The Fundamental Flaw in our Federal System
The hues and cries for restructuring in our nation appear not to have been well received by this present government. The inquisitive may ask: “Why must we restructure?” We must restructure to correct the flaws in our federal system. A federated state is defined as “a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federal union[21].” In a true federal system, previously sovereign states agree to confer their individual sovereignties on a central government. In other words, the states create the federal government, as was the case with the original thirteen American colonies. This was also the case when the Nigerian federal system was originally conceived by our founding fathers. Prior to the coming of the colonialists, sovereignty was domiciled in empires, kingdoms, city-states and republican villages. It was, however, taken over by the colonialists at which point it resided in the British Crown. At Independence, as negotiations for the framework of a new sovereign entity took place, sovereignty had taken another geopolitical form – regional. It was these regional units that had agreed to federate at the London Conference which led to the Lyttletton Constitution of 1954. Our founding fathers agreed that Nigeria would be “a truly federal state with limited and specific powers allocated to the federal government and residual powers inherent in the regional governments.”[22] This agreement was the social contract upon which the Nigerian state was formed, but this social contract was broken on May 24, 1966 through the Unification Decree by Gen. J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi’s administration. That was the day Nigeria died.
Five decades later, in spite of the reversal of the Unification Decree by Gen. Yakubu Gowon’s administration resulting in the division of Nigeria into twelve states, this deviation from the landmarks set by the fathers is a crucial reason for our disjointed nationhood and the perennial socioeconomic decay. It is why efforts at economic diversification by government after government, including the present government, have failed to yield the expected results. It is what has led to the infrastructural decay. It is why we run bloated governments that hitherto spend over 70% of annual budgets on recurrent expenditure[23].
The Imperatives of Restructuring
To understand why we must restructure, let us take a quick look, for example, at the administration of education in Nigeria. At Independence, the entire Northern Region, which comprised the current nineteen northern states, had one Ministry of Education headed by one Minister. The entire Western Region, which comprised the current six states in the South West and roughly two states in the South South, had one Ministry of Education headed by one Minister. The entire Eastern Region which comprised roughly five states in the current South East and four states in the current South South had one Ministry of Education with one Minister. Therefore, there were only three Ministries of Education headed by three Ministers in the entire country and they were responsible for the rapid educational advancement that took place in that era as the regions competed through such policies as free education to achieve socioeconomic development. Today, we have thirty-six Ministries and thirty-six Commissioners for Education which, together with the Federal Ministry of Education, consume a huge chunk of the limited education budget through recurrent expenditure. This is a very huge drainpipe in our economy. It ranks pari-passu with the cancer of corruption in hampering our growth and development as a nation. Imagine how much we could save with six efficient and effective ministries in education and other relevant socioeconomic sectors in six geopolitical zones.

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Pastor Bakare, speaking truth to power as always regardless of who occupies Aso Villa