Popular Misconceptions about Federalism & Restructuring in Nigeria

When you hear the phrase ‘Restructure Nigeria’ and ‘True Federalism’ what comes to your mind?

For many, ‘restructure’ and ‘true federalism’ have become a suspicious phrase. This is due to the misconceptions, misinterpretations, misunderstanding, and ignorant understanding of the concept. For some, true federalism means resource control and therefore should not be accepted. For others, restructuring means creating an opportunity for secession and must therefore not be accepted. These two major misinterpretations have greatly hindered the general acceptance of the concepts and have made it difficult for Nigerians across divide to accept it as a pragmatic solution. What then is federalism and restructuring and how is it different from what antagonists think it is.

What is the relationship between federalism and resource control?

If you have understood what federalism is, by now you should know that federalism is not resource control but however resource control is a feature of federalism. When you say a people should be autonomous, it also entails that they should have the right to control their resources too. This is a basic principle of federalism. You cannot give the local people more responsibilities and yet deny them access to to exploit their resources and take advantage of their comparative natural advantages.

What exactly is Resource Control?

Prof. Itsey Sagay gives us an interesting understanding of the concept. Resource control in his view involves three major components:

The power and right of a Community or State to raise funds by way of tax on persons, matters, services and materials within its territory.

The exclusive right to the ownership and control of resources, both natural and created within its territory.

The right to customs duties on goods destined for its territory and excise duties on goods manufactured in its territory.

Resource control, which in certain circumstances can be referred to as fiscal federalism, goes hand in hand with true federalism. This was recognized and implemented faithfully in the Independence and Republican Constitution (1960 and 1963).

The Regional Constitutions, in the 1960 and 1963 Constitutions, described each Region as “a self-governing Region of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” To buttress the self-governing status of each Region, adequate provision were made to guarantee the economic independence of the Regions, thus avoiding the hollowness of a declaration of self-governing status totally undermined by economic dependence. Moreover, consistently with the Federal character of the country, i.e. country of many nations, the basis of revenue allocation was strictly derivative.

Section 140 which made provision for the sharing of the proceeds of minerals, including mineral oil, stated that: “There shall be paid by the Federal Government to a Region, a sum equal to fifty per cent of the proceeds of any royalty received by the Federation in respect of any minerals extracted in that Region and any mining rents derived by the Federal Government from within any Region.” For the purposes of this section, the continental shelf of a Region was deemed part of that Region. This is totally consistent with international law which characterizes the continental shelf as a seaward extension of the land of the coastal state.

By Section 136(1) 30 per cent of general import duties were paid into a distributable pool for the benefit of the Regions. With regard to import duties on petrol, diesel oil and tobacco, the total sum of import duty collected less administrative expenses, were fully payable to the Region for which the petrol or diesel oil or tobacco was destined. A similar provision was made for excise duty on tobacco.

With regard to produce, i.e. cocoa, palm oil, groundnuts, rubber and hides and skin, the proceeds of export duty were shared on the basis of the proportion of that commodity that was derived from a particular Region. As noted above, the derivative bases of the allocation of revenue and the proportionate share of such proceeds that went to the Region it originated from, clearly buttressed the operating base of.

From the above historical account, we can see that resource control has been an integral aspect of Nigeria’s short lived federalism.

What is the relationship between federalism and secessionism?

Another popular misconception about federalism is that it will lead to the dismemberment of Nigeria. This is not true. In fact, a restructured Nigeria will lead to a united Nigeria as all issues of marginalization, exploitation and the likes been perpetuated by the federal government will be completely eradicated.

Let us take a look at history, after the debate on Chief Anthony Enahoro’s motion for independence in 1956 which pitched the Northern and Southern Legislators sharply against each other, the Northerners issued an 8-point demand as a condition for remaining in Nigeria as follows:

1 This region shall have complete legislative and executive autonomy with respect to all matters except the following: defence, external affairs, customs and West African research institutions.

2 That there shall be no Central Legislative body and no Central Executive or policy making body for the whole of Nigeria.

3 There shall be a Central Agency for all Regions which will be responsible for the matters mentioned in paragraph one and other matters delegated to it by a Region.

4 The Central Agency shall be at a neutral place preferably Lagos.

5 The composition and responsibility of the Central Agency shall be defined by the Order-in-Council establishing the constitutional arrangement. The Agency shall be a non-political body.

6 The services of the railway, air services, posts and telegraphs, electricity and local mining shall be organised on an inter-Regional basis and shall be administered by public corporations. These corporations shall be independent bodies covered by the statute under which they are created. The Board of the Coal Corporation shall be composed of experts with a minority Representation of the Regional Government.

7 All revenue shall be levied and collected by the Regional Government except customs revenue at the port of discharge by the Central Agency and paid to its treasury. The administration of the Customs shall be so organised as to assure that goods consigned to the Region are separately cleared and charged to duty.

8 Each Region shall have a separate Public Service!

The above historical account explains everything we need to know about federalism and secession. Secession becomes unnecessary when autonomous federating units are in charge of their people and development. It is in fact, the present unitary system that breeds secessionism. The above eight demands from the Northern region as conditions for becoming part of the new country to be called Nigeria is a clear attestation that the lack of self-determination in any arrangement is what leads to self-determination. As we have seen, the North once asked for self-determination (a principle of federalism) as their condition for becoming part of the Nigerian arrangement, and they got it, only for the military to distort the arrangement with their first and counter coups. Today, the rest of Nigeria are demanding for their right of self-determination and we believe they will get it too. Every Nigerian must now come out to demand for this right which is entrenched in true federalism.

There is a lesson from Ethiopia and their recent attainment of federalism that we should learn from. Let us put it here in verbatim.

“…Politically, the era of centralization seems to have come to an end, and this is as it should be. A multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious society such as ours cannot and should not be administered in a highly centralized manner. That people in their respective localities have the right to administer themselves, exercise a degree of command over their own resources, and develop their own cultures and languages must be taken as axiomatic…But there must also be unity within diversity. In the past we emphasized unity at the expense of diversity, and we have paid dearly for it. Let us hope that now we will not move to the other extreme and emphasize diversity at the expense of unity.” [Eshetu Chole, “Ethiopia At the Crossroads…”, DIALOGUE, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia].