RESTRUCTURING THE POLITY

''… All who support the calls for restructuring our federation are
united in their desire to live in a society that works better and works
for its people. They are also united by their love for their country,
their patriotism. Those who do not love their country would just
want it to break up; they would not be interested in making Nigeria
work better…''
– Atiku Abubakar

Overview: Why Restructure Nigeria?

1. First, it is all too obvious that the current arrangement does not respond
to the needs of the people. Meeting the needs of a rapidly growing
population in a speedily changing global economic environment
requires that decision making is as close as possible to the point of
delivery.

2. Second, in order to improve the quality of any outcome, there is the need
to act faster, efficiently and effectively. The autonomy of the States and
Local Governments both of which are closer to their people than the
central government in Abuja will result in more effective decisions.

3. Restructuring will make the government work better by dispersing
power.

4. It will permit states and local governments more room to pursue their
own policies thereby reducing pressure on federal government to decide
everything.

5. Restructuring will devolve power and responsibility to lower tiers of
government where most Nigerians live. The devolved responsibilities
will create more public sector jobs at the state and local government
levels. It is in this sense that restructuring will increase citizen
participation in government.

6. It will increase efficiency of government through the dispersal of power
because power concentration increases red tape, and delays. It will take
much shorter time to obtain your driver's licence for example if states
are allowed to issue them.

Quick Reminders

It is good to quickly remind Nigerians that:

a. Restructuring is not a new or strange phenomenon. A number of
developing economies have had cause to restructure their economies,
for greater efficiency either to correct imbalances or to reorient them
towards, for example, more open and market system with greater
reliance on the private sector as engine of growth. Even the United
Kingdom is restructuring its political and economic systems to enable a
better union among its component parts. Businesses restructure for
better performance.

b. The restructured Nigeria in this context must be a Nigeria that not only
provides opportunities for everyone to work but even more specifically
challenges the leadership to demonstrate capacity to create wealth for
every layer of governance.

c. Restructuring is not just about the devolution of powers to the states, it is
about transforming the role of the federal government. In matters of
territorial governance, the federal authorities must learn to cooperate
with, and in some instances defer to state authorities. in matters of
economic governance, the federal authorities must learn to cooperate
with, rather than displace or ignore, the private sector.

d. The talk about restructuring, is not a talk limited to constitutional tweaks,
it is a talk about deliberate, purposeful and sweeping cultural revolution.
It is not about re-shuffling a few responsibilities or resources, but about
disrupting the authoritarian politics our democracy has inherited from
its military and colonial rulers.

e. Above all, it must be conclusively put on note that some Nigerian states
are poor not because they are not receiving a fair share of oil money, but
because they are not receiving a fair shot at true federalism. Only
restructuring can reset and correct that.

The Dynamics of Restructuring

Nigeria has operated a faulty system of federalism especially under military
governments. True federalism ensures that a strong federal government
'guarantees national unity while allowing the federating units to set their own
priorities. Ours has been a complex federal structure with a high degree of
centralization: that has succeeded in accumulating many responsibilities that
belong to the lower tiers of government. The Federal government
appropriates, along with these responsibilities, huge resources. For example, in
the allocation of revenue from the federation Account the FGN is unduly favoured at the expense of the states and local governments. Out of every

Naira in the Federation Account, 56 kobo will go to the federal government.
The centre has a pervasive and over-bearing presence and influence on the
other tiers of government- thanks to its deep pockets. Along with its various
agencies, it remains the single largest employer of labour. Although public
procurement only accounts for less than 1% of GDP, it is the main source of
capital accumulation and preservation. Its ability to tap into the Excess Crude
Account (ECA) and suspend Federation Account transfers to states and local
governments at will, gives it considerable formal and informal leverage over
them.

After nineteen years of uninterrupted democracy in the fourth republic, it is
now an indisputable fact that today's Nigerian state have been reduced to
parastatals of the federal government and are addicted to the monthly
allocation they receive from Abuja.

There is nothing as addictive as states that are dependent on their monthly
share of revenue from crude oil sales. The only way to get them to manage their
economies in an economically viable way is to cure them off that addiction.
Nigeria needs to be restructured. We must commit to a new development
agenda with focus on wealth creation by the federating units, rather than wealth
distribution from Abuja to state and local government.

To the various identity groupings that occupy the Nigerian space, the structure
of the country as it is, is not working properly as it should. This indeed is the
reality. While agreeing that Nigeria stands stronger as a united country, such
unity can only stand the test of time when there is a genuine consensus on the
ingredients and institutional structures that supports the unity and makes it
productive. It is a time-tested truism in nation-building that when a system is
not delivering expected results and outcomes, it becomes logical to either change it entirely or reinvent it.

What We Will Do

We shall:

a. Decongest the exclusive and the concurrent list in the constitution. Such
social and welfare issues like education, agriculture, health, etc. will be
devolved to the states and local governments with the central
government retaining the sole powers of quality assurance, policy
standardization and implementation.

b. The central government would also retain the role of providing the
required direction for the economy, defence and national security,
internal law and order, currency, international affairs and foreign policy,
customs, citizenship and immigration, firearms, and related matters
which the states lack the competence to handle.

c. Issues bordering on minerals and mines, internal security including
Police, law and order, railways, communications, transport,
environment, land matters, etc will be devolved to the concurrent list so
that, States can partake in them as well.

d. Local Governments shall remain as independent tier of government.
Grassroots development requires the recognition of the Local
Governments as independent structures of government not as
appendages to the office of the State Governor.

e. Once power over minerals and mines is devolved to the concurrent list,
states where deposits of mines and mineral resources are found will
have control over those resources and only pay royalties to the center.

f. Nigeria's common resources will be shared equitably in accordance with
a new revenue allocation formula to be negotiated across the board
especially through the National Assembly. Each tier of government
should get a fair share of the common revenue commensurate to its
responsibilities under the new Constitution.

g. The nature of the economy requires movements of citizens across state
boundaries. With the possibility of some states opting to have their own
police operating and implementing the laws that are unique to them
there are bound to be some areas of tension and stress among the
citizenry particularly with regards to issues of internal residency matters.
These will require federal interventions, regulation, monitoring and
periodic assessment and review. Such an arrangement shall serve as early
warning signals for potential conflicts and assist in resolving conflicts
with least challenges. Contrary to the misconception, the transfer of
additional responsibilities to the states does not mean the abdication of
any responsibilities by the central government. The tiers of government
will continue to work together.

[b]Supporting the Federating Unit in Economic Management

[/b]a. The federal government would continue to support the individual States
to develop the capacity to tap and harness their resources. A businessfriendly
environment will ensure that they leverage private sector
investments especially in agriculture to promote economic
diversification. We shall support them to begin to visualize Nigeria
without oil or one not predominantly dependent on hydro-carbon. This,
we pledge, shall be a critical policy priority of the federal government.

b. We will ensure spatially balanced investments and coordinate a more
even distribution of infrastructure investment across different regions
through a carefully designed incentive regime, in order to provide more
opportunities in the poorer and less endowed federating units. We shall
design special intervention programmes in support of states and LGAs
that rank below the average development index, until such a time as they
are able to become self-sufficient and sustaining. No federating unit shall be left behind.

c. The sub-national economies will be assisted in reforming their
economic management institutions, especially the revenue generating
agencies which are seen by many as failed and ineffectually managed
institutions within the State service. They will be strengthened to make
them more innovative and efficient in-service delivery. The reformed
agencies will be expected to improve tax-payer compliance, develop
potentials of non-tax revenue sources and block all leakages associated
with tax administration.

d. The federating units will be challenged to double their efforts in
rebuilding the fiscal-social contract, by enhancing service delivery in key
areas such as health, education, water supply and infrastructural
development. Only this would change the predominant perception that
government revenues are diverted to the private bank accounts of
politicians and their cronies.

e. For the purpose of making states lose their addiction to federal
allocation, to make them look inwards, and return to the healthy
competition of 1957-1966, when Nigeria practiced her unique brand of
true federalism known as regionalism, we are committed to the
introduction of matching grants to states that succeed in increasing their
internally generated revenue. The matching grants shall be taken from
the revenue accruable to the federal government for the purpose of
matching the internally generated revenue of each state in order to
encourage States to become self-reliant. The Federal Government will
match State's IGR up to $250 million per State.

f. In furtherance of strengthening their economic management systems,
another policy we would recommend to is to follow the example
President Obasanjo and I laid between 1999 and 2007 when we
privatized and liberalized many aspects of the Nigeria economy. It had
the almost immediate effects of reducing our wage bill and increasing
services, capacity and jobs in the private sector. By privatizing those state
government owned public enterprises that gulp huge sums by way of
recurrent expenditure yet give little return on investment, state
governments can free more of their revenue from recurrent and devote
it to capital expenditure.

g. We will promote and insist on fiscal efficiency at the federal level to lead
other tiers of government by example. The states will be challenged to
adopt sound fiscal management strategy so as to reduce wasteful
spending. Typically, recurrent costs constitute between 60% and 72% of
state and local governments.

I love PDP. We are taking over power this time. I believe in the dream of PDP. God bless PDP.

MARKGREATER:
I love PDP. We are taking over power this time. I believe in the dream of PDP. God bless PDP.

He laid down some interesting logics in his policies program tho.