From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
A retired university teacher, Prof. Philip Adetiloye has said Nigeria must practice true federalism to achieve sustainable democracy, peace and prosperity in the country.
The don who identified local and state autonomies as the institutional frameworks needed for the economic growth and prosperity of the nation asserted that the unitary federalism adopted in the country has hindered development at the grassroots, created hopelessness, fuelled hegemony, corruption, stealing and an exodus of Nigerians to other countries of the world.
The Professor of Crop Science made this known at a press conference on the state-of-the-nation, on Monday, in Ado-Ekiti, capital of Ekiti State, with the theme, ‘Reform Nigeria or Risk Balkanization’
He said, “Unitary federalism was a great mistake that has created the hopelessness in Nigeria today,. It is not possible to get out of the present state of hopelessness in Nigeria by continuing with the same tragic error of unitary federalism.
“Local and state government autonomies are needed institutional frameworks for economic growth and prosperity.
“These constitutional reforms must be implemented without further delays by the legislative arm to prevent Nigeria from collapsing into anarchy which could arise from possible future agitators for self-determination by ethnic nationalities that believe that their developments are being hampered by the present structure of the Nigerian state.
“The legislative arm should urgently define the responsibilities of local, state and federal governments within a truly federated union and pass the autonomy bill for local governments and state governments into law without foot-dragging.
“While states within a geo-political space can collaborate on security and other challenges, Nigeria can never go back to regional autonomy. Regional autonomy will only consolidate the power of the political and economic oligarchs that hold grassroots development by the jugular for decades.
“Local government autonomy can only succeed when local governments have financial and political autonomy. Otherwise, the governors and politicians will continue to impose incompetent chairmen, councillors, supervisors, advisers etc on local governments during local government elections.
“Poor leadership at any tier of government cannot produce miracles. Thus, the quality of local government governance must be given priority in local government autonomy.
“Hardly can one get one out of ten councillors or local government chairmen who have adequate knowledge and understanding of the responsibilities attached to the offices they hold.”
Adetiloye listed several ways to ensure a change in the narrative including, “Foreign embassies in Nigeria are implored to stop issuing travel VISAS to Nigerian governors, their relatives, and political appointees in States where local government autonomy is not operative.
“This is because local government autonomy will provide grassroots development, open doors for employment generation, and reduce the exodus of hopeless Nigerians to their countries.
“Non-governmental and civil society organizations and organized labour should sensitize Nigerians to fight for local and state autonomy in order to achieve true federalism, security, peace, and prosperity in Nigeria.
“Non-governmental and Civil Society Organizations and Organised labour should ensure that any governor that stalls local government autonomy or uses overt or covert means to divert local government funds must be prosecuted for theft and such governor must be impeached and should never be voted into any elective office in Nigeria.
“Civic education must be taught in our schools to enable every educated Nigerian to read and understand the constitution and their fundamental human rights, which include freedom of speech so that Nigerians can continue to interrogate their government and political leaders when they are not performing or addressing priority challenges of Nigerians.
“Understanding our fundamental human rights will mitigate the tendency of government to silence our voices and intimidate Nigerians in the face of oppression.”
He also lamented that the policies and programs of government have no impact on the people.
“Nigeria has become a field laboratory for testing the limits of human endurance. The problems of youth and graduates unemployment, payment of slave wages for those in employment, severe hunger and extreme poverty have increased the level of hopelessness in Nigeria.
“The economic war that our politicians deliberately unleashed on Nigerians for decades continues to fuel the exodus of our youths, top-class graduates, engineers, doctors, and professors to various countries in search of greener pastures.
“For decades government policies and programs do not appear to be solving the problems associated with hopelessness in the country. The deplorable economy, poor standard of living, and insecurity of lives and property continue to pose existential threats to Nigeria’s sovereignty.
“The death of several young and old people who were scrambling for food donations from charities in different parts of the country during the Christmas season is sufficient evidence that poverty and begging for crumbs and alms which was limited in the past to a section of the country, has spread across the length and breadth of Nigeria.
“Two policies of the present government; floating of the naira and the removal of fuel subsidies have pushed prices of food, fuel, and other goods and services to unbearable levels, causing people to lament daily about the hardships they face.
“The floating of the naira by the CBN is not working, and it will never work even if CBN raises the exchange rate to 5000 naira to a dollar because the parallel market rate will always be higher than the CBN exchange rate.
“The parallel market, which is now the informal fifth arm of government after the CBN is richer than the CBN because the parallel market has been funded by corrupt politicians, heads of government ministries and agencies through the banks and the CBN under previous governments.
“Nigerians must rise up to interrogate Nigerian political systems and our politicians who continue with impunity and insensitivity to corruptly enrich themselves while refusing to implement policies and programs that can enhance the quality of life, and gainful employment for our youths and graduates.
“Enough should be enough. Nigeria will not survive as one country if the insensitivity of our political leaders continues to push Nigerians towards another civil war. Local and State autonomies are the panacea for peace and prosperity in Nigeria.”