By Clifford Ndujihe

Deputy Political Editor & Rufus Ike

Professor Ladipo Adamolekun, 74, an Awoist, erudite scholar and administrator, is not happy with the state of affairs in Nigeria and has urged urgent solutions. According to him, the clamour for restructuring of the country is fast becoming a slogan in the face of a failing state. For the giant of Africa to return to the era when Nigeria worked with features such as educational excellence, meritocracy and strong institutions, the former University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) lecturer said we must practice fiscal federalism with the centre losing most of its powers to the federating units.

Prof Adamolekun, whose rich academic and administrative career include stints at the United Nations and World Bank, said ongoing agitation for the Republic of Biafra is one of the easiest problems the Federal Government can tackle by simply organizing a referendum for the Igbo people, who he further warned, should be ready for the consequences of whatever decision they take at the referendum just as Britain is facing now after Brexit.

The Don, in a two-hour interview with
Sunday Vanguard, at his Lagos home, lamented that Nigeria’s democracy is still fledgling after 16 years of civil rule. Attributing the development to the long years of military rule and its continued rule through former generals, who have been elected as presidents, he said for the country’s democracy to be deepened, President Muhammadu Buhari should be our last president with military background.

Excerpts:

With nostalgia, you keep talking about when Nigeria worked. What is the difference between then and now?

Educational excellence was one of the characteristics of when the country worked. Strong institutions were also some of the characteristics. Then educational excellence started from primary to secondary to the University level. Merit and meritocracy were emphasized. There were educational excellence, meritocracy, strong institutions and civil service, which were able to implement the policies and programmes of the political parties.
The Western Nigerian civil service, for instance, was considered to be one of the best in the commonwealth before the advent of the military. The civil service in northern and eastern Nigerian were also strong.
When you look at educational excellence, it went through primary, secondary and university levels, you have meritocracy; scholarship in those days were won by the best. Meritocracy is not something you look for, you see it, and teachers were highly respected right from the small communities to the universities. So when I was choosing a career to be a teacher it was one for the best and the civil service attracted people of quality.
When I say institutions it is not just the civil service, the parties were also strong. The universities were strong, the civil service was strong and the Nigerian judiciary too. Then Nigerian judges were sent to East Africa, now who is going to invite your judge to anywhere? A Nigerian judge went to Botswana some two decades ago, Nigerian judges were in the Gambia. This time what we have is a huge corruption in the judiciary.

Where did we start missing the mark?

A whole book can be written about how the military underdeveloped Nigeria. I am paraphrasing ‘’How Europe underdeveloped Africa,’’ which is a classic. I think a young researcher can win a world wide acclaimed award by writing a book on how the military underdeveloped Nigeria.

Specifically what are the things that should be devolved?

I’ll tell you; that is why if they say implement Confab 2014, it is something broad. It is true that there are things you can do, an example is the issue of state police. You cannot have community policing from Abuja. Community policing is when they can speak the local language, know every nook and cranny of that community. There is a critical deficiency in police intelligence and military intelligence in Nigeria.
There are countries that have Local Government Police including Namibia, it is not just in the US where I lived for almost 20 years; there was police in my local government, the state and the federal had their own as well.
There are instances that we exaggerate and, for some reason, close our eyes to the reality that a single national police force is grossly inadequate. I think some time ago they said we need 90000 more policemen; that is not the issue. If the IGP is talking about someone who took away cars is that the IGP that will ensure security in Nigeria?
So, police decentralisation is imperative. The police commissioner reports to Abuja, we cannot get security that way. There is need to decentralise what we have now.
How can a local government chairman in Ikeja be earning the same thing as the chairman in Akure North or a local government chairman in Bayelsa or a small one in Taraba? A system that determines the reward for all local governments across the country is an over centralised system. It needs to be devolved in order to increase quality of service. In fact, nothing is happening in many local governments, they are only collecting money for salary while the state governments keep the rest and nobody can hold anybody accountable.
The revenue allocation formula that we have currently is a product of the centralism of the military that gives 52.5 per cent or thereabout to the Federal Government and the balance to the states and local governments.
There is strong evidence that it is because of the excess resources at the centre that made them go ahead to introduce UBEC. The federal government has no business being involved with primary and secondary education.
They set up a presidential committee to look at the unity secondary schools; the report said that performances at the unity secondary schools are poor and cannot be held as models for other secondary schools.
Proper devolution means that what federal government gets should not dictate what state governments get, it also means that the federal runs its own agencies and activities like universities. Why should there be the same salary in a federal and a state university?
In terms of revenue sharing formula, I think the federal should have no more than 40 - 45 per cent of the allocation and the rest shared between the states and local governments.


Referendum on Biafra

The one in the South East is very clear, people still want to talk about Biafra but there is discontent that follows it and that again needs to be brought out and openly discussed to know what to do. Within the South-East, there are disagreements over Biafra or no Biafra, which some people are talking about, which have led to occasional breakdown of law and order.
Tackling the problem is simple. The objective is clear, some want the Republic of Biafra to be actualised. Ohanaeze and some other Igbo leaders don’t want it. Possible solution is to set up a referendum. Britain just had their own and Ireland was thinking that they would remain, it was exit and they exited. So, if Biafra is going to have a referendum, they must be ready for the consequences.

The danger of armed herdsmen

The herdsmen who are no longer using sticks but AK 47 constitute serious danger because the entire North-Central states are affected, Parts of the South-West, South-East and South-South are also affected. There is also problem of militants in Lagos and Ogun states whether they are from Niger Delta or wherever. What is the level of police intelligence? There’s need for police intelligence and military intelligence too. Security is more than Boko Haram. When you move beyond that the government is not yet on top of the situation.
By the time Buhari enters year two, these security challenges should have been curtailed or at least there must be a clear strategy; clear understanding of what needs to be done and actions to be taken.

On the anti-graft war

I was a member of a 26-member group that drafted the World Bank anti-corruption strategy in 1995/1996 and I was one of the five core members that actually wrote it. I’ve made a point that the integrity of the president, his commitment to fighting corruption are necessary conditions for successful anti-corruption war. But it is not sufficient and one of the things I have suggested is the need for a strategy that will involve all the different tiers of government, appropriate institutions, the private sector, the media and the civil society.
There should be a national strategy. I am aware that a draft strategy exists. What is delaying the finalisation of it? Will they finalise it without even looking for public debate to make it participatory?
With a clear strategy, some people will not term the anti-corruption as selective. It is also necessary for states to adopt their own strategy because there is corruption in the states too, even up to LG level.
Strategy is one thing that is missing and here we have a retired general as president. You don’t go to a war without a strategy.
It is true Buhari said he will be merciless to looters. If by December, we do not have at least a dozen or 10 high profile looters in prison then his mercilessness is not clear to me.
However, nobody should say the anti-corruption war is just in the newspaper, the revelations we are hearing are very revealing- that the money that was dispensed to fight Boko Haram was used to buy some political favour, we are not talking of peanuts but billions of dollars, public officers including military officers own rows of houses when their salary is known.
Singapore solution for graft
I have a radical view on that and it is the Singapore solution. In Singapore, if you are a public official and what you have is more than what you earn you are the one to explain. My suggestion is, for one year, from January to December 2017, let us adopt the Singapore solution and focus on the strategic elitist institutions - judiciary, civil service, universities, armed forces, etc. During that year just make example of six to 10 from each of these institutions because those are the strategic institutions.
Unpunished corruption entrenches corruption. Since 1999, can you tell me of any corruption that has been punished?
Before December, if we don’t have six to 10 politically exposed looters in prison then the seriousness of this war can be questioned.

What about the economy?

On the economy, what Buhari promised as a candidate was to revamp the economy. That is what his manifesto told us. Now we are faced with a weak macro economy because we are being told that we are in technical recession, the naira is spinning downwards and the inflation rate is at 60.5 per cent; interest rate is also double digits.
So, in macro-economic terms, those are just illustrations of the technical recession that the minister acknowledged but the direct things that the masses feel are poverty, hunger and the possibility of famine. It is rare in democracy to have famine.
So, if we say we are practicing a democracy and famine should occur then your democracy would be less than fledgling.
By December there should be some report in terms of where are we with economic diversification and that is going to tell us whether revamping has started or not.
The National Assembly is part of the problem, beyond their padding they are supposed to do oversight that will help the executive to deliver. They spend more time discussing their useless projects than thinking of how they can do an oversight to ensure that the executive delivers service.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/restructuring-nigeria-must-devolve-power-die/

Nigerian never stop distracting its people, they will come with grammar ..... the reigning grammar now is restructuring. There was a time,it was PRIVATISATION as if , it was the only solution to our problem, also there was a time it was SUBSIDY as if it will solve all our problem, here we re today. I tell you after RESTRUCTURING Nigeria will still be thesame.

Reasonable Nigerians are speaking out while zombies including the "mere commissioner" from the wasted region are saying is not necessary.

Zombies are dam brainless

The good thing about restructuring is that, it gives room for States to thrive according to her strength. The present structure doesn't give room for competitions, just wait till ending of the month, go collect federal allocation. Is only practiced in Nigeria only.

Great talk from the Prof.

I wonder why it is such an headache for them to restructure and conduct referendum for Baifra.

No true intellectual can shy away from admitting the fact that Nigeria is not one and can never be one.

Temidayo9:
Nigerian never stop distracting its people, they will come with grammar ..... the reigning grammar now is restructuring. There was a time,it was PRIVATISATION as if , it was the only solution to our problem, also there was a time it was SUBSIDY as if it will solve all our problem, here we re today. I tell you after RESTRUCTURING Nigeria will still be thesame.

bro, if you know the term restructuring you will
understand that's the ony way out of this
quagmire

where every state will generate and distribute
their own wealth, with these system all the
agitations from all quarters will die a natural
death

datola:
Great talk from the Prof.

I wonder why it is such an headache for them to restructure and conduct referendum for Baifra.

The average Nigerian knows what ails the nation, and possibly how to solve it. But the problem lies with those who would shout restructuring, devolution of power, and all the good things in the morning, and by afternoon, they will be singing another tune, because "circumstances has changed"
Look at the history of Nigeria, and the historical roles played by mostly Yoruba muslims in destablizing the nation and putting it in the sorry state we have today. A few years ago, Tinubu and the Lagos crew were at the forefront o NADECO asking for restructuring, today, he and his boy, Osibanjo are in power, enjoying the temporay abundances of a badly structured federal system. Did you hear Osibanjo say that there was no need for restructing a few weeks ago? He is not muslim, but we all know he is working for Tinubu. That my point.