The democrats, Nigerian nation and restructuring 12/4/2009 http://www.thenationonlineng.com/dynamicpage.asp?id=81686






By Akintola Benson

Nigeria as we know it, was a contrivance of imperial Britain . Prior to the partition of Africa and the claim of Britain on Nigeria, various nationalities with centuries of historical existence and flourishing civilizations occupied the territory which was to later become Nigeria. The amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates, which put a final seal on this adventure, was later to be described as a mistake by the Premier of the North – Sir Ahmadu Bello – The Sardauna of Sokoto. Therefore while Chief Obafemi Awolowo saw Nigeria as "a mere geographical expression" super-imposed over pre-existing nationalities. Sir Bello saw the super-imposition as "a mistake". But at least, all the nationalist leaders made efforts to fashion out a system of governance that preserved the autonomy of the component nationalities. So, the driving force behind the 1959 and 1963 Constitutions in the words of Chief Femi Fani Kayode was the creation of Nigeria that would nourish its diversity and endow the clusters of nationalities that constitute the country with unfettered self-government and autonomy. But the 1963 constitution was scuttled by the military, and with it, the federalism it was designed to protect. The country lost its federal structure and democratic system in 1966, and with the annulment of the presidential election of June 12, 1993, it lost its pretensions to having a national soul.

If I may ask: Has anyone wondered why is it that the agricultural economy of the 1960s produced development feats in the regions, while the oil-powered economy of the last three decades has landed us in the thick-fog of desperation? The answer is simple! There was better autonomy and resource-driven development in the 1960s than there is today. Can anyone deny, for example, that the oil producing regions have had a raw deal at the hands of successive governments? Must we wait for more Jesse tragedies, or Modakeke or Ijaw and Ogoni revolts before rectifying development which spawned these events? The truth is that what has happened to the Nigerian nation over the years is a tragedy: Adebayo Williams hit the nail on the head when he wrote, in a moving "Open Letter" to General Olusegun Obasanjo (Tell Magazine, April 13th 1998) that in the Nigeria of today, "The Mai-gadi had become the Mai-gida". Despite all, that is not a call for succession, but rather a call for restructuring the country for an effective devolution of powers to the nationalities in the true spirit of the Nigerian Federal Constitution of 1963. This is because, right from the seventh-month rule of General J.T.U. Aguiyi Ironsi, through the nine years of General Yakubu Jack Gowon, and the agonisingly deceptive eight years of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida in particular, followed by brutish dictatorial regime of (almost) five years of General Sani Abacha, Nigerians were treated to the will-o-the-wisp of transition speeches. The elections conducted by the Obasanjo Administration in 2007 became the worst not only in the political history of Nigeria ; but the world as a whole.

The allocation of functions between the Central and Regional governments of 1951 was transported to the Federal Constitution adopted in 1954 where it became known as "Federal Legislative List" (containing forty items). And the 41st item gave residual power to the Federal legislature, while part 2 of chapter 4 of this constitution was styled "Concurrent legislative List" (containing twenty-one items), with the last item giving residual power to both the Federal and Regional governments. And where there is conflict between the laws on concurrent legislative list enacted by both the Federal and Regional governments on the same subject, the law enacted by the Region shall be void to the extent of its inconsistency.

1957 Constitution which ushered the country into independence in 1960 changed the division of functions to "Exclusive Legislative List (over which, Federal Government has exclusive legislative power), and Concurrent Legislative List (over which both Federal and Regional governments can legislate). This was the form of power sharing between the Federal and the then Regional governments inherited by the Republican Constitution of 1963, and carried over to 1979 Constitution. What is wrong here is that in a truly federal state, the federating units concede certain agreed powers to the federal government, and any power not listed vests in the governments of the federating units, and there is no room for "concurrent powers" to be shared between the two levels of governments under a federal constitution.

Legislative autonomy is usually matched by fiscal autonomy under a truly federal system of government. In this sense, neither the former four regional governments in Nigeria, up to 1967, nor the twelve original states of 1967, now increased to 36, have ever enjoyed true legislative autonomy, although the former regions enjoyed greater fiscal autonomy than the present 36 states, most of which relied heavily on federal allocation for the discharge of their constitutional responsibility. However, we have been brought to a point where we must now acknowledge the unsavoury fact that those same sinister forces will never readily accept the will and verdict of the people as expressed in a free and fair democratic election. Indeed, unfolding events of the enemies of our great country ( Nigeria ) in trying to derail our nascent democracy suggest that the die has, in fact, been cast and "Ceasar has already crossed the Rubicorn". It is now left for those same dark, malignant and sinister forces to prove to the rest of us that we still have a stake in Nigeria . It is now left for them to prove to us that we are indeed, "one nation" of equal citizens with equal opportunities, as opposed to a sad collection of marginalised, brow-beaten and oppressed nationalities languishing in a forced, over-centralised and completely artificial entity. Without such proof, the cry for self-determination will not easily be resisted or subdued.

In this case, the Democrats should be bold enough to ask from all the federating units in the Nigerian State on what steps we should take to ensure the elimination of the present situation of in-built periodic political crises over the control of the country’s central authority and it’s treasury. Because, let us not mince words, this is the "casus belli" of the current series of crises. In other words, the issue then boils down to this: How do we re-fashion the federal system (for example) by having bigger federating units, giving such units greater powers and reducing the Federal Government’s powers, introducing a new resources allocation formula; having a greater resource control and rotating the federal presidency among the new federating units. Or to put it in another way, as the "Plurality" of Nigerian society is such that we must always and constantly "remember our differences" and accept the fact that different sections have differing "world views".

It must be made clearer today that if there is to be national cohesion in Nigeria , then all the constituent parts of the country must find something attractive in the country for themselves. The presumption that Nigeria is good for all of us is wrong. States are made for people; people are not made for states. There is nothing sacrosanct about any of the nations on earth. Historical circumstances, the will of the people, economies, these together determine what happens to any group of people who seek to live together. But perhaps the most important factor in human life is ethnic. This is probably why the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia where different ethnic groups were held together by force, as in Nigeria , had to disintegrate. If Nigeria is to avoid the fate of these nations, we must recognize our differences and build that recognition into the Constitution.

The time to renegotiate is now because tomorrow in the hands of our often more volatile youths may be too late – it is against this background that l will want the whole Nigerians to take into cognisance the following issues. They are as follows:

(i) that anyone who is sufficiently familiar with our post independence history would have discovered that the best times Nigeria has ever had in terms of mobilization of resources for human development were in those periods of regional self-government from 1957 to January 1966. During those momentous years, each of the three (later four) regions making up the country did not only manage its own affairs, it was also able to respond creatively to the challenges and obstacles arising from self-government. All this began to gradually change, however, as early as 1960 when an ambitious central authority, seeking absolute and unquestionable control on how it managed the affairs of the nation from the centre, sought insidious political methods to destroy the most dynamic of the regions-the Western Region where the Yorubas and those with very close cultural affinities with them predominated. This was the beginning (in the words of Fani-Kayode) of the entrenchment of a hegemonic political system, based on patronage and co-option. Even then, resistance did not cease and it was that resistance that the military seized upon in January 1966. Yet no sooner had the military intervened when further ironies and contradictions stepped in.

(ii) that our experiences from July 1966 up till today have proved conclusively that what we call the Nigerian military is no more than an outfit for maintaining the hegemony of those who regard Nigeria as theirs.

(iii) that the Nigerian State finally slipped into its worst crisis of legitimacy in June 1993. This was when the hegemonists, using their military, aborted what was "the possible birth of a Nigerian nation by annulling a free and fair democratic election and continuing their forcible seizure of the Nigerian State ". The abortion brought to final exhaustion the various contradictions on which hegemonic politics in Nigeria has hitherto rested. Since then, the Nigerian crisis remains unresolved and finally.

(iv) that in reference to that crisis, Egbe Omo Yoruba had said that "the crisis cannot, nor will it , be solved unless and until a system of governance based on mutual respect for the sensibilities and aspirations of each of Nigeria ’s component nationalities is established. Only a system that respects the autonomy of these component nationalities and allows them self-determination can guarantee such mutual respect. This write-up, without mincing words concur whole-heartedly with these issues.

Above all, those who have ears should listen! The restructuring proposed here is not a cosmetic tinkering with a deformed and malfunctioning federation turned unitary system, but a wide-ranging reformist approach that de-concentrates power and puts it back in the hands of communities and the people. Again, let me remind all of us that three and half decades of mal-development through over-centralised mode of governance have brought us to the precipice of disintegration, attrition and vicious cycle of poverty. A country, which has the distinction of producing world-class Nobel Laureate in the person of Professor Wole Soyinka, Economists, Lawyers, Accountants, Political Scientists and personnel in various disciplines, is suffocating at home from too many governments, too much control and too much concentration of power. The wisdom of the modern world is to decentralize and devolve power for better and more efficient management. We stand the risk of being left behind in the new global order, or worse, of disappearing in as a nation, in violent collision! God forbid!


•Akintola Benson, is a Political Scientist, Lawyer and Senior Special Assistant to the governor of Lagos State on Information.