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For some time the biggest national question wasn’t national development and all involved in it. Rather, it was the agitation to have the country returned to federalism as against the unitary system introduced by the military, which is still in place more than 25 years after their forced exit from power. The proponents of a rework or redrawing of the political and administrative structure of the country were in the majority.
For sure the entire Southern part of the country was in for it, the Yorubas in the West and the Igbo in the Southeast wanted it the most. The minorities around them found in the South South even slightly skeptical were averse to the idea. The Middle Belt popularly known as North Central wanted it. Only the core North loathed the idea and the reason is obvious, they got the advantage from the military interference or intrusion into civil governance. No one who has advantage wants to give it up except when circumstances make it inevitable.
The question of restructuring has been at issue almost all the time. General Sani Abacha who while in power was acting out the macho man still organized a national conference which failed to see the light of the day following his unceremonious exit from office as military leader. The General Abdulsalami administration which followed sidetracked the people, and rather than constitute a national conference to debate the new Nigeria chose instead to gather a few eminent Nigerians and charge them to produce a constitution for the country. The aberration was taken to a ridiculous level when their conclusions were subjected to detailed review by a band of cronies.
General Olusegun Obasanjo having learnt from the past experiences gingered his foot soldiers in the National Assembly led by now late Senator Ibrahim Mantu to commence what appeared like detailed constitutional review of the military propelled constitution. The efforts collapsed when the process was tied to a third term for the president. President Goodluck Jonathan who at first couldn’t see any reason for federalism and a new constitution later became a later day convert. He staged a very controversial national conference which ended at about the time he was leaving office.
President Muhammadu Buhari who came after him didn’t see any reason to either dust up the reports or initiate anything like it. The omission became one of the factors that haunted him and his administration until he finished his second term.
We can use the tenure to show how the echoes of restructuring keep vibrating and causing the country more problems. Buhari, a civil war hero, didn’t see the country beyond a one unit entity, the view point reflected on his policy enunciation and drive. His kitchen team was highly restricted, consequently he was cocooned away from the heart beat of the rest of the population apart from his natural environment. Remember he was provincial. The cabinet was filled with people from his area.
These limitations in scope had consequences for national cohesion and advancement. Rather than place emphasis on creating a linkage between Lagos and the North, between Port Harcourt in the eastern coast to North East, he gave all to building a rail line from Katsina State into Niger Republic. Over five hundred billion is alleged to have been pumped into futile crude oil search in Lake Chad basin and somewhere in Niger State. This was at a time the national economy was hemorrhaging. If he understood federalism, power in diversity and more importantly economics of scale and comparative advantages, perhaps things would have been far better done.
We didn’t build up the railway system but rather wasted funds to bury oil pipes from the coastal region to the Sahel region because there’s this thinking it is not really about one country united by a common destiny. So the predatory mentality and philosophy was grown to replace oneness, a society anchored on fairness, equity and Justice. Today the bad seeds we sowed have grown and have become trees, they occupy space but bring forth no value at all. The echoes for truth still reverberate across the land.
Last week a young lady Ammasaye was burnt to death in Niger State on an allegation of blasphemy. In 2022, a Christian this time was stoned to death in Sokoto, capital of Sokoto State. Several others have been killed under the same circumstances. The latest one in Niger is a Muslim and some of us have heard Christian criticize Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for condemning the dastardly act. Those against CAN don’t know what is really at stake. Killing as bad as it is, isn’t what is cardinal to the development. What is more important is the country, oneness as humans and a sense of bonding. It is about having a country that is truly ours and each enjoying to the fullest what has become popularly known as “citizens rights”.
Among the rights is one to live anywhere and do business. The other very important thing is the right to life. No one should lose his or her life in an arbitrary manner. What has happened in this instance is the leadership vanguard has refused to sit down and establish a country. We have a constitution that provides or satisfies our country as Secular yet the Constitution talks of Shari’a a religious jurisprudence in a secular country. If we mean business, religion should have been consigned to a very personal issue. In Nigeria it has become a state affair.
We spend billions to sponsor adherents to pilgrimages. Our leaders attend faith services taking along cameras and all news organs. Everyone desires to fight for his faith.
Last week our President Bola Tinubu said he could dance because the economy under his watch was beginning to see some growth. Many of us heard him and laughed. In simple economic studies,” non-productive society has no economic stability”. We will continue to grapple every time. We would not be productive and competitive if the huge potentials buried in the sub-national level are not released to “fly.” So long as we bury them in the unitary system in operation so long they will stay “dormant potentials.” It is the Plain Truth.
Same last week a delegation from Katsina State visited the President and told him “terrorists ” were having a field day. The President replied, touching on “state police” ” and hinting at the police surrounding the matter. The Plain Truth is we have become experts in circumventing our major challenges. We know the right answers but would choose to keep going round in the hope sometime in the future divine interference would in one way or another produce the answer.
Everyone knows a major solution to insecurity beside a good and thriving economy is different tiers of security. Guns ought to be creatively put in the hands of citizens. Talking about State Police, community police and even corporate policing. Arming very responsible citizens could be the last stage if need be. This solution is no novelty. Those of them who travel to developed countries at the least of opportunities know this is what operates in those places.
It is not as if they don’t know. What has come between right thinking, the will and implementation is simply the urge to dominate and to keep undue advantages. The more we look away from federalism the closer this edifice moves towards a collapse. This is the hard truth. It is the Plain Truth. The big question is: why is President Bola Tinubu and the West no longer talking RESTRUCTING?
