By Vincent Okwor, Enugu

Foremost constitution lawyer, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, has insisted that the clamour for restructuring was a call for Nigeria to make a new beginning under a new constitution approved and adopted by the people at a referendum.

In a statement to commemorate the country’s 57th independence anniversary, Nwabueze described the desired restructuring as a new politico-legal order to cleanse the country of the rottenness that pervaded it and enable it to chart a road map for its destiny.

“The object of restructuring for which there is a widespread clamour among Nigerians is not to break up the country or to enable agitators to secede from its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“Far from that; the object is reforming the governmental structures and attuning them to the needs and wishes of the people, to ensure that the immense diversity of ethnic nationalities comprised in the state will continue to co-exist t in peace, prosperity and progress as citizens of one country united by common interests, aspirations and destiny.

“The clamour for restructur- ing must therefore be seen as a clamour for the setting up of appropriate platforms or fora to renegotiate suitable govern- mental structures for the pur- suit and realisation of our com- mon needs for development, good governance and national transformation,’’ he said.

Nwabueze, who is the Chairman of Project Nigeria Movement and The Patriots, said that the clamour for restructuring was more than a clamour for the reform of governmental structures, saying that it was only its primary focus.

“This aspect of restructur- ing, which is as necessary as its primary focus, will need to be led by a president, as the elected leader of the people, imbued with an ardour for na- tional transformation.

“The governmental structure that needs particularly to be reformed by restructuring is our federal system,’’ he said, add- ing: ``Federalism is commonly agreed to be a compelling necessity for the maintenance of peace, stability and development of Nigeria as one country.’’

He said that the 1960/1963 constitutions established a federal system with three (later four) regions each invested with sufficient autonomy to govern itself in matters that concerned it alone.

He said that the regions en- joyed internal self-government without undue control by, or interference from, the centre, thus giving each region the impetus and incentive to develop optimally in healthy competition with the others. “The federal system under the two constitutions (1960 and 1963) may fairly be described as a model of true federalism.

“Regrettably, the intrusion of absolutist military rule for 28 years after 1965 has brought about the accretion of a vast amount of additional powers to the centre, over and above what they were under the 1960/63 constitutions, result- ing in the system being turned virtually into a unitary system,’’ he said.

Nwabueze said that fiscal federalism required that mines and minerals including oil fields, oil mining, geological surveys and natural gas be a residual matter within the exclusive competence of the regions or states.

He suggested that power with respect to these matters should be expunged from the exclusive legislative list and made a residual matter in accordance with the requirements of true and fiscal federalism.

“Re-structuring, as it is presently being demanded, seeks to revert our federal system to the true federalism of the 1960/63 constitutions, to further reduce the powers of the federal government as may be thought necessary and to reverse the specific matters mentioned above.

“The intention, furthermore, is to assuage, to an optimal extent, the demand for self-determination or self government consistent with the territorial sovereignty of the country.

“Self-determination connotes essentially, not independent government, but the right of each group, within the territorial sovereignty of the country as one state, to govern itself in matters that concern it alone, without undue control by the federal government; the control is oppressive because it is being exercised without due regard to the requirements of justice, fairness and equity.

“The ethnic nationalities, other than those in the mean- time in charge of the federal government, are groaning under the emasculating yoke of federal control, as evidenced by the recent authoritarian proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), without first resorting to dialogue as a means for amicable resolution of disagreements in a democracy, and without a hearing by a court of law. Restructuring is being demanded as a means of release from the choking federal yoke,’’ he explained.
Source: https://orientdailynews.com/cover-story/restructuring-panacea-nigerias-problems-nwabueze/
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