There has been a resurgence of the word ‘restructuring’ in our political lexicon and national discourse recently. Indeed the cacophony of voices and divergence opinions as regards the real meaning and import of the term for Nigeria had made it seemingly difficult to get unanimous view on the topic.

While some have seen it as reversion to regionalism and fiscal federalism, others see it as devolution of more powers to the federating states.
This treatise therefore seeks to highlight salient issues that will enable government make sense of it all and take immediate measures to give effect to the aspirations of majority of her citizens.

The word restructuring, according to Wikipedia, is a drastic or fundamental internal change that alters the relationships between different components or elements of an organization or system for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. The key word here is “making it more profitable or better organized for its present needs”.

To be sure, the idea of restructuring from the proponents view point, became imperative given the gross distortion of the federal arrangement under which the Nigerian independent constitution of 1960 was hinged upon, by some military opportunists’ whose incursion into politics fostered the aberration we practice today as federal system of government. Indeed, historical records had shown that from 1946 – 1955, western region enjoyed 100% derivation from revenue generated from resources in their areas. But the British colonial masters, for reasons best known to them opted for 50% and continued with this sharing formula till 1960 when Nigeria got her political independence. Gowon reduced the rate to 45% and later to 25% while Buhari further slashed it to 1.5%. It was during the time of IBB in 1985 that the rate was increased to 3% and later to the present 13%. And so, it must be noted that there are historical validation for the present clamor for restructuring by zones who believed they have not had a fair deal, given their contributions to the national purse.

It’s not my intention to bore you with the propriety or otherwise of the opposing views on this matter but I want us to look at it from a dispassionate perspective and ask pertinent questions; what do we stand to gain or lose from restructuring the country? In answering this question, we are going to be looking at it from political and economic perspectives.

Politically, the way and manner of state creation in Nigeria does not give consideration for equity and so states and local government areas were created based on the whims and caprices of state actors at the time which incidentally had a preponderance of people from the Northern part of the country. And so the North west had 7, North east had 6, North central had 7(Fct incl), South west had 6, South south had 6 and South east had 5. Same inequality goes for Local government areas in these zones. This is considered unfair and had led to agitations by zones who felt marginalized by this arrangement. In fact this is a major source of frustration for zones in the South who felt they are not getting commensurate return given that the bulk of the shareable federal revenue comes from their region.

Economically, some states are more viable in terms of revenue generation/inputs to Federation account that one would have expected the sharing formula to be structured in such a way as to recognize such contribution to facilitate the development/maintenance of these ‘cash cows’ and to spur other states to be creative in finding and developing multiple revenue streams, instead of the current practice which at best encourages laziness as some state governors wait for monthly federal allocation to run their government.

Again, there should be ‘soft’ restructuring in federal recruitments, political appointments and citing of federal institutions so as to give every zone a sense of belonging and to tackle the present feeling of alienation by some zones.

If these highlighted areas are addressed, it would have taking care of most of the divergent views bordering on devolution of powers and fiscal federalism as States would take up more responsibilities in keeping with the maxim that ‘to whom much is given, much is expected’. With this, the central government will concern itself with more strategic issues like foreign policies, defense, immigration etc.

Finally the era of playing the ostrich by the federal government and hiding under the pretext that it has not yet understood what the agitators of restructuring meant, is gone. The clamor perhaps is going to be more intensive given the increasing awareness of the apparent lopsidedness in almost all ramifications of Nigeria’s Socio-economic & political spheres, and this has the potential to heat up the already tensed political environment.

It is therefore my considered view that the government should toe the path of honor and justice by reviewing and implementing relevant portions of the 2014 national confab report especially on this contentious issue as this will engender the much needed justice, fairness, national cohesion and peace.

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Just like the way they shout PRIVATIZATION was the key to stable electricity in Nigeria.