Magnus Eze, Enugu
Director of Public Affairs, Igbo Leadership Development Foundation (ILDF), Dr. Law Mefor, speaks on the forthcoming dialogue for national unity on the theme: “Federal character, restructuring and rotation of presidential power in Nigeria” and the current security challenges in the country.
Security has taken the front seat in both national and regional discourse in Nigeria. Are you comfortable with the steps taken so far, especially by the leadership of the South East?
There are two main justifications for existence of government. They are one, to secure life and property and two, to make life more abundant to a greater number of citizens. Security challenges in Nigeria are worsening and the fault lines spreading. Even the Boko Haram the President said has been technically defeated has regained impetus with the injection capacity and viciousness coming for ISIS which has now made West Africa particularly Nigeria its new base. Herdsmen menace is also escalating and their impunity growing correspondingly. Boko Haram is now mutating into banditry and kidnappers, further complicating the problem. The nation’s response to all these security challenges is not adequate. We need to rejig and restructure both the nation’s security architecture and do something quickly about state or regional police. Community policing as planned by the Police is no solution. I understand they will not even be paid so who pays them if not the State Government? Why should states keep paying for what they are not in charge of? The south east so far, has not done anything visible to secure the zone. Only the South west has responded adequately with Amotekun. South East Governors are talking of community policing. That has always been there via vigilante. There must be State based security architecture that is zonally coordinated. Why zonal coordination is necessary is for the provision for backup in case of where threats can overwhelm a single state. The threats are real. ISIS is here. Stranded Fulani herdsmen are now viewing Nigeria as their home and as a matter of fight. That is why they are dispossessing the indigenous populations with impunity; with tacit support of the federal government. Even the free visa regime just introduced by Buhari and the federal agency for rehabilitation of terrorists being proposed by the Senate can only worsen matter. How can you leave the victims of terrorism and create a federal agency for the education and rehabilitation of the aggressors. This has not happened anywhere in the world to the best of my knowledge.
Is restructuring the magic dose to Nigeria’s myriad of challenges and is it still necessary since the ongoing constitutional amendment by the National Assembly can address the issues?
Restructuring has become such a catchword in the recent times. Those who initially used the term-restructuring; may be the ones who brought the devil into it by making it emotionally charged. But whatever may be the case, restructuring is simply the return of the nation to a truly federal system as negotiated by the nation’s founding fathers with departing colonial Britain. In every federation, power is shared between the Federal Government and federating states. But in the 1999 Constitution, just like many others before it since the civil war, the Federal Government is given powers in about 66 areas while the States are given mere concurrent powers in about 16 areas. What concurrence here means is the Federal Government equally having the powers to legislate in the areas allowed the States while retaining the top-heavy powers to legislate exclusively in the over sixty areas as well as the power to override the States. This makes Nigeria a unitary system and federal only in name.
Fact is: most of the powers that will engender real growth and development are tied in the exclusive list. Electricity, railways, ports, security etc. are all tied to the federal government, which has not been able to live up to expectations of Nigerians. In summary, restructuring consequentially is: returning the powers taken away from regions to the States. Compared to growth and development of Nigeria and her regions in the First Republic when federalism was practiced in Nigeria, the nation has actually stagnated under the current unitary arrangement. Then, the Eastern Region economy was adjudged the fastest growing in Africa. While the Western Region was able to establish TV station before some countries in Europe and Northern Region led the world of agriculture. While holding the nation down by force, development has been arrested, giving room for the growing in security, corruption and really poor subsistence economy. Nigeria adopted the federal system of government after independence in 1960 to assuage the feelings of the over 200 ethnic minorities. Whoever is substituting federalism with unitary system in Nigeria is an enemy of Nigeria.
Previous attempts to adopt rotational presidency has failed, yet calls for it persist. How do you think the issue should be resolved?
I don’t know what you mean by that previous attempts to adopt rotational presidency have failed. Rotation has always worked. Some politicians out of selfishness wanted to thwart it. That is what some of us are fighting to strengthen it. Rotation of office of the President between north and south of Nigeria should be a constitutional matter. This will remove it from whims of politicians. To provide further sense of belonging, the ‘Federal Character Principle’ was inserted into the 1979 Constitution and since the office of the President is indivisible, the only way the federal character principle will apply to it is by rotation of presidential power. Since the return to the present democratic dispensation, the country has craved for rotation. Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan and Buhari are all products of rotation. Jonathan lost because he refused to abide by rotation. I believe that Buhari as a statesman will yield to rotation at the end of his tenure as Obasanjo did to bring in Yar’Adua.
One of the major issues critics of Buhari Presidency hold strongly to is the lopsidedness in appointments. What do you think should be the practice particularly in an ethnic country like Nigeria?
President Buhari has observed the sanctity of the federal character principle enshrined in the 1999 Constitution only in breach. His appointments to all national security positions were done in breach of the 1999 Constitution. For example, there is no single security appointment from the South east. The implication of this is grave. When decisions are taken on national security and National Security Council, no single Igbo man is there representing the zone. So, there is no input from the one quarter of the country, which the southeast represents. Nigeria is resting on quadrupod and cannot stand well on three, talk less of two legs. This is precisely what the federal character principle in the constitution sought to avoid. The President’s actions on lopsided appointments ought to be challenged in courts and I am aware that some people are taking it up. I don’t mind being joined in those suits. The 1999 Constitution, which President Buhari swore to uphold states and I quote: “the composition of the government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies” (Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution). You don’t need to be a lawyer to see how this noble, containment extant constitutional provision has been violently violated.
You are involved in a lecture coming up in Abuja on the National Question. Will it not be another talk shop?
The national conversation which my coalition is calling is not another talk shop. This is refreshingly different because it is not going to end on the 5th of March. The team is moving round the country, meeting critical stakeholders and urging them to see why we need to have a country where no segment would feel left behind. It is a two-year project. The national dialogue will continue with town halls, seminars and conferences and media engagements. We need to keep talking. Even God asked man, come let us reason together. Nigeria is salvageable. Nigeria is a beautiful project and workable. We must make Nigeria work for ourselves and our children by enthroning social justice and returning the powers that were taken away from regions by the military to the states. That is what we mean by restructuring and true federalism. More importantly, the national conversation is about reconciliation. The North and the old South east must genuinely forgive each other in order to put the civil war truly behind. The core north has not forgiven the Igbo man for the first military coup in which its leaders were killed. It erroneously tagged it an Igbo coup which it is not. Ndigbo on the other hand have not forgiven the North for pogroms and the civil war. Both sides must forgive and let go. The Igbo would say one holding another on the ground is holding himself as well. The only advantage the holder may enjoy is being on top of the victim. But he too cannot move an inch unless he or she lets go the other on the floor with him. That is the case of Nigeria since the end of the civil war; a sad narrative that needs to end for the nation to move