Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, a foremost Ijaw leader, the Convener of the Pan – Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and an elder statesman, in this interview, speaks in the distortions inherent in the Nigerian system and the restructuring we need. At what point did the distortions in the system that have given rise to the calls for the restructuring of the federation begin?
That was in 1966 when some army majors struck and most of the big politicians and many senior army officers were killed in a coup. Up till that time, the constitution in operation provided for fiscal federalism which implied that whatever you produced in your region, you take 50% while, out of the remaining 50%, the federal government that had little responsibility will take 20% and the remaining 30% will be shared among all the regions.
Aguiyi Ironsi took over and, advised by some senior Igbo army officers that Nigeria should run a unitary form of government, he promulgated Decree 34, which we are now practicing today in the name of federalism. When General Gowon took over from Ironsi, he decided to find out what Nigerians wanted. Northern Nigeria proposed regionalism; they no longer wanted a federal system of government. Western Nigeria was ready to go. It was the Mid – West team, headed by Anthony Enahoro, that saved the situation and the Gowon administration adopted a federal system of government. Meanwhile, Gowon did not abrogate Decree No 34. The war came and he created 12 states. General Murtala succeeded Gowon and created more states and we had 19 states. Other heads of state came and created more states until 1998 when the number of states came to 36.
What about the local governments that were said to have been arbitrarily created?
The same military governments arbitrarily created local governments each favouring the areas where their leaders hailed from. That anomaly gave KANO State 57 local governments whereas Bayelsa State has only 8. Besides, you cannot create local governments without the federal governments approving it; this is a weakness, this is not part of a federal system. Local governments should not be part of the federating units.
Local governments should be created by state governments, pay them, dissolve them if they want to and there should be no administrators because the constitution provides that local governments should be run by elected officials. But it is obvious that local governments were created to take money from the federation account. Kano State alone collects about six billion naira every month for its local governments whereas Bayelsa, with eight local governments, even though a small state but produces oil, how much does its local governments get? That is one situation people don’t understand. Now some people are in favour of state police even though Tanko Yakasai argued, in his book that the police in the hands of unscrupulous governors could be misused just like the native authorities of the past did. But state police will provide more security. And the constitution says governors are the chief security officers of their states whereas they don’t control the states commissioners of police. So when the governor gives the commissioner of police directives, he has to clear with the inspector general of police.
The National Conference of 2014 where you were a delegate representing your Ijaw people and the Niger Delta apparently tried to correct some of this anomalies but the recommendations have unfortunately not seen the light of day.
It is not only in the areas of revenue or the local governments and state police that we have anomalies and we tried to use the opportunity of that conference to address. The restructuring that many people want envisages that the Office of the Attorney General should be separated from the Office of the Minister of Justice such that the former is professional and independent while the latter is political. The Office of the Accountant General should also be split. There should be the Accountant General for the federal government and the Accountant General for the federation. These are some of the things the 2014 National Conference recommended. At the moment, the federal government has about 98 items under its control. All we are saying is that some of these items should go to states; since there are no regions, states should be the federating units. In education, why should the federal government be involved in primary and secondary education? In the 1960 constitution, University of Ibadan was the only federal university followed by the University of Lagos in 1962. ABU, University of Ife and University of Nsukka were regional universities at the time. What we are saying is that some of the items exclusive to the federal government should be concurrent. And then when you talk about agriculture, the federal government has no land, it is state government that owns land. Let agriculture be designated as a state function. So when you talk about devolution, it is all about rearranging the constitution so that more functions will go down; and if more functions go to the states, more revenue will be given to them. Today, the federal government receives about 58% from the federation account. It should not have more than 42% while the state and local governments should have the balance. This is what we call devolution of power and we are recommending. We also said that the National Assembly should be restructured so that it becomes part-time in order to save more money and the same thing should operate at the state level. Federalism is what Nigerians want so that everybody can have a say in government, in order for people to have a feeling of belonging to government


www.vanguardngr.com/2017/08/clark-explodes-buhari-marginalising-igbo/


Lalasticlala where you they
Source:

Igbo should also marginalized him

God is already marginalizing the person that felt he could marginalise others

Quite a lengthy read. But what justification does he have to complain

You should also talk about how the north is stealing oil from the Niger Delta and won't let our people into the federal civil service and they still shoot one Nigeria a? d also talk about federal character.

One Nigeria
Two Nigeria
Three Nigeria

This people should just organise a friendly match for me to watch and keep myself busy.