By Olusola Aladejebi

The ripples generated by VP Yemi Osinbajo’s comments on restructuring while in the United States are still reverberating across our polity. Few days ago, erstwhile Vice President Atiku Abubakar criticized Osinbajo for his stance on restructuring calling it ‘unprogressive’ for the country. (Last week I also wrote disapprovingly of Yemi Osinbajo’s view of restructuring http://mouthpiece.com.ng/why-osinbajo-is-wrong-on-restructuring/ ) The Vice President, not to be misunderstood (or outdone) replied the former VP by clarifying his comments on restructuring made earlier.


Atiku Abubakar further went to Afenifere (a Yoruba social cultural group) to express his commitment to restructuring the country if elected as president. The Afenifere having been a major, if not the foremost, voice for restructuring the Nigeria received Atiku with hands open wide! I hope Afenifere is not too enamoured by the idea of restructuring that it has lost the view of the big picture. To these elders I say: t’a ba n su’kun, a maa ri ran (even while crying we can (should) still see).


Osinbajo said emphatically that what he was against ‘geographical restructuring’. However, the restructuring he proposes will take the form of deeper fiscal federalism. He went further to state some of his previous contests for fiscal federalism as against Atiku’s recent conversion. As attorney general of Lagos State during Tinubu administration (1999-2007), he fought the federal government up to Supreme Court to contest the withholding of Lagos State Local Government allocation for daring to create more local councils. Osinbajo also referred to his recent call for state police as indicative of his support for granting more authority to the federating units which is what restructuring is mostly about. So what is his qualms about ‘geographical restructuring’?


For Vice President Osinbajo, geographical restructuring implies tinkering with the current structure of 36 States. He is firmly against this. But what does it mean to deepen fiscal federalism (which he subscribes to) if geography is a no go area?


Geographical restructuring in some minds, especially political oligarchs, is reminiscent of the pre-1966 federation. Then, federating units were Northern Region, Western Region and Eastern Region with Lagos as Federal Capital. Then the Regions had great autonomy. They controlled their resources and paid 50% of their derivation to the central government. Now get ready for this one: The Western Region had so much financial control that it lent money to the federal government! Fast-forward 50years, fragments of the then Western region receive bail outs from the Federal government to pay salaries. Oh! How times have changed.


This proper federal system came to an end when the military seized power and instituted a deeply centralized polity. As we have existed as an independent country longer under the deeply centralized structure than under a truly federal system, forces of inertia want it as it is.


If Osinbajo wants to deepen fiscal federalism without factoring geographical adjustments as A POSSIBILTY, it is like wanting an omelette without cracking the egg. The Vice President himself alluded to the fact that without oil money, the regions used taxes and revenues from agriculture and mining to do the fantastic things they did. Can agriculture and mining be separated from geography? Of course not. As many states are not viable today and depend excessively on resources shared in Abuja, if we want to deepen fiscal federalism, a sensible way to go may be to collapse some current states into some other(s) to make them viable. Mr Osinbajo, I am afraid we can’t regard geographical restructuring as taboo and at the same time talk about true fiscal federalism.


Should we trust Atiku Abubakar’s claim to restructuring Nigeria? Is he singing a song we love to hear just to get the votes? Buhari’s pre 2015 claim that there was nothing called petroleum subsidy is still fresh in our ears. He and his party even told us price of petrol would fall. President Buhari now knows better. In fact we the masses now also know better. Won’t Atiku Abubakar ‘know better’ when he becomes president? Something tells me he would.


Whatever the sizes of the federating units (whether they remain 36 states as it is today or they are much less) of a restructured Nigeria, the autonomy of these units makes them more able to do away completely with Nigeria. In other words, a quest for secession has greater chances of success. This fear, I dare say, above every other thing, is the big albatross on the way to Restructuring. This will be the consideration in my third and final piece on restructuring.


Olusola Aladejebi works to build effective people systems in organizations. He also writes on Leadership and Organization architecture.

http://mouthpiece.com.ng/atikus-restructuring-vs-osinbajos-fiscal-federalism/

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