It is fallacious and mirage-like to refer to Nigeria as a nation. The country has lost the status of nationhood. A nation is the conglomeration of a people with a sense of shared identity, beliefs and values. The ability to transform a sovereign state irrespective of its diverse nature to a nation serves as a foundation for its survival and development.
A country rooted in diverse ethnic groups, cultural heritage, religious practices, socio – values and mind – sets such as Nigeria only stands a chance against disunity when a sense of oneness and belongings lingers across the board. The spirit of nationalism is the stepping stone to revert Nigeria back on the right track. No country can withstand the test of time when its people are at war with one another.
The ember of discord between the Northern and Southern Nigerians is currently being underplayed by the political elite, religious leaders and traditional rulers. The mutual distrust between these two sections is visible to the blind and audible to the deaf. The disunity has disproportionately reached the level where a section publicly celebrates the killings, kidnappings and other misfortunes ravaging the other.
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Although the tension between North and South is also being fuelled by some influential individuals in the quest for political powers. This assertion could not be disconnected from the fact that many of the non – state actors currently advocating for restructuring, supremacy of the rule of law and entrenchment of the dividends of democracy contributed immensely to the devastating state of the country during their dispensation as political office holders.
Nevertheless, there is urgent need to address a particular concern among others raised by these elder statesmen which is “restructuring.” The issuance of executive order by the Buhari – led administration granting financial autonomy to both the legislature and judiciary across all states in the country is highly commendable though the states’ governors are yet to implement the directive.
In a bid to guarantee and complete the devolution of power for effective administrative dispensation, the Buhari – led government alongside the National Assembly must take a second step to facilitate the devolution of more constitutional responsibility to the states of the federation similar to Nigeria’s 1963 Republican Constitution.
The reformation will give birth to a new Nigeria where each governor of the federation would be directly responsible for their people. It would therefore expose the states’ governors who shy away from their responsibility and regularly cover their ineptitude and misgovernance through blame game. Over the years, the states’ governors have been diverting people’s attention from their contribution towards the backwardness of Nigeria.
Despite the political turbulence of the First Republic, the Nigerian masses were reportedly living with dignity unlike the moment where millions of people have been stripped off human dignity due to bad governance. And no specific authority to directly hold responsible. Both the federal and state governments often play blame game. The devolution would enable people to go for the jugular of a specific authority in pressing for good governance.
The merchants of doom who proclaimed Nigeria’s disintegration if properly restructured are the political elite who benefit from the current administrative architecture which has subjected Nigerian people across North and South into abject poverty, insecurity and other predicaments. Rather, restructuring has more tendency to guarantee national integration, collective spirit, prosperous states and healthy competition among the states of the federation.
Azeez writes from the faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife
