Restructuring: The Fears, the facts

A school-of-thought believes agitations for restructuring of the country is fuelled by the absence of social justice.

According to this narrative, President Muhammadu Buhari’s 97 percent versus 5 percent speech in Washington on June 23, 2015 is a recipe for national upheaval.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation, Suleiman Adokwe (PDP, Nasarawa South) called for social justice to put an end to agitations in some sections of the country.

He called on the government to address marginalisation in sections of the country, with a view to giving all Nigerians a sense of belonging.

The lawmaker pointed out that while restructuring means cessation of the country to a section of the country, others view it as devolution of powers to the regions, while another section wants resources control and others advocate retention of the current political and economic structures.

In an exclusive chat with BDSUNDAY, he said: “I believe there are certain adjustments that need to be made. There are certain groupings that need to take place so that people can have some measure of fiscal responsibilities for their regions. I come from Northern Nigeria and central part of this country. I don’t know what our fears are. For me, there are things that you can do for yourself without looking at oil because there are many countries in the world that don’t have oil, that don’t even have any resources except human resources and which we have plenty here. Truth be told, a lot of us in the northern states are not doing half of what the Premier did for us in Northern Nigeria. When the Premier took over Northern Nigeria, there were only two secondary schools: one in Barewa and one in Keffi. But within the space of four to five years he had established a secondary school in every province and he had established a university, college of agriculture and so on. We are not doing those things again. And the gap between the North and South was being bridged so fast. By the time I got to the university – sometimes in 1975 – Ahmadu Bello that was established as a backward university was the biggest university Africa South of the Sahara because of the vision that that Premier had. The people who inherited from him are not doing one-tenth of what he did. Instead, everyday they are just crying ‘this country must be one, nobody can divide it. We must continue to eat of those resources’. We can do our own resources. It was just groundnut and soya beans that kept us alive.”

According to Adokwe, “Even the southerners who cling to oil to threaten restructuring should know that the demand for oil is soon going away; people are seeking for alternative energy. The real thing is: what do we do to diversify our economy? The oil industry in Nigeria doesn’t give us more than N40billion per annum for a population of almost 200million. It means that we need to do much more than that. Look at when the oil price crashed and we just went into recession immediately with no alternative. We don’t have any economic tools to manipulate our economy because it does not depend on anything other than oil. And once the price is down, you cannot meet your output you can’t do anything else. Even the sugarcane seller is talking about dollar. He should have nothing to do with the dollar at all because all our industries are financed by the petro-dollar. And once it is no longer there everybody gets into trouble.

“And that is why nobody should shy away from this restructuring talk as far as I am concerned. We should face it squarely. We should be able to take our destiny in our hands and know that we can do other things rather than waiting just for oil. Because we cannot wait for an asset that is wasting away. And our land is there forever. No matter how bad our land is, it cannot get worse than the desert areas of Israel, Saudi Arabia that we go and find greeneries there. People have turned deserts into lucrative areas. Why can’t we do the same? Even the desert we have in Nigeria, if you take that desert to Israel, it will be a fertile land for them. But we are treating them as there is desert encroachment and we are just running away. We still have green spots everywhere in the North. That means our soil is still rich enough to produce green shrubs. So, you need very little effort to be able to make that soil produce. And we just have to do it because we can’t continue like this. Certainly, we have come a long way. There are too many things binding us that the question of breaking apart is not appealing to anybody. Even the people that are making noise about cessation; it is just a strategy to draw attention to their problems. And they do not genuinely want to leave. I don’t think the Igbos stand to gain by seceding because they are so confident in Project Nigeria that they have invested in every part of this country. So, I do not see them wanting to abandon their assets. Most of the best buildings you can find in the North are owned by Igbos, not even by the Hausa-Fulani that are indigenous to those places. But in real terms, there are a lot of problems that need to be addressed. The country can only progress if you implement social justice. If there is no social justice, you are bound to have agitations everywhere. And these agitations must be listened to. If they use the carrot and stick, you listen to people, you woo people back for security reasons. You have to do certain things in order to keep the country one and protect our territorial integrity. But at the same time you must do those things that will improve on the welfare of the people because government is about the protection of lives and properties and creating wealth and prosperity for the people. Once a government cannot do those things, it reduces its legitimacy. And so, you can’t shy away from the need to address these social problems. And that is what restructuring, as far as I am concerned, is all about; ensuring there is social justice for everybody”.

Also commenting on the matter, former Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido attributed the discordant views about restructuring to inability of the present administration to practise inclusive government.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, the PDP chieftain said: “If you ask Nigerians today they have various views over this issue. To the man in South-South, it is about his own resources. He won’t share the same view with the man in South East. The guy in the South West who controls the economy has his own agenda; so for the northerner.

“It is because government as an institution for all is missing. With due respect, where a government says it is there for those who gave it the votes, then those who didn’t give it the votes, what is their own fate? It means it is not their own government.

“There is so much anger, so much mistrust. But by the time you get a government which is caring, loving Nigerians will have that notion of self-esteem and they will be happy. Even the debate will be less emotional and people will look at the hardcore issues of the debate”.

 

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja