The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has accused the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government of playing down the crisis of structuring the country, while on a wild goose chase about the process.
This was just as it insisted that there was no alternative to restructuring Nigeria to a true Federation as against Unitary System of government, giving the dire situation the country had found itself.
According to SMBLF, which welcomed Nigerians into the year 2018, the citizenry went through a grueling and harrowing experience in 2017 due to the country’s dysfunctional structure, with suicide becoming “Man of the Year,” while several Nigerians that travelled abroad to Libya in search of greener pasture had tales of horror to tell.
The Forum made this assertion on Monday in reaction to the nationwide broadcast by President Buhari, saying what the president said to the whole nation, amounted to running away from the problem confronting the country or ascribing it to the wrong source.
“That is akin to a man going to Benin City while driving towards Benin Republic. The faster he runs the father he is away from his destination.
The truth of the matter is that our nationhood crisis has peaked and there are no further opportunities to guarantee opportunities for our citizens no matter the good intentions of leaders or even unrealistic promises packaged to offer them false hope,” the Forum said.
In a statement jointly signed by Yinka Odumakin, Senator Bassey Henshaw, Prof C Ogbu and Mr Isuwa Dogo on behalf of South West, South South, South East and Middle Belt respectively, the Forum, the Forum, while lamenting the critical conditions in the country, contended that it was time Nigerians should be having national introspection to know what brought about the problem confronting it and look for the workable solution to it rather than passing the buck.
“It is a time when we should be having national introspection to know where the rain began to beat us, how to dry our clothes and ensure that we are no longer exposed to rainfall.
“Unfortunately, we are not addressing the cause of our affliction and only trying to rationalize our needless failure, passing the buck and running from the solutions to our problem,” the Forum said, lamenting: “We are in a period where empty platitudes are being offered our people instead of concrete assurances on reasoned prescriptions.”
The SMBLF, while saying that conditions that made restructuring of the country to true Federalism imperative, include more buoyant economy in far back 1983 than it was at present, even with less population now, the current level of insecurity that the Nigeria Police cannot address, among others, affirmed that Nigeria cannot become a productive country under a 1999 Constitution, now in operation.
According to it, this is so because the said constitution has so much allocated more than enough powers to the Federal Government, as against the States and Local Governments.
“In 1983, when the Shehu Shagari administration was overthrown, its budget for a country of 80m people was $25bn. 35 years after, the Buhari government has just proposed a $23b budget for about 180m people!
The above clearly shows that there is no way out of our systemic crisis except we resume productivity which was our hallmark in the years that we practiced Federalism as an entity. We have exhausted all possibilities of a rentier and sharing economy and all that is left is unemployment, hunger, gnashing of teeth and conflicts among nationalities over shrinking opportunities.
“We cannot become a productive country under a 1999 Constitution which keeps 68 items on the exclusive list, including mineral resources which abound all over the country but which the states, whose governors are constitutionally vested with authority over land, cannot touch.
“We need to give authorities to the federating units over their resources for self-sustenance and paying all necessary dues to the Federation to sustain common services,” the Forum argued.
Speaking further, SMBLF insisted that more powers and authorities must be devolved to the States for them to have effective state administrations, even as he lamented that the Nigeria Police in its current form had shown it lacked the capacity to deal with crimes in a multi-ethnic society as Nigeria and that the imperative of State Police had never been more urgent than now.
“We must devolve more powers and authorities to them to have effective state administrations. The Federal Police has shown it lacks the capacity to deal with crimes in a multi-ethnic society like ours, the imperative of State Police has never been more urgent than now,” it said.
“Restructuring means nothing else than the above. It is a call for a return to a Nigeria that worked under Federalism as against the failing state we are becoming under a Unitary structure,” the forum added.
The Forum, therefore, called on Nigerians to organize, mobilize and work towards building an inclusive and productive country in 2018, while applying all democratic and peaceful means, saying it was a year to battle for the soul of the country by forces of Federalism against upholders of a suffocating Unitary system.
“Nigerians must organize, mobilize and work towards building an inclusive and productive country in 2018 using all democratic and peaceful means. It is a year to battle for the soul of the country by forces of Federalism and upholders of a suffocating Unitary system,” the Forum declared.
and then