Introduction

Greatest NLders!

We cannot continue to deceive ourselves any longer as to the fact that the polity in Nigeria is currently heated. Never has there been this much agitation all over the country. All of a sudden, words like restructuring and secession which were hitherto spoken in hush tones have become the reigning terms.

Public officials both past and present including the populace are suddenly agitating for restructuring. In all these cries, there has been the growth and subtle promotion of confusion. While we have no doubt that the elected public officials would never be party to actions that would take free food off their tables, we are suddenly seeing confusion everywhere.

While Oyegun says APC never promised restructuring [ref1], El-rufai posits that restructuring is a pre-election promise of the APC [ref2]. Furthermore, none of the politicians or even the populace has been able to articulate clearly what exactly the restructuring is expected to achieve and how it should be done.

For example, El-rufai believes that restructuring should do with the exclusive legislative list [ref2] while Okorocha believes we need repackaging [ref3]. In these positions, there has been the subtle assertion that the core/federal government is at fault thus excluding the state governors from scrutiny.

We cannot however continue to fold our hands and allow this “once in a life time opportunity” to suddenly be taken over by clowns and political office aspirants. There must be a concerted effort by concerned Nigerian youths to have a collective contribution to the growing demands for restructuring.

In view of the above, I propose a collation of thoughts on what we as Nigerian youths think should be done about the following issues:

1. Biafra: There is no need to shy away from the fact that Biafra as a concept is gaining traction. The rise of Nnamdi Kanu due to his unnecessary incarceration by the Buhari led administration has been unsettling political equations all over the country. With the increase in joblessness of youths and the obvious punishment of Ibo’s by the current administration (as shown in appointments and federal projects), coupled with built up hate from never healed wounds of the civil war (1967-1970) and continuous threats and deaths of Ibo’s in the hands of the northerners without repercussions for culprits, there has been a renewed fervour among Ibo’s to finally break out from the republic called Nigeria. The massive crowds being pulled by Nnamdi Kanu across the eastern states during his visits is a testament that the discontent is real and that all the government’s perceived initiatives at re-integration have been a colossal failure.

However, despite the increasing agitation for Biafra by the Ibo’s, there has been no concrete plan on what is expected from the republic. Questions to be addressed include the following:

1.1. Demand: What really is being demanded by Ibos’s – secession or devolution of powers to Biafra or a pseudo-republic status (like China and Taiwan) etc.
1.2. Constituent: What states exactly constitute the Biafra republic and how is that to be determined – voting or referendum etc.
1.3. Structure: What arrangements in terms of policy draft has been produced by Biafra to show the republic (Nigeria) that they are serious about self-governance. Sample constitution of Grenada [ref4] and the bill for independence in Scotland [ref5] have been attached to show the level of seriousness expected of a people who are agitating for self-governance. Even the confab report of 2014 [ref6] was quite detailed and outlined provisions for almost every aspect of governance.
1.4. Governance: While it can be admitted that an organogram detailing the structure of governance would have be catered for in 1.3 above, there is the need to highlight this separately for emphasis. There is no denying the fact that a reason for agitation by Ibo’s is the perceived corruption and mal-treatment by Nigeria of Ibo’s – a continued derivative from the Ahiara declaration. If Nigeria is to accede to Biafra’s request for self-governance, she would love to see what measures would be put in place by Biafra to mitigate against bad leadership. Would political office holders (both past and present) be allowed to contest again in the New republic? What is the status of Nnamdi Kanu going to be? Is he going to be another San Suu Kyi or is an opportunist who might want to become a godfather in the new republic? Would he want to muster his popularity like Tinubu to force candidates on the electorates? These must be addressed.
1.5. Debates: One is quite shocked that there have been no debates ongoing to sensitize the public on what Biafra is all about. Knowing the power of the mass media and social media platform (which brought Nnamdi Kanu to limelight), one would have expected to see Biafra engage a cross-section of erudite Nigerians on their agitations. We are expecting to see debates between Biafra proponents and opponents on a range of issues. If indeed Biafra is sure and convinced that she is fighting a just cause, then there is the need for her to elucidate better to Nigerians whys she thinks her cause is justified. This would provide an opportunity to force the government to become even more serious due to the reaction from the populace. Today in America, Donald Trump has effectively made CNN and other mainstream news media quite irrelevant simply using Twitter! Biafra strategic planning committee (if any) must put their thinking caps on.

2.Buhari: The Bible puts is so succinctly when it says “strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.” The president of the federal republic of Nigeria has been absent for over 75 days now. Being his umpteenth time on medical leave from office, one is forced to ask what really is the problem? I know that Nigerians are not deluded neither are they brainwashed. I am also certain that we are no cowards here in Nigeria. A situation where we have no one able to clearly intimate us of the health status of our president after over 10 weeks shows how very little the elected and appointed public office holders think of us. Osibanjo who was in UK to see and “discuss” with the president only spoke what we have been hearing on the president’s health. We cannot continue to remain rudderless in the country. We cannot point to anything definite going on in the country at present. Two years after election and no concrete economic blueprint on how to move the country forward. Two years after and no clear roadmap on improving electricity supply. Two years after elections and more people are jobless compared to the 5 years of Jonathan’s government. Universities are on strike, workers are on strike, salaries are being owed, pensions are being owed, militants continue to agitate, Biafra is building momentum, recession and poverty is biting harder and yet we have no leader in place to ensure that things go as planned. We cannot even understand the war on corruption neither can we under what our elected officials are up to anymore. Billions keep coming and going and yet no noticeable change. We keep hearing of government’s promise to do this and do that and we are in the third year of this administration.

One would hope that for once we would have a Dora among these political office holders who would be bold as to speak the truth, but there seems to be none as everyone is just content at being able to rub shoulders with the high and mighty and continue to profit from the vacuum being created.

It would thus be necessary for us to collate our minds on how we expect the constitution should be worded to prevent the re-occurrence of such again. Areas to be discussed include:

2.1. health: How should the health status of elected officials be verified? Is there need for an Ombudsman on health check that carries out a thorough analysis on our political office holders (like is done for footballers) to ascertain their mental and psychological and physiological preparedness for office?

2.2. Absence: How long should any public office holder be out of the country to be considered absenteeism? Should the calculation of absenteeism be cumulative or per trip?

2.3. Briefing: Is it important to have it as a must for the president and no one else to address the country in parliament on a specific date under the glare of full press coverage on a range of issues like the state of the union address in the USA?

2.4. Assessment: The common excuse being bandied by Buhari, his incompetent vice and other political office holders in his administration is that they are still repairing the rot in the system caused by PDP. Shouldn’t we have a performance benchmark (key performance index) that we use to ascertain if a government is making progress or not and what punishment should be applied in case of any shortfalls. Dilma Rousseff of Brazil was impeached because she tried to forge figures to meet up some benchmark expectations and heaven didn’t fall. While we may argue on the fact that it might have been politically motivated, the fact that she acknowledged it goes to show that she was aware that she needed to perform.

While I am aware that this write-up may have been a bit lengthy, I crave your indulgence in proffering solutions, ideas, concepts etc. that you think would address these pressing issues that if not properly addressed might engulf the country soonest.

I welcome your suggestions as we move this country forward.

PS: Please note that I hope to collate in detail the valid suggestions raised by NLders for your proof reading and onward transmission to IPOB agitators and the National assembly.


CC
Seun
lalasticlala
Mynd44
OAM4J


References
[ref1] http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/apc-says-no-restructuring/
[ref2] http://www.nigerianeye.com/2017/06/restructuring-el-rufai-under-attack-for.html
[ref3] http://punchng.com/nigeria-needs-repackaging-not-restructuring-says-okorocha/
[ref4] http://www.gov.gd/egov/docs/legislations/constitution/grenada_constitution_draft.pdf
[ref5] https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/elections-and-constitutional-development-division/scottish-independence-bill/user_uploads/independence-bill.pdf
[ref6] http://www.premiumtimesng.com/national-conference/wp-content/uploads/National-Conference-2014-Report-August-2014-Table-of-Contents-Chapters-1-7.pdf