The recent call by the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) for a return to true federalism is germane to the quest for peace, unity and development of Nigeria. According to the coalition, the 1979 and 1999 constitutions, imposed on Nigerians by the military, remain the bane of Nigeria’s backwardness. In a letter to President Bola Tinubu, NADECO further noted that “Nigeria remains a country not a nation till date because the military had, without Nigerians’ democratic approval truncated, illegally suspended, abrogated and replaced our negotiated independent constitution and replaced it with unitary constitution till date.”
In the letter, signed by its General Secretary and Spokesman, Ayo Opadokun, NADECO expressed its conviction that a return to the Independence/Republican Constitution would restore responsive and responsible government in the country. It urged Tinubu to immediately work towards returning Nigeria to a federal system of government. The clamour for true federalism in Nigeria has been long. Socio-cultural groups like Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) and even the Northern Elders Forum had, at one point or the other, called for a return to true federalism. Even the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are in agreement on the need for restructuring or devolution of powers from the centre to the federating units.
Some prominent Nigerians, such as former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka; former vice-president and presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; and the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, had all clamoured for restructuring of the country. Adeboye, in 2020, said: “We either restructure or we break up.” Also, almost all the presidential candidates of the leading parties in the 2023 general election promised to restructure Nigeria in line with the tenets of federalism.
One major exception to these calls for true federalism was the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. That government did not fancy these calls for restructuring, and, at some point, described them as unwarranted and unpatriotic. This is despite the fact that the APC promised restructuring and devolution of powers in its manifesto before the 2015 general election. It also set up a committee headed by ex-governor, Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, to harmonise issues surrounding restructuring. The committee recommended that the APC-led government should fulfill its promise to restructure Nigeria. The current APC government of Bola Tinubu should endeavour to fulfill this promise. It should initiate a bill on restructuring to the National Assembly. Nigeria has over 250 ethnic groups. Each of these groups should feel a sense of belonging to the country. In the First Republic, there was regional arrangement with healthy competition among the regions. This is the only thing that can bring unity and peace to the country. Currently, we claim to be practising a federal system. But in reality, our present federalism is unitary in outlook. Under the present federation, the central government controls 68 items on the exclusive legislative list. This is an aberration in a federal system of government. That is why every zone or region struggles to get to the centre because there is concentration of power there. Those who cannot get to this centre feel marginalised. This has engendered agitations for self-determination in some areas. We should not allow what happened in countries like Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Soviet Union to happen to us. These East European countries were once united countries. Today, they have all broken up into different countries.
The 1914 amalgamation of Nigeria came without any recourse to how the various divergent groups could live together peacefully. The 1994-1995 Constitutional Conference made far-reaching recommendations on restructuring of the country. The 2014 national conference also made far-reaching recommendations. These recommendations ended up on the shelves. There was no attempt to implement them. A number of countries with ethnic diversities have fashioned out ways of managing their diversities. The United Kingdom granted regional autonomy to the Irish, the Scott and the Welsh. In Switzerland, there is a rotational presidency among its seven-member federal council. In 2020, Chile decided to abolish its military-era constitution for a more inclusive democracy after a popular referendum.
In all, a return to true federalism does not mean balkanization of the country. It will rather allow each federating unit to develop at its own pace. It will engender fiscal federalism, decentralised policing, devolution of powers, equity and justice in the allocation of resources and appointments. The executive should immediately push for a bill for a return to true federalism because it will ensure even development of the country and an end to the seemingly unending insecurity across the country.