation will not be entertained therein.

“The debate is that the states remain the federating unit for purposes of restructuring. This is without prejudice to states merging to become regions if they so desire, and geo-political zones also assuming a constitutional status without necessarily being the federating units. So ideally, the argument endorses states and state creation and de-emphasises regionalism and geopolitical zones as parameters for political restructuring.

“Devolution of Powers: Noticeable imbalance flowing from power sharing between the Federal (Central) Government and State governments is evident from a perusal of the legislative powers shared in the 1999 constitution.

“Whilst we have 68 items under the Exclusive Legislative list, there are just 8 items under the concurrent legislative list. Item 45 of the exclusive legislative list stipulates ‘Police and other Government, Security Services established by law.’

“Proponents of state Policing will naturally want this to move to the Residual list which will be controlled by the states. Other items that require serious interrogation for purposes of restructuring are: Item 48 – Prison, item 51 public holidays; item 39 – mines and minerals, including oil fields, oil mining, geological surveys and natural gas. There are still a host of the 68 items that can be restructured in favour of the federating units.

“Judicial System: Many have also argued that our judicial system is over centralised. There is argument to return State Appellate Courts or even Supreme Court. It is still confounding why matters of land ownership and inheritance generally still come to Court of Appeal or Supreme Court when such matters can end at state or regional or geo-political zone Court of Appeal or Supreme Court as the case may be.

“The debate is that the states remain the federating unit for purposes of restructuring. This is without prejudice to states merging to become regions if they so desire, and geo-political zones also assuming a constitutional status without necessarily being the federating units.”

“Unicameral or Bicameral legislature: Again, this is a decision Nigerians may want to take for purposes of restructuring. Do we go back to bicameral legislature at the state or regional level or do we retain the status quo.

“Political consideration: The idea of restructuring is certainly not likely to sit well with many Nigerians. Opposition is definitely coming from those who feel satisfied with the status quo and believe that any attempt to restructure will affect their interest negatively. But selfish interest should not be an overriding consideration in the issue of restructuring.

“The opinion expressed recently by the governors and leaders of the South-East is worth applauding. Their support for restructuring as against secession is commendable. But that does not negate the fact that the right to self-determination is recognised as a legitimate instrument under international law.

Though our 1999 constitution proclaims the indivisibility and indissolubility of Nigeria state, it does not presuppose that in exercise of freedom of expression, people cannot agitate (non-violently) for self-determination.

“Action plans: The 2014 national conference report is an available specimen to kick-start the process of architectural overhauling. Basically, there must be an agreement on how to proceed.

In terms of devolution of powers, which items should devolve to the states and which should be retained at the centre? Secondly, are we all agreed on ‘’Resource Control’ by the federating units? Third, do we go back to regionalism, parliamentarianism or do we retain state structure (new states creation permissible) and also continue with presidentialism?

 What will be the role of referendum (if at all) in the process of restructuring? A lot of emphasis must be placed on local government status. The situation where local government are instruments of manipulation by state government is also a point to be seriously addressed for purposes of restructuring.

“May I invite the government of the day to set up a small committee to distil from the Confab report and submit to government for critical appraisal and assessment?   Alternatively is for government to re-submit the report to the National Assembly for further action.

“Again, government in its wisdom may decide to set up a panel specifically on restructuring. The panel will be charged with the modalities of working out the logistics or bases of restructuring.

A white paper flowing from this can then be handed over to government for onward transmission to the National Assembly. It is for the National Assembly to identify issues that require constitutional amendment, legislative promulgation whilst allowing issues that require administrative or executive imprimatur to be handled by the presidency.”Olisa Agbakoba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) capped it all off with this caution: “My point is that the restructure advocacy in some parts of the country may be offending the sensibilities of others. Let us think of a kinder and subtle way to present the argument of restructuring. We need to fashion out a better communication strategy to communicate and dialogue with one another as a nation. This way, we can preach and spread the restructuring agenda, while strengthening our diversity.” L&S