By Emeka Alex Duru
“When we take over the government in 2023, we will start the restructuring of the country”.
These were the exact words of Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, last Monday, when the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party received former aides of Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, who refused to follow him to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a system of issue-driven politics where leaders are taken by their words, the pronouncement by Tambuwal should be weighty. In that instance, restructuring should be an issue that could play decisive role in 2023 general elections. It is one concept that is increasingly getting the attention of many Nigerians. Elsewhere, it could be a deciding factor on who the voters queue behind in the next election.
At the height of 1980 American presidential campaign between Democratic President Jimmy Carter and Republican nominee, Ronald Reagan, Reagan posed a rhetorical question that has come to assume great importance in subsequent elections in the country: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” he asked. Carter had no answer. Americans gave serious thought to the question and gave Reagan their votes. The question of restructuring is assuming that level of importance among Nigerians.
Tambuwal’s political platform, the PDP, may not have the moral grounds to situate the matter. For 16 years it was in the saddle, PDP treated restructuring with utmost disdain. Maybe it has learned its lessons. Or not! But for whatever it is, restructuring has become a stubborn topic that has refused to go. And rightly, so!
Perhaps, very few topics, if any, had come up repeatedly in major public discourses in the country, in recent times, as the issue. Since the former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Alao Aka-Bashorun, and like minds in the civil society blew the lid on the need for sovereign national conference in the 1980s, the agitation for a restructured Nigeria, has not ceased.
Items listed by Aka-Bashorun and his group for deliberation included a restructured system anchored on an ideal federal structure with its attributes of fiscal and regional autonomy, resource control and equitable distribution of the national wealth. The fire has been on, years after.
If ours were to be a setting where governance is defined by the desires of the people, it should not be a big deal taking another look at the structural foundations of the country. The dysfunctionality of the current structure has become so obvious that it can no longer be papered along, in pretension that all is well. Even at family level, there comes a time when members interrogate developments around them and take some steps forward. The case of Nigeria is more imperative, considering its complexities. The very basis for the evolution of the state is suspect, in the first place. The 1914 amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates that gave rise to the country, was essentially an exercise at administrative convenience and furthering the economic interests of the British colonial masters. The people that constituted the entity, were not consulted. Subsequent efforts at forging ahead have been clogged by that foundational error.
Not even the 1999 constitution (as amended) that is currently in use, has been able to correct those glaring inadequacies. The document is in itself, built on lie. The preamble, “We, the People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria…”, is anchored on falsehood. Nigerians did not gather to make the constitution, neither did their representatives. It was a contraption by a class of military adventurists not adequately schooled in the art of law making. This is why some basic issues in the land are ignored or muddled up in the constitution. Something must really give in if we are to come out of our present sorry bend.
Agreed, there is no perfect constitution anywhere. It is also a fact that the entire problem may not be with the constitution but rather in the implementation. That however does not take away the fact that the faulty nature of the document is a fundamental cause of major challenges in the land. This is a constitution that vests so much powers on the federal government to the point of virtually sidelining the states and local councils. It is also one that does not make room for people to make input on how they should be governed. In a situation where leadership at the centre has come to be characterised by petty and parochial considerations, there are bound to be tensions at the local levels.
When therefore you hear or see some characters who ordinarily should not command audience at village meetings, stepping out and galvanizing the people in the march for self-determination or regional autonomy, they are reflecting the mood of the moment. Only very few Nigerians are still comfortable with the trends in the country.
So, when the President, Muhammadu Buhari, attempts to browbeat those agitating for local autonomy or dismisses them as rabble rousers or dots in a circle, he is missing the point. It seems, perhaps, that he chooses to ignore that his party, the APC, while seeking votes in 2015, actually pledged to restructure the polity if voted to power. Specifically, in Article 7(ii) of the April 2014 APC Constitution (as amended), the party listed its Aims and Objectives as: “To promote true federalism in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The APC Manifesto also committed the party to “implement efficient public financial management strategies and ensure true federalism” as well as “restructure governance in a way that kick starts our political economy so that we begin to walk the path of our better future.”
These are realities that neither the president nor his cheer men have faulted. Honesty demands that he comes back to them. What is required is sincerity of purpose to address the issues. The President in pushing the agenda to the National Assembly (NASS) in his Democracy Day speech, knew he was playing pranks. NASS as currently constituted, lacks the courage and capacity to undertake such a tasking assignment without overt approval from the presidency. Buhari is thus, not being sincere with the matter. And that is dangerous.
There are many reasons why the government should create platform for Nigerians to determine their future. Presently, in many parts of the country, the demand for self-determination is strident. Ethnic nationalism has been on the rise with accompanying tensions. Poverty is wide spread, posing serious threats to the corporate existence of the country. Incidences of insecurity are going beyond control. At no time in recent history has Nigeria’s fault lines been exposed as they are, now. In other words, things are not in order.
The authorities cannot continue to behave as if things are normal. The signs are getting clearer; the cracks are widening so much that something needs to be done urgently. The noxious notion that the country’s unity is non-negotiable, is no longer tenable in the light of the realities of the day. If Nigeria does not embrace dialogue, it may be heading for the precipice.
The demand for restructuring is not a call for dismemberment of the nation. It is rather an opportunity for Nigerians to decide how they want to live and interact with one another, allow the component units to maximize their comparative advantages and develop at their individual rates. This is the way to go. Democracy is synonymous with dialogue and negotiation. And we must make hay while the sun shines.
*DURU is the Editor, TheNiche Newspapers, Lagos (08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)