FPOMCHB16138

Just before restructuring begins

At this point in time, it seems rational to assume that most Nigerians are now set for the restructuring of our country. The decision of the ruling All Progressive Congress APC to set up its own committee to harmonize its position on the subject has no doubt helped to virtually put us all on notice. Another factor which has helped many to buy the idea is attributable to the ample light which has been further thrown on it by the continuing arguments of the restructuring protagonists. restructuring We now know for instance that restructuring is not a call for the break-up of the country but a mere desire to rearrange the conditions of our co-existence in one country. It is therefore a correct step in the right direction that many activists are fast learning the most palatable way of putting their views across. It certainly sounds better to amplify the gains of keeping Nigeria together than the old diction of ‘the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable’ which controverts the universal principle of self-determination. It is however necessary to remind everyone that because the subject is being appreciated from different dimensions, agreeing on the modalities for restructuring is another battle. Last week, the popular Lagos dialogue ‘the platform’ on Channels TV featured a cream of excellent speakers on the subject of the moment which is restructuring. Segun Adeniyi who has become a media guru in agenda setting was there, I enjoyed his presentation as much as that of Segun Odegbami the best sports administrator we are yet to have. Of course, the legendary Fr Kuka, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto kept everyone heartily entertained. Pat Utomi reminded me of my days in the NTA when government ‘Ogas’ equated my granting him a TV slot to a mortal sin. Perhaps, the speaker who blew my mind but who probably got the least applause was Eghosa Osaghae, Vice Chancellor, Igbinedion University, Okada. He obviously didn’t expect any applause because he deliberately opted to tell the crowd the opposite of what they wanted to hear. But I was pleasantly delighted to listen to him telling Nigerians that to comprehend today’s issues so as to plan for tomorrow, humanity must understand yesterday. As the famous Spanish-born philosopher, poet, and novelist, George Santayana (1863  – 1952) once stated, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In my view it is the failure to appreciate this historical imperative of life that has been the undoing of Nigeria. How did we get to where we are? It seems as if in reaction to our devastating civil war, we all encouraged the then leaders to unify everything. Alas, many people who claim to be democrats that are supposedly opposed to military rule in Nigeria served conscientiously in our successive military governments. Right from the Constitution Drafting Committee of the famous ‘49 wise men’ through all the Constituent Assemblies we had till date, the Decrees that were translated into the 1979,1989 and 1999 Constitutions were the handiwork of those who tell us daily that our current constitution is bad because it was authored by the military! Even at that can’t we identify and amend the popularly mouthed defects in our constitution? Those who say it is hard to amend our constitution miss the point on two grounds. First, what is popularly accepted as defective cannot be hard to amend. Second, one achievement of our National Assembly is the quantum of constitutional amendments they have carried out without the rest of us sometime realizing the trap. The nation was recently shocked to hear that the provision on the recall principle giving constituents power to recall non-performing legislators had been amended to virtually transfer the power to the legislature hence the Senate declared that the Kogi constituents being manipulated by their governor to recall their senator were wasting their time. I just hope the legislature which did that was not military!! Many of those calling for restructuring are clearly worried about our over-strong central government. Earlier, Governor Rochas Okorocha who is conveniently silent on it now once said that because our head is to too bogus to be carried by our feeble legs, Nigerian was suffering from ‘Kwashiorkorism’. Interestingly, one of the things our present senate would be remembered for is its decision to vote against devolution of powers. Will anyone suggest that our senators who are bonafide representatives of the people imagined that they were voting for the wish of their people? Assuming we manage to restructure by reducing the federal power, certain things such as Defence and Foreign Affairs will still be central. There is no guarantee that such common issues will still not generate tension as whoever is in control would as usual take everything without remembering to follow genuine federal character. In other words, restructure or not, the few commonly held assets will still be appropriated by whoever is there for himself and his kith and kin. So, before we structure, we need to review many issues. In the case of the police for example it makes some sense to correct the ‘anomaly’ whereby governors are chief security officers in their states without control over the police. That always made the federal government to put the police into ignoble use especially during elections. But we should not transfer a problem from one head to another because the way some state governors utilize state apparatus against their political opponents is amazing. Therefore, those who are weary of more powers to states would support scrapping local government areas otherwise their allocations would no longer be diverted but formally confiscated by the states. Unknown to us some of us are working to achieve queer federalism in which many people want the federal to hands off many things while the same people want her to take up quite a lot of things. For example, for uniformity and security of tenure, teachers, local government staff and even the Labour Congress want to be paid by the federal government. Again no one would genuinely support states independent electoral commissions whose result sheets are in the governor’s bedroom. Under that condition what happens? The answer is that there is a lot to restructure.