Frustration fuels call for Nigeria’s restructuring

The upsurge in the clamour for the restructuring of Nigeria has been blamed on what analysts described as the poor governance style of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

BDSUNDAY was told that the government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) may have driven the different geo-political zones of the country further apart owing to the “doctrine of partiality” being adopted by the Buhari administration in particular and the party’s failure to meet its campaign promises.

Some analysts also believe that agitation for restructuring of the country is a metaphor for Nigerians’ frustration with the Federal Government, even as they argue that such clamours would stop if government treats every section of the country fairly and equally.

Kayode Ajulo, Abuja-based legal practitioner, attributed the reason why agitations for restructuring are more pronounced in the present administration unlike previous governments to failed campaign promises of the Buhari administration.

The government, he explained, came with high hopes and expectations in the build-up to the 2015 general elections and since expectations of the people have been dashed, Nigerians are finding every means of ventilating their anger.

Ajulo therefore, advocated for fiscal federalism where the federating units contribute to the centre.

Moreover, while the desirability of such restructuring remains a debate of sorts, the format it would take has also remained controversial.

Many Nigerians believe that the style of governance adopted by the present administration, particularly its alleged partiality in appointments and distribution of amenities may have sent some signals that the unity of the country is no longer sacrosanct.

Speaking with our correspondent, Theo Amanze, a social commentator, claimed that there’s nowhere in the world where the level of injustice existing in Nigeria exists.

According to him, “The country is sick and urgently needs healing. The country is sharply divided along religious and ethnic lines, and we can see that since last year things have worsened in Nigeria. The style of the present government is not helping the unity of the country. Everything is done to elevate some part of the country and trample upon others, and in a situation of that nature you must expect some kicks here and there. The point we are at the moment, I think Nigeria, indeed, as a matter of urgency, needs restructuring in whatever form it may take. It is long overdue.”

Chidi Amuta, a former director of the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) in the old Imo State and currently chairman and CEO, Wilson & Weizmann Associates Ltd, said that the agitation for restructuring of the country was born out of hunger, desperation and frustration.

Amuta, however, believes that the answer to Nigeria’s problems is not in the balkanization of the country.

“I strongly believe that the solution is not in balkanisation. It is to see how the structure we have can be made better. Nothing is wrong with 36 or 12 states. In our case, it is a matter of what can be effectively managed to meet the obligation. If the agitators approach the call of restructuring from a purely economic perspective, then there is a point to be made. Because if you reduce the number of states, you probably reduce the number of civil servants, number of jobs, the positions requiring power. You will probably be able to deliver more service. We need to look at things very soberly, things were better when they were under a larger region than it is now that we are one. Awolowo built universities and many other things that have remained as legacies today in the South West,” he said.

Sharing his thought on the issue of restructuring, Ike Abonta, a columnist, said Nigeria may not move forward as a country with its present structure.

“Anybody thinking that this country would move forward with its present structure is not only living in the past but deceiving himself. The wheel of the Nigerian state cannot roll with its present structure; this is an undisputed fact that must be embraced now,” Abonta said.

“Why because it breeds injustice and like Mother Jones said ‘Injustice boils in men’s hearts as does steel in its cauldron, ready to pour forth, white hot, in the fullness of time.’ And the great Nelson Mandela did warn that ‘as long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.’”

He expressed the belief that “even if Buhari rules for donkey years, corruption would not stop in Nigeria because the system encourages it. It’s unfortunate that rather than appreciate the need to have a fundamental change in the system, President Buhari is still relying on war slogan handed over to them as young officers nearly fifty years ago to work today in a democratic setting ‘To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done.’ With all the waters that have passed under the bridge, how can the task be done? With the glaring imbalance in the land, how can the task still be a must?”

In the present administration, security challenges as manifested by Boko Haram, resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta, Biafra agitation, herdsmen clashes with farmers, coupled with dwindling oil prices in the international market have helped to exacerbate an economic crisis, even as foreign direct investments have significantly declined.

The socio-political evolution of the country, which dates back to the pre-colonial constitutional conferences, has witnessed a lot of conferences with some of the most recent being those of 1995 National Constitutional Conference, National Political Reform Conference in 2005 and the 2014 National Conference.

While many prominent citizens have emphasised that the time has come for the much-awaited restructuring of Nigeria to be accomplished through the instrumentality of the constitution amendment exercise, others including members of the National Assembly believe that the 2014 conference report was a ready tool to be explored.

The National Conference report recommended 54 states, modified presidential system of government, state police as well as revenue sharing formula whereby Federal Government gets 42.5 percent, states receive 35 percent and local governments earn 22.5 percent among others.‎

For proponents of restructuring, implementing the 2014 National Conference report would go a long way in addressing the myriads of problems confronting the nation.

Many other prominent Nigerians have recently lent their voices to the growing calls for the restructuring of the country and implementation of the conference report.

Former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon; Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka; former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku; ex-governor of Kaduna State and leader of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Balarabe Musa; Second Republic Vice President, Alex Ekwueme; his counterpart in the Fourth Republic, Atiku Abubakar, amongst others, have at different times and fora made a case for restructuring of the country.

At the National Assembly, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who also doubles as chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution, has been an unrepentant advocate of state police, one of the components of restructuring.

Ekweremadu, who led members of the Committee on Constitution Review to a retreat in Lagos, said the panel has however, not ruled out other issues that could be suggested by other members of the National Assembly among which might be the adoption of the 2014 conference document ‎for use as working document for the Fourth Amendment of the 1999 constitution.

But President Buhari has insisted that his administration would have nothing to do with the report, let alone heed the calls for restructuring of Nigeria.

 ‘Restructuring, not a priority for now’

At the anniversary of his first year ‎in office, the President did not hide his opposition to adopting the report. He affirmed that he had not even read the conference report and that it would remain in the archives where, according to him, it rightly belongs.

Specifically, he described the conference as a misplaced priority by his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan.

He said: “I advised against the issue of National Conference. You would recall that ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) was on strike then for almost nine months. The teachers in the tertiary institutions were on strike for more than a year, yet that government had about N9billion to organise that meeting (National Conference) and some (members) were complaining that they hadn’t even been paid. I never liked the priority of that government on that particular issue, because it meant that what the National Assembly could have handled was handed to the Conference, while the more important job of keeping our children in schools was abandoned.

“That is why I haven’t even bothered to read it or ask for a briefing on it, and I want it to go into the so-called archives.”

Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal amplified President Buhari’s concern when he said the President was too busy to study the report of the National Conference.
According to him, there are more important issues confronting the government like fixing the economy, unemployment, insecurity and pipelines vandalism.

“The government has not taken a decision on the 2014 National Conference. I understand that some Nigerians want it implemented but the government has been too busy with key areas of governance to talk about an exercise that we thought was essentially diversionary and a sort of, maybe, a job for the boys.

“The exercise of governance is not about reading reports. The reports are here, so many volumes that, for example, it would take me like seven days to go through and I wonder what happens to my work while I am reading it; while the economy needs attention, unemployment is there, insecurity is there, people are blowing up pipelines and so on,” he affirmed.

By the same token, John Odigie-Oyegun, national chairman of the APC, stressed that restructuring is not the party’s priority for now, adding that President Buhari is currently focused on rebuilding the economy, creating jobs and ensuring the security of lives and property.

Odigie-Oyegun who noted that there were several challenges the administration was currently grappling with, pleaded with Nigerians not to lose hope because the current challenges were temporary.

His words: “To bring this additional issue (restructuring) – is not the wisest thing for a nation that is struggling to stabilise to go into an unnecessary diversion at this point.
“Nothing is wrong with the idea but at this time, it is best for us to concentrate on our priorities. As a party, our priority right now is to rebuild the economy, create jobs and deal with the security problems at hand.

“And with what is happening in the Niger Delta you can see that there is so much to do. We must get our priority right some day we will come to that,”

Odigie-Oyegun said.

In a chat with BDSUNDAY, Bode George, elder statesman and chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who participated in the last National Conference, asked President Buhari to revisit the conference report.

George harped on the need for the President not to throw the report of the confaberence in the dustbin.
He said: “We all rose in unison to sing the old national anthem. That was the first time under a civilian administration that we unanimously agreed.
“I have also said it before that the President should not throw it in the dustbin. He should dust it up, look at it because the success or failure of a leader will always be on the pages of history. Let him be on the positive side of history and revisit it”.

But spokesman for Northern Delegates in the last National Conference and former National Publicity Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Anthony Sani, shares a contrary opinion. According to him, the problem is not with the structure but with the way we do things as a people.

“When some delegates talked of restructuring to ‘true federalism’, northern delegates asked to know what constitutes true federalism that is universally acceptable, considering (the fact that) no two federal systems are exactly the same. And this is because federal systems depend on the circumstance of their emergence. For example, while 13 American colonies came together and formed the United States of America, in Nigeria, the centre formed the states which are the federating units. But what is common to all federal systems is a centre that is appropriately balanced by state level power,” Sani said.

“We practised regional power which was toppled and supplanted by unitary system that was subsequently replaced by states as the federating units. In a way, one can say we have experimented with all forms of structure, namely, the confederal regions, the unitary system and now the federal system. The problems are therefore not about structure of the country but the way we do things,” he added.