On October 1st, 2022, Nigeria marked her 62nd years of Independence from the Colonial rule. In all of these years, nothing has changed for the better for the country or for the masses.
The elite class has continued to protect their own estates. It has been a cycle of doom. Those seeking power would make all manner of pledges, but renege as soon as they get in the saddle.
The elite clan of Nigeria has always only focused on issues and policies that benefit them. For instance, on the issue of restructuring, although every Nigerian believes that there is the need to restructure the country, no member of the elite has made the right move toward its realisation. It has always been a talking point at many august events in and outside the country.
A very close attempt to achieving that was the Constitutional Conference of 2014 which many Nigerians hailed as a very successful outing. But its implementation suffered on the altar of party politics.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), which though acknowledged the great job that was done, turned round to reduce it to a Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) affair. Hence, the report became a forgotten document.
The habit of playing the ostrich just to protect their small estates has also made the elite in the private sector to become dumb; they do not speak truth to power. Some of them also collude with their ilk in the public sector to perpetrate corruption at a very high level.
For those in this group, whatever that is done by any sitting government is alright so long as it does not touch their “loot”.
The Nigerian elite class delights in kicking the can down the street. They have no business picking up the can and throwing it inside a bin.
These categories of citizens have, by their actions and inactions ruined and have also continued to ruin the country.
In June 2019, Bolanle Austen-Peters, founder and CEO, Terra Kulture, an art and entertainment outfit in Lagos, broke her record when she premiered ‘The Bling Lagosian’, a movie that broke cinema box office ticket sales and was streamed more than her previous movies and musicals.
The movie caught the eyes of many because of the exposure of the ‘one percent of the one percent’, the elites, who run the country, its economy, its politics, its life and everything.
Whoever watches the movie will bear witness to the life of the ‘one percent of the one percent’, the baggage that comes with that class, the influence, the luxury, the excess, the vanity, the show and most regrettably, their oppression of the poor.
These are the Nigerian elites; they own most of society’s wealth, control political power and have selfishly allowed policies that favour them, but underdeveloped the country by doing so over the years.
“Yes, the elites are Nigeria’s main problem and we have shamefully not been able to face them squarely to wrest our politics, economy and life from their firm and corrupt grip,” said Donald Echime, an Ndokwa Delta State-born entrepreneur.
Echime observed that the country has been lagging among its peers because of the selfish activities of the elites, who share the country’s resources and political positions among themselves, resulting in underdevelopment and leaving the masses poorer.
“I can recall how the riverine Delta people fought against the location of the Delta State in Asaba, considering that Warri is central and the base of many riverine nations. But the late Sunny Odogwu, who was close to Ibrahim Babangida, the then military head of state, influenced the location in Asaba. Till date, the riverine Itsekiri and Urhobo are still agitating for righting that wrong. That is elites at work,” he said.
He is more aggrieved that his riverine neighbours do not own oil wells, instead people from other tribes far from Niger Delta, especially northerners, are making billions from oil wells in other people’s land and yet not using it to develop the region or Nigeria, but buying estates abroad and having huge savings in Swiss Bank.
“Elites are not hard to find. Anybody who owns an oil well in Nigeria is an elite, any former president, governor, senators, house of representative members, ex- Army generals, top public and civil servants who have stolen our money are all elites,” he explained.
The unfortunate thing about the elites is that they are very few, not up to 10 percent of the population, yet they control over 200 million people, including the most educated, the religious, the traditional, the militants and even bandits and Boko Haram terrorists among the population.
The dictionary defined elite theory in government as that a small minority, consisting of members of the economic elite and policy-planning networks, holds the most power—and that this power is independent of democratic elections.
Suswe Tor, a Benue-born lawyer and activist, noted that being an elite is not a problem, but using that position of influence to enrich oneself further, impoverishing others and favouring policies that will keep people perpetually poor, is the issue.
“When Goodluck Jonathan built Almajiri schools in the north, you saw how northern elites rose against it because that Alamgiri policy is intentional to impoverish people and make them perpetual beggars, who can only depend on their benefactors. When an onetime army chief went hard against Boko Haram, there were outcries by some elites that it was a plan to kill their youths, what about standing against polio vaccination, which they said was meant to decimate their population. The elites are few, but powerful. It is a shame this is still happening in Nigeria,” Tor said.
Some analysts have also said that the Nigerian federation as it is presently constituted is defective and structured to favour a certain segment of the society which must be redefined for meaningful progress.
Tope Musowo, public policy analyst, said there was the need for policy change from the government to bridge the gap.
According to Musowo, “Elite consensus has not taken us anywhere; it is part of our problem.
The system is structured to favour the few people that are the elite in the society; there is no doubt about that.
“For example, few elites are the beneficiaries of the oil theft. It is clear that few people are benefiting from the oil subsidy, rather than Nigerians which they claim to be serving. Also, look at the system, few people in government are earning so much more than many people working now.
Look at the budget, for now about three percent of the population earns over 70 percent of the budget. I am talking about the National Assembly.
“In Scandinavian countries the reverse is the case. They would task the rich for the people’s benefit.
“That is how you would see mansions in Ikoyi empty without anyone leaving there, walk across the roads you would see people looking for houses to stay.”
Also reacting, political analyst Kunle Okunade said the country has always been governed and run on an elitist consensus rather than masses’ agreement.
“And that is why those elected to serve the common masses do not take the masses seriously and act with impunity.
“In third world countries, the elite class is always the problem of the state because they agree to run the affairs of the state for their benefit. In this case, the Nigeria State is not exceptional at all. We have been witnessing since 1960, a conspiracy of exploit by the elite to shortchange the masses. It is one of the reasons our politics is a contest of might rather than ideas.”
Andrew Uga, a political scientist, told BusinessDay that the elite of Nigeria are not helping the country in many ways.
“As election is by the corner, they will not vote. They do not vote. But they are the same people the politicians and all the candidates are running after for endorsement.
On the Election Day, many of them would be out of the country watching what is happening here on television. Their belief is that whatever that happens to the country, whether a good leader comes or not, they will manage to be part of the system. Ours is a terrible society,” Uga said.
The elite consensus in keeping Nigeria down was recently noted by an economic expert who said that Nigeria had become a loser in the gamble on development among nations because of its elite consensus built around rent-taking from the proceeds of crude oil and persistent implementation of policies that are not altogether economically sensible.
Professor of Economic Policy in the University of Oxford, Prof. Stefan Dercon, made the observation during the launch of the State of Enterprise Report 2022 by the EnterpriseNGR.
Dercon, who authored the book, ‘Gambling on Development: Why some Countries Win and Others Lose,’ also noted that the state of enterprise in Nigeria was bad because faulty policies were being implemented by politicians whose interests are not for development.
“Nigeria is a looser in the gamble on development. You have amazing enterprising individuals and dynamic businesses but Nigeria will top the league of the most extreme poor people in the world and is in the company of Madagascar and Democratic Republic of Congo,” he said.
“When I observe Nigeria today I can only say that the state of Nigerian enterprises is really bad. The state of Nigerian economy is really not very good. But the financial sector can survive because of its resilience.
“But you know that Nigeria is being left behind compared to other countries. The policies are really bad but that is one element of it,” Dercon further said.
He noted that, “If you look at other countries, it is actually the business community that begins to speak in a unified voice. The business community will play a very central role in the elite bargain around promoting development and ensuring that growing the economy is the central thing to do.”
But Atedo Peterside, president and founder of ANAP Foundation, in his brief remarks strongly observed that Nigeria’s business community could not champion the elite consensus that would deliver the required reforms for economic development.
“You were talking as if you thought that there is hope in our business sector in terms of bringing about reforms. I totally disagree. I see no hope whatsoever. The hope that we have in this country comes from the youth.
“There are two reasons. One, I think that there is a strong element of Stockholm syndrome at work the business community to which I belong, which is when a prisoner begins to love those who imprisoned him. The business community competes to fall in love with the people in government who have destroyed their businesses and their clients. So there is no hope there.
“We can streamline on the youths who are far more in number and have less to lose because he who is down needs fear no fall. The businessman fears to protect the small that he has. They may never bring any hope,” Atedo said.
Sometime last year when Nigeria marked its 61st independence anniversary, Lai Olurode, a professor and former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and former Chairman of its Board of Electoral Institute (BEI), lamented that, “Nigerian elite focus on irrelevant issues of who governs and ethno-religious issues of identity politics. Inadvertently, in the discourse, peripheral matters get elevated to the front burner whereas those issues that are essential to effective governance get buried under the rubbles of politics. It is often forgotten that while occasionally the question of who governs rare its head, it is important not to exaggerate its significance nor equate it with the substantive issues of architecture of governance. Mere appearances cannot be equated with substance.”
According to him, since 1999, at various times, the Yoruba, the Fulani and the Ijaw had provided leadership at the level of the presidency, “can we say with certainty that this ‘politics of turn-by-turn Nigeria’ has facilitated escape from poverty and delivered exceptional social services for the parts of the country where these leading elites come from? It is more of a myth to assume that if my kinsman is there, it’s going to be a feast of a kind.”
Olurode wondered if the political elite that fight for their selfish interest to protest their estate have the nationalistic spirit to think for the good of all.
“Elites in political parties that perennially engage in factional struggles cannot be expected to frame policies that would be development-friendly. There is confusion in the land because of dissonance among leading political and economic elites. I could not identify an issue on which Nigeria’s diverse elite had ever consistently agreed.
Major political parties are permanently in court over matters which pertain to internal party democracy. Whether in opposition or in government, how Nigerian elite can constitute an engine room of development given its winner–all and zero-sum game approach to power is yet to be seen. As a way of constructing elite consensus for the purpose of governance, once a political party wins in a competitive election, it should feel no inhibition in seeking for the best hands even from the opposition or the private sector in its determination to deliver on good democratic governance,” he further said.
The elite group has always agreed on the existence of a serious issue of concern and challenge besetting Nigeria, what they lack is the consensus on what needs to be done to free the nation. Everyone approaches issues depending on where their interests lie. For instance, on the issue of restructuring, which has been the heartbeat of many Nigerians, it has been Babel of voices.
Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president
“Let me lay more emphasis on the issue of security, which in itself is serious enough to make restructuring imperative. The South-west governors cried out and devised Amotekun as a solution or part-solution, we have yet to see how successfully that will be operated. Other zones are clamouring for a solution because in no state and in no geopolitical zone is life and property safe and secure. Criminality is the order of the day. And it cuts across the entire nation. Insecurity is one issue of commonality among Nigerians, no matter their tribe, language, religion, geographical location, gender, age or social position. I leave out economy which is in the doldrums and fighting corruption where you see more heat than light and which is festering like a bad sore. That, to me, is what reform of federating units and restructuring is all about and not about break-up or disintegration. I remain firmly convinced that without reform of federating units, as I will like to satisfy those who may not like the word ‘restructuring’, Nigeria will remain insecure, unstable, non-progressive and stagnated at best or disintegrated at the worst.”
Goodluck Jonathan, a former president
“How do we restructure to make sure that those things don’t happen again? This shows restructuring alone may not solve all the anomalies in our system. I believe that restructuring for a better nation is good but there are other fundamental issues we should also address. We cannot restructure in isolation without tackling the challenges that polarise our nation. These include nepotism, ethnic and religious differences as well as lack of patriotism. The issues of tribe and religion have continued to limit our unity and progress as a nation.”
Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate
“They are given a certain problem to solve, and when they arrived here they met another problem. One way of stopping the bloodbath is to reconfigure the nation. States must be given maximum control over their resources. There are some, who prefer to grow rice, there are others who prefer to grow religion and we know where religion has taken us today. Some people will like to say, it is not really religion that has gotten us to where we are, I agree with you; but some people have manipulated religion to suit their purpose. The effect of those who manipulated it is disastrous. If some people prefer to grow rice, and others to grow Sharia, then, both sides should be given the means to develop. Those insisting on restructuring do so because they know that there is something wrong with the state of Nigeria.
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Ayo Adebanjo, Afenifere chieftain
“Interestingly, when we talk of restructuring, some of our friends from the North will say ‘they want to break the country’. But, anyone opposed to true federalism which is restructuring is the one who wants to break the country.
The question of insecurity the country is facing now is because the governors do not have control over the security agencies in their states. That is what we need to address now. Anybody talking about the election without changing this constitution does not love this country.
The Constitution we have now is a fraudulent constitution, it is not our constitution. Most importantly, it has failed, and everybody testifies to this fact. It is simply not working.”
Attahiru Jega, former INEC chairman
“Across the world, about 25 countries, which represent 40 percent of the global population practise the federal system of government. What is clear is that when you look at the Nigerian context, not only has there been a long military rule but in the 20 years of civilian rule, we have not made significant progress. Nigeria is one of the worst models of political accommodation of diversities, power as well as resource sharing.
What account for the difference between Nigeria and other countries with more effective management of their diversity are elite consensus and good governance. Bad governance and over concentration of power at the centre is a recipe for disaster. For its stability, progress, and development as a modern nation-state, Nigeria’s current federal structure needs refinement and improvement or some form of what can be called restructuring.”
John Nwodo, former president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo
“To avoid the coming catastrophe, Nigeria must restructure and divert attention to agriculture. There was only one reason why things worked so well then. We had a regional system of government that allowed regions to enjoy sovereignty over their resources whilst paying royalties and taxes to the federal government.
Our domestic security was independent and uncontrolled by the federal government. Suddenly, the army came to power and abrogated our constitution, turned us into a unitary state and imposed a unitary constitution on us.
They seized our natural resources and donated them to the federal government to share without adequate respect for derivation. Nigeria must restructure and give its component units sovereignty over its natural resources provided they pay royalty or some form of taxes to the federal government to maintain federal responsibilities like external defence, foreign missions, customs and immigration. Processes to begin our restructuring as a nation must be concluded before the 2023 elections so as to avert a situation where sections of the country may boycott the elections and present the country with a constitutional force majeure.”
Olisa Agbakoba (SAN)
“Many proposals, including restructuring, have been put forward without success. I believe there is a simple solution. This is devolution of powers. The Constitution has two legislative lists: exclusive and concurrent. These lists have 98 items of powers. The Federal Government exercises exclusive power over 68 items on the exclusive list. The states, in concurrence with the Federal Government, exercise power over 30 items on the concurrent list. But the states may only exercise power on the concurrent list, only if the Federal Government has not already ‘covered the field’ on any of the 30 items. In effect, state governments have no power. I suggest that to resolve this, a committee may review the 98 items of power and assign what is best to federal and what is best to the states, based on the principle of subsidiarity. I also suggest the exclusive list and concurrent list be renamed as the Federal Legislative List and State Legislative list. The Federal Government will exercise reserved powers. The states will exercise devolved power. In my opinion, the simple process of devolved powers can be by an enactment styled, Constitution Alteration (Devolution of Powers) Bill. This will resolve the self-imposed complex issue of restructuring.”
Governor Kayode Fayemi
“My definition of it is, nation-building is a continuous process. At this point in time, based on the experience we have all had in Nigeria, it’s time to reduce the number of items we have on our exclusive list to a few, and those few, I mentioned, are defence, nation security, economy and customs. Every other thing on the list should be devolved to the state. In order for the state not to suffer a tyranny of unfunded mandate, you don’t just devolve responsibilities, you devolve resources. So, you need to change the framework for revenue allocation and distribution in Nigeria. We will continue to review and refine the structure of the country. That’s why the constitutional reform process is on. I am a strong believer in devolution of resources to where the government is closest to the people…Governors have argued security operations would be more accountable if they are devolved to the lower end of government responsibilities”.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai
“I am not aware of any significant constituency that is against the idea that states should exercise consequential powers, assume more responsibilities and control resources to enable them deliver better outcomes for those they govern. This will empower state governments to cease passing the buck to the president and the Federal Government when most of the problems our citizens face daily as a nation are, and can be solved by improved and focused governance at the states’ level. It is time to make this sort of well-defined restructuring work, for the benefit of the peoples of this country. The report of our APC true federalism committee puts in one place the recommendations, and the legislative amendments to give life to a restructured polity. I therefore, call on our federal legislators and the national assembly ad hoc committee on constitutional review to take advantage of our report and initiate the constitutional and legislative amendments in either a piece-meal or comprehensive manner without further delay. We, therefore, have no excuse not to seize this moment and do the heavy lifting for our country and our people. It is in our hands to make the structures, laws and constitutional arrangements in our country conducive to modern governance that will ensure our nation thrives in the 21st Century.”
Buba Galadima, a former national secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)
“I believe very strongly in restructuring, but what form of restructuring? Up till now, nobody has been able to define the restructuring they agitate about. We can do restructuring to make Nigeria better if it is the restructuring I am thinking about. While asked about the restructuring he was thinking about, he said it is a country that has made adequate provision and follows up for the development of the country. No politician comes to talk about; if you vote for me, I will give you borehole, I will give you electricity. All those have been guaranteed in the agreed Plan.”
Edwin Clark, elder statesman and leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF)
“We need a proper restructuring of this country; where everybody will be equal, where appointments will not come from one particular place and others are just waiting. The problems in the country might continue irrespective of who wins the 2019 presidential election. Once you have a Nigeria where some people are superior, and others are inferior, then you don’t have a country. We believe in one thing, and that is that the Constitution Nigeria has today is faulty; if that constitution is not changed, all will not be well.”
Enoch Adeboye, general overseer, Redeemed Christian Church of God
“Why can’t we have a system of government that will create what I will call the United States of Nigeria? Let me explain. We all know that we must restructure. It is either we restructure, or we break up; you don’t have to be a prophet to know that. That is certain restructure or we break up. Now, we don’t want to break up, God forbid. In restructuring, why don’t we have a Nigerian kind of democracy? At the federal level, why don’t we have a President and a Prime Minister? If we have a President and a Prime Minister, we shared responsibilities between these two, so that one is not an appendage to the other. For example, if the President controls the Army, the Prime Minister controls the Police. If the President controls resources like oil and mining, the Prime Minister controls finance and Inland Revenue, taxes, customs etc. You just divide responsibilities between the two. At the state level, you have the governor and the premier, and the same way, you distribute responsibilities to these people in such a manner that one cannot really go without the other. Without any doubt, we must restructure and do it as soon as possible.”
Prof. Remi Sonaiya, a former presidential candidate of KOWA in 2015
“I am a firm believer in the fact that the system that we are currently running, this centralised unitary system is not working, it is simply not working and it’s a reality that we should face and come up with an alternative. A powerful central government where everything is decided in Abuja is not to our advantage. We will continue to be an undeveloped country because of it. If we had a better arrangement that will let every area generate and have control over its resources, we will find out that we will become a better country, we will become more prosperous, but in this arrangement where everyone is just looking up to Abuja for sharing patronage, distribution of oil wells, except for people like we hear, those who can be mining gold, illegally in Zamfara, but that is not helping the people. So, it’s clear that this structure is not working. Police are national, people have been screaming, agitating for us to have state police, local police, or community police to fight some of these problems of security that we have. So, I don’t like an attitude of some people saying: this is how things have always been. In fact, this is not how things have always been. We did not have a unitary system before; it was imposed on us by the military so why are they now saying that there is nothing like restructuring when what we are practising is not working. We are not running true fiscal federalism. This was not how Nigeria was before and we should be able, to be honest with ourselves, and say that this system is not helping us, not working. It’s time we tell ourselves the bitter truth that this system is not working, will not work and will not take us anywhere in terms of genuine development.”
Obiageli Ezekwesili, former Education minister
“I am genuinely curious about this and need to learn more. What is the SOLID argument you have heard from those who are against Restructuring? I have searched and searched; found none and so decided to widen my search. What is the CASE AGAINST Restructuring? …The dominant political culture is the monopolistic service that has retarded and stagnated the country. So, we want to produce a value-based political class that understands ethical policies, competence and how to build systems and procedures that enable the growth of the society. We cannot afford to be spectators. We all should therefore arise and fix our nation; we are the Nehemiahs.”
