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The recent #EndSARS protests have clearly exposed some injustices in the Nigerian system. Seeing the dangers ahead, the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) led by a former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma and some other statesmen reiterated the calls for the restructuring of Nigeria. In a recent statement titled, ‘#EndSARS – It is time to renegotiate Nigeria’, the group said the current imbalance in the country was producing nothing but sorrow, poverty and death for Nigerians. While condemning the deployment of soldiers to attack unarmed protesters, the NCEF urged the government to take advantage of the protest to introduce state police. It argued that the failure of government to declare state police implied that it desired a centralided police system. Having observed that the unjust and sectional structure left behind by the British colonialists was no longer sustainable, the group stressed that the time was ripe to renegotiate Nigeria.
Similarly, there have been strident calls for the restructuring of Nigeria in recent times. Such calls have come from notable Nigerians, including the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye; Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan; former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.
Besides, many socio-cultural groups have lent their voices to this call. Be it Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Northern Elders Forum, Pan Niger-Delta Forum and Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, the feeling currently is that Nigeria has no choice but to restructure. These individuals and groups cannot be wrong. The truth is that forced marriages do not last. For any marriage to last, there must be mutual understanding, agreement, love and unity of purpose.
These essential ingredients were lacking during the 1914 amalgamation of Nigeria. That was why a few years after independence in 1960, the country fought a 30-month bloody civil war. Millions of people perished in the war. We seem not to have learnt any lesson from that war. There are serious agitations and cry of marginalisation in the North Central, South East and some other sections of the country. Even in the core North, there is no love lost between Southern Kaduna natives and the Fulani.
Also, our constitution is not a representation of the wishes of many Nigerians. There are 68 items on the exclusive list. This has effectively ensured that power is concentrated at the centre. It should not be so. There is every need to devolve powers to the constituent states or regions. This will ensure that the near dependence of the states on the federal government is curtailed. There should be healthy competition among the states to outperform one another economically. It was so in the first republic. There is no reason it can’t be so now.
There are some lessons to learn from Chile. On October 25, 2020, the South American country in a popular referendum decided to abolish its military-era constitution for a more inclusive democracy. It came about after a year of protests known as “el estallido” (the explosion) against inequalities and injustices in the country. Interestingly, the new constitution will be written solely by the citizens of Chile and not the congress. In 2008, Bolivia wrote a new constitution which recognised itself as a multi-ethnic country and prescribed clauses to protect indigenous language, culture and land.
In many other parts of the world, people are rising up to demand equity and justice in governance. The world has taken notice of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, the Black Lives Matter in the United States and now the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria. In the United Kingdom, there is regional autonomy to the Irish, the Scott and the Welsh. In Switzerland, the four ethno-linguistic groups that make up the native Swiss population agreed to a rotational presidency among the seven-member federal council. Countries like Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union have all broken up into different countries.
Oftentimes, some of our leaders think that restructuring means dismemberment of the country. It is not so. All it requires is for us to sit down and discuss how to stay together as a country so that no section feels left out in the scheme of things. It is when we discuss that we come to a compromise. There is no alternative to it. The imbalance in the system is obvious. The #EndSARS movement is a sign that the system can no longer remain the same. We can’t continue to run away from the reality. The present system favours a tiny few and no nation can survive such without having a problem.
The government should convoke a conference to discuss the future of the country. The Goodluck Jonathan administration did it in 2014. The report of that exercise has gathered dust in the shelves. Nothing stops this government from revisiting it or setting up its own agenda where Nigerians will discuss and come up with solutions to the nation’s problems. There is no better time to do it than now.
