The general secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony N Z Sani, in this interview by KUNLE ODEREMI, speaks on the APC agenda on restructuring and related issues.
WHAT are your views on the general recommendations of the Mallam Nasir el-Rufai-led APC panel on restructuring/power devolution and why?
I have not read the report of the Governor el-Rufai-led APC Committee, but I read media reports that they recommended for the restructuring of the country in favour of resource control or resource ownership, scrapping of local governments and introduction of state police. You will recall because restructuring of the country means different things to different people, Northern state governors have constituted a committee to reach out to stakeholders and collate their views on restructuring with a view to informing the governors on positions which most northern governors share. Governor el-Rufai is a member of the Northern States Governors’ Forum who is expected to take into account the positions of the North as collated by the governors in his report. And to the best of my knowledge, the committee set up by the governors is yet to submit a report on positions which most northerners share.
Also, I have read the reports and the communique of a retreat by Northern Senators’ Forum led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu in Katsina, where the Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum, former Inspector-General of the Police, Ibrahim Coomassie, gave a lecture on this subject. What is more, the president, who is a leader of the ruling party, said in his New Year broadcast that he did not believe the problems of the nation lie in the structure of the country or form of government, considering we have tried confederate structure with weaker centre and unitary system with stronger centre in the past. And it was against such backdrop that the current federal system, with states as federating units, was brought about that has the national government, which is balanced by appropriate state-level power. The trio of President Buhari, Governor el-Rufai and Senator Adamu are seminal figures in the ruling party who are not expected to contradict themselves on this important issue of restructuring the country.
While I agree that multiparty democracy allows political parties to represent distinct method of solving national problems as contained in their manifestos which they use and canvass for electoral mandate needed for implementation, the approach by the APC of trying to get what the people want and how to restructure the country through the public hearing amounts to leadership from behind and not by bell whether and lodestar. The party is expected to have a clear thought on these important issues, which it can sell to Nigerians through electoral campaigns and not the other way round.
Those who canvass for resource control should note the import of communities agitating that their shares of derivation be paid to them directly in order to prevent state government from short-changing them by using the derivation to build flyovers, build five-star hotels and construct airports in the towns to the chagrin of host communities. That means those who hanker for resource control or resource ownership must know the dire implications of resource control or resource ownership on the unity and peace, stability and harmony of the nation since communities can equally agitate for resource control in their states. In which case, how far down can resource control go? The challenges for police in a multi-ethnic nation are not lacking of state police. Neither does the solution lie in having many different security agencies, but an improvement in number and quality of the police. When some people suggest scrapping the local governments on the grounds that they cannot be another tier of government, it is because such people feign ignorance of the trite that there is nothing like true federalism that is universally accepted. That may explain why no two federal systems are self-same or clone. Each federal system depends on its emergence, but the common mantra is a system where the centre is strong enough to keep the country united under one roof but not too strong as to tilt the nation towards a unitary system. That is why some of us believe that those agitating for a confederate arrangement with the weak centre are those hoping that will eventually lead to a disintegration of the country.
In specific terms, what do you make of such recommendations for the state police, the movement to the concurrent list, including the issues of mines and minerals, oilfields and mining, geological surveys and natural gas; labour matter, including minimum wage, LGAs as subunits of state and so on?
I am not opposed to some form of devolution of power to states in areas which state governments are better placed to manage for better performance, provided such movement would not render the centre weaker and predispose the country to disintegration due to centrifugal forces. I believe oil, mineral and gas, as well as land, should be retained on the exclusive list as commonwealth because they bind the nation together as a united country. Land should not be left to private individuals for obvious reasons of social justice. It is unthinkable and even odd for anybody to imagine minimum wage should not be on the Exclusive List.
How realistic are the recommendations and how do you mean?
As I have stated in the fore goings, resource control or ownership is not realistic, because it renders the centre weaker and predisposes the country to split. When you consider how state governments abuse power, using state electoral commissions to kill democracy at a local government level, then you can imagine the havoc state police will cause in a multi-ethnic clime. It is against this backdrop that the recommendations will make the country teeter at the brink of an unknown abyss.
How far-reaching can the recommendation go in addressing contentious challenges confronting the country and why?
Somehow, I share the sentiment expressed by President Buhari that our national malaise is not due to the structure of the country nor due to form of government, but as a result of a collapse of national ideals and moral values brought about by corruption which has outsourced everything good about us and distorted our value system. Once corruption is tamed substantially in favour of cultural renaissance believe the country will feel young again with the promise of glory day ahead.
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