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Vice President Yemi Osinbajo last week likened the state of the nation to a wall endangered by many cracks which if not promptly rebuilt could threaten the edifice. In a speech he delivered at the inter-denominational service to mark Nigeria’s 60th independence anniversary, Osinbajo appealed to Nigerians to pray for the unity and wellbeing of the country. He observed that the cracks on the nation’s walls could still be filled if properly addressed.
In a heart-felt speech in which the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, stood in for the Vice President, Osinbajo urged Nigerians to demonstrate patriotism and emulate the Biblical example of Nehemiah whose determined efforts to rebuild the tottering walls of Jerusalem was undertaken purely out of love for his country. He called on Nigerians at home and abroad to demonstrate their commitment to the unity and progress of the country by promoting a sense of patriotism.
We think Osinbajo’s speech was apt given the anniversary which commemorates 60 years of Nigeria’s independence. It serves as a reminder that although the nation has had a lot of shortcomings, it still has a second chance to mend its ways and get on a better track to achieve the aspirations of both the founding fathers and younger Nigerians who feel a deep sense of disappointment that the country is not pulling its weight given its human and material resources. The speech is in alignment with contemporary views among Nigeria’s many elder statesmen who are drawing public attention to the errors and omissions of the present administration. Indeed, some weeks ago, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s president between 1999 and 2007 and Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka decried the country’s insecurity and the government’s failure to give everyone a sense of belonging.
We think it would be uncharitable to ignore some of the efforts of the government in various sectors. Yet we owe an obligation to point out the few areas where we think the government seems to be failing in its duties. The issue of restructuring tends to excite nothing more than derision if not ridicule among high officials of this government. We consider it a height of cynicism to regard the demand for restructuring as a partisan or sectional agitation. Those who propose such arguments ignore the first principles that constitute the fundamental foundations of the Nigerian federation. Those principles were products of a consensus.
Although Nigeria’s founding fathers did not reach a consensus on many issues, to have a federal structure is probably the most important item on which an agreement was reached. It took many years and several constitutions to get to that consensus. Those who pretend not to understand the meaning of restructuring must be counted among opponents of Nigeria’s unity.
The case for restructuring arose because since 1966 when the military intervened in our politics, the military had reformulated the federation in accordance with its command structure. Nigeria was not founded on a military command structure. The nation was difficult enough when it functioned as a true federation. As a unitary state, it is an administrative impossibility. That is why nothing tends to work. A few individuals for whom the system works would debate this assertion.
The difference between a working federation and an oligarchy of power rentiers is easy to detect. That is why we have pervasive corruption, breath-taking inefficiencies, massive unemployment, bare-faced nepotism, the winner-takes-all hustle and massive income inequalities. The crimes that follow these manifestations of a dysfunctional system are so glaring and almost impossible to control.
In practical terms, we see a bloated and an over-burdened Federal Government which now gravitates from doing only a few of those things which the federating units cannot do for themselves to virtually doing everything. Before 1966, such things were said to number about a dozen, the so-called Exclusive List. Now they number 168. The other day, the Federal Government’s bill to control water resources all over the country drew a lot of anger. Alongside the responsibilities, there is fierce competition to acquire and control those powers and the resources that come with them. Our elections are conducted like a civil war and the last one in 2019 reportedly claimed 68 lives.
We believe that it is time to rebuild Nigeria; to renew the fundamental understanding which is the underlying concord that bound the country at its founding. The administration seems to think it is safer to play the ostrich and to ignore the earnest demands of well-meaning Nigerians from all geopolitical zones in the country who have called for restructuring. The more this is delayed the more polarised Nigerians will become and the harder to mend the fences and repair the cracks. The time to fill the cracks is now and by so doing give Nigeria a fresh lease of life on the occasion of its 60th anniversary.
