Eminent Nigerians, groups tackle Buhari on restructuring

In an apparent response to the national broadcast by President Muhammadu Buhari, eminent Nigerians, including leaders of the South-East, South-South and South-West and their counterparts from the Middle Belt, have insisted that restructuring remains the panacea for Nigeria’s developmental challenges.

The Southern and Middle Belt leaders, on Monday, insisted that restructuring remained the only way out of the crisis Nigeria had found itself.

In a statement signed on behalf of the Southern leaders by Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw (South-South), Yinka Odumakin (South-West), Professor C. Ogbu (South-East) and Mr Isuwa Dogo (Middle Belt), the leaders restated that restructuring, the leaders and not process, was key to resolving Nigeria’s challenges.

In the statement, entitled: “Nigeria in crises: Restructuring, not processing is the way out,” the leaders said the dysfunctional structure of the Nigerian polity took its worst toll on Nigerians in 2017 when they said ‘Suicide’ became the ‘Man of the Year’ even as the National Bureau of Statistics reported the loss of over four million jobs.

According to the leaders, the reference to “process” by the president as the bedrock of the nation’s challenges would amount to a wild goose chase if the structures of the polity were not tampered with to ensure productivity.

“Unfortunately, we are not addressing the cause of our affliction, but only trying to rationalise our needless failure, passing the buck and running from the solutions to our problem. We are in a period where empty platitudes are being offered our people instead of concrete assurances on reasoned prescriptions.

“Social scientists have argued correctly that a problem is not resolved either by running away from it or ascribing it to the wrong source. Unfortunately, that is what we are doing as a country by playing down our crisis of ‘structure’ while on a wild goose chase about ‘process’. That is akin to a man going to Benin City while driving towards Benin Republic. The faster he runs, the farther he is away from his destination,” the leaders said.

The statement further read: “The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum welcomes Nigerians into 2018 after a grueling and harrowing 2017, during which our people went through untold hardship as the crisis of our dysfunctional structure which took its worst toll.

“It was a hellish time when ‘Suicide’ became ‘Man of the Year’, as many of our citizens found life unworthy of further living and jumping into available rivers or hanging on the ceilings. The National Bureau of Statistics reported a loss of four million jobs in the year, with millions of those employed working without pay for several months.

“Our citizens who fled abroad because there is no hope for them at home were subjected to all manners of degrading and inhuman treatments such as the horror tales from Libya, where Nigerians were auctioned for $400, turned to sex slaves and subjected to extreme violence.

“On the home front, life is becoming short, nasty and brutish as death and violence are now commonplace in the hands of AK 47-wielding herdsmen, armed robbers, kidnappers and enraged spouses.”

The statement indicated that the time was rife for Nigeria to start having “national introspection,” as according to them, the country needed to know where the rain began to beat it and how to dry the clothes.

They submitted that rather than move forward, the nation was retrogressing.

“The truth of the matter is that our nationhood crisis has peaked and there is no further guaranteed opportunities for our citizens, no matter the good intentions of leaders or even unrealistic promises packaged to offer them false hope.

“In 1983, when the Shehu Shagari-led administration was overthrown, its budget for a country of 80 million people was $25.35 billion; years after, the Buhari government has just proposed a $23 billion budget for about 180 million 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 practised 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,” they said.

According to the leaders, Nigeria could not become a productive country under the 1999 Constitution which they said kept 68 items on the exclusive list, including mineral resources that abound in the states.

The statement further read: “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. We must devolve more powers and authorities to them to have effective state administrations. The federal police have shown it lacks the capacity to deal with crimes in a multiethnic society like ours, the imperative of state police has never been more urgent than now.

“Restructuring means nothing else than the above. It is a call for the return to a Nigeria that worked under federalism as against the failing state we are becoming under a unitary structure.

“Nigerians must organise, mobilise 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.

“May victory be on the side of those who seek the progress of Nigeria.”

 

Ajayi, Shonibare fault Buhari

Also commenting on the president’s opposition to restructuring, a prominent political commentator, Colonel Gabriel Ajayi (retd), faulted Buhari on his postulation as the alternative road Nigeria should travel because of the potential danger in retaining the existing convoluted and lopsided structure.

He also warned against behaving like the Ostrich in the face of a powerful clique holding the rest of the major stakeholders in the Nigerian project hostage.

“No organisation or country can survive without some occasional radical changes. It is a truth about human existence advancement development and survival. Nigeria cannot be an exception.

“Rome was once a mighty empire with so much influence worldwide. It collapsed due to similar internal contradictions like ours.

“We must make hay while the sun shines. We must restructure Nigeria now before it is too late and before Nigeria restructures all of us as that will be too bad.

“For a long time now, a tiny minority of Nigerian privileged elite in whose hands Providence has placed the governance, have held the nation hostage. This has stunted regional initiatives and progressive growth of an otherwise vibrant black experiment,” he said.

In his own reaction, national treasurer and chairman of Afenifere in Lagos State, Chief Supo Shonibare, said it was instructive that the president acknowledged the growing and strident demand for restructuring and a return to a parliamentary system of government because of the existing unjust arrangement.

Having tried the two forms of government, he said it should be clear to the president, which one had served the country and Nigerians better, progressive and forward-looking

Part of Shonibare’s response read: “I wish the president a happy New Year. It is incumbent upon us to strive for a working structural arrangement to enable us to evolve as a working entity and not this present unwieldy ineffective unitary structure masked as a federal system.

“Instructive that the president, at least, acknowledges that some of us are clamouring for a parliamentary system. He said we have tried that system.

“What he hasn’t considered is the length of time we spent in operating that system as a Republic. For the records, we only operated the parliamentary system for barely three years.

“The impatience the president alludes is more poignant in the way and manner the military jettisoned that system after only a short period.

“Meanwhile, we have patiently operated the presidential system for initially as a military junta enabling since 1966, with civilian rulership (not democracy) enabling since 1979.

“All we have experienced has been gloated, corrupt rulership with recurrent expenses verging on consuming 75 per cent of our total expenditure which figure increases to 80 per cent in some states.

“It is time to change a system that is not working, in in spite of the president’s best efforts and those of his predecessors and it’s time for us to wake up from being delusional and face the most effective structure able to meet infrastructural services, needs and a more inclusive growth trajectory and the inalienable right for the Nigerian people to demand a less expensive government structure, devolution of government and home rule. It’s time for change if we hope to keep the Nigerian entity as a united federal nation.”

 

Buhari only confirmed his feudal disposition —Ebiseni

A delegate to the 2014 national conference, Chief Sola Ebiseni, described the pronouncement of the president as an utter disregard for the popular stand of Nigerians on restructuring.

Ebiseni, a lawyer and former commissioner in Ondo State, claimed that the statement of the president clearly underlined his stance about being for all as opposed to being aligned to a minority that had consistently held the nation by the jugular.

Ebiseni had triggered controversy at the conference when he submitted that contrary to belief, crude oil was first discovered in Araromi in Ondo State and not Oloibiri in Rivers State.

Reacting to the president’s broadcast to the nation, the legal practitioner stated: “President Buhari has been consistent in his contempt for the Nigerian people and one hopes this would be the last straw that will open Nigerians’ consciousness to the incurable feudal disposition of the man they emotionally elected.

“It is now clear, that when Buhari plagiarised the statement of being for everyone and no one, the message he was passing across was that no one’s opinion would affect his fixed mindset of Nigeria being a conquered territory of his potentate supervision.

“He hasn’t rubbished the noses of ordinary Nigerians as much as those leaders who still deceive themselves, particularly those who rightly believe that moving forward depends on the restructuring of this evil federation to achieve freedom of the federating nationalities, that this President is redeemable.

“His party, through its manifesto, promised true federalism and devolution of powers. His party was recently compelled by overwhelming public opinion to engage Nigerians in geopolitical town hall meetings and the larger clamour was for restructuring.

“He has no regards for all that. It is remarkable that the president, with all the knowledgeable people around him, could not differentiate between the structure of the Nigerian state, which is federalism, and the form of government, whether it is presidential or parliamentary.

“While the form of government is debatable, federalism, proper one at that, which guaranteed freedom of action for the federating units, is imperative for our continued existence as a nation, which the president insensitively regards as non-negotiable.

“As it is, Nigerians would have to decide either to liberate themselves or wait endlessly at President Buhari’s whims. This is the divine year for the battle line he has drawn with the people of Nigeria.”

 

Buhari’s decision retrogressive —AIED

The Advocacy for Integrity and Economic Development (AIED) has criticised the claim by President Buhari in the New Year Day national broadcast, declaring that the president’s rejection of restructuring was retrogressive.

In a statement by its Deputy Director, Adekoya Boladale, the group said the president’s decision to jettison the nationwide demand for restructuring in Nigeria as a retrogressive and callous act.

The statement indicated that Buhari’s decision was also a myopic one, which it said was guided by sentiment and archaic reasoning.

The statement read: “We read with shock the New Year address of President Buhari where he made an open disdain for the resounding clamour for proper restructuring of this country.

“It is important we draw the attention of the president to his promise on restructuring and power devolution while seeking for power in 2015. Initiating action to amend the Nigerian Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to states in order to entrench true federalism and the federal spirit.

“It was on the strength of this promise, alongside numerous others, that Nigerians voted for President Buhari. It is, therefore, absurd that he can turn around and betray this solemn oath.

“Any progressive leader worth his salt will agree that while process is germane for productivity, process without a distinctive structure encourages redundancy.

“Beyond the goof on restructuring, the president’s address is a cacophony of deceptions, patronising and a psychological blackmail.

“There is nothing worthy of celebration in power generation as the much-touted megawatt is a far cry from the promised 20,000MW.

“Surprisingly, President Buhari did not have a single progress report to give on his flagship anti-corruption campaign, having realised that his administration has not only inculcated graft but knighted same in the nucleus of every section of our nation’s life.

“As a matter of interest, when did President Buhari suddenly realise job provision is no longer the duty of the government? For a government that promised three million jobs per year and has created nothing, but hyper unemployment and dysfunctional economy which has collapsed the small, medium and large scale enterprises, this attempt to blame the citizens for its own inefficiency is ridiculous.

“The Buhari-led administration has failed in all ramification and an emergency attempt influenced by the desire for a second term will not clean the monumental mess this government has made.”

 

Buhari’s position in line with principle of separation of power —Yakassai

However, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai said the position of the president on the issue of restructuring was in line with the principle of separation of power as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution (as amended.)

“President Buhari or whoever is the president of Nigeria is not given any role in our constitution to tamper with our constitution, let alone to restructure the country.

“The power to do that is vested in our legislators, in the national and state houses of assembly. I am baffled to see or hear people ignoring this reality.

“It does not matter whether we like the faces of our legislators or not, the power to tamper with our constitution one way or another, as far as the extent laws in our country are concerned, is vested with national and state legislature by our constitution, not the executives. I appeal to all those who are looking for changes in our constitution to be so guided,” he said.

 

ACF backs Buhari

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has risen in support of President Buhari’s rejection of the clamour for restructuring of the polity, declaring that advocates of the agenda could form their own political parties.

The forum, which spoke through its national secretary, Anthony Sani, said the president was right to claim that Nigerians were impatient with the polity.

According to Sani, the president’s speech “sought to inspire hope and confidence among Nigerians who are impatient and wish to live for the moment, considering the trite that the tasks of fighting insurgence, corruption and of diversifying the economy cannot be a day’s job.”

He said the president, in his speech, also assessed his administration’s delivery of electoral promises thus far.

“All President Buhari said in the speech about restructuring of the country is that the problems of Nigeria lie more on attitudes of Nigerians and the way they do things and not on the structure of the country nor on the form of government.

“This may be an odd thing to say, when you note that there is nothing like true federalism and that is why no two federal systems are clones. But the common mantra in all federal systems is such that the central government is balanced by appropriate state level power.

“You would also note that the presidential system works well in America, the parliamentary system is successful in Britain while a combination of the two systems has worked well in France,” the ACF scribe noted.

He also stated that whereas the 1999 Constitution was a clone of the 1979 document, those clamouring for restructuring were the architects of that document.

“As to the constitution, please note that the America’s constitution has just few pages, Britain does not have a written constitution, while Nigeria has a book called the constitution that is observed more in the breach.

“It is noteworthy that the 1999 Constitution is a clone of that of 1979 and those clamouring for restructuring contributed in siring that of 1979,” he said.

The forum backed the president on the need to reduce the cost of government, saying the system adopted in Nigeria allowed for a bloated government.

“When you talk about the cost of government, please note America has about 25 ministers, Britain has about 17 ministers while France makes do with 15, but Nigeria has a crowd called government, all with jumbo pay. America has the vice president as Senate president, while Nigeria has a Senate President with a crowd called aides and the attendant costs.

“It is against the foregoings that the president is not favourably disposed to any restructuring of the country, preferring instead that process and institutions are strengthened. More so that Nigeria has tried parliamentary system in the past and is trying presidential system. Nigeria has also tried military dictatorship with its unitary system with strong centre and has tried confederation with weak centre,” the forum stated.

According to the ACF, the current structure in Nigeria, which makes the states the federating units, is a compromise between the unitary system and the confederate arrangement.

It said the president might not be wrong when he said that Nigerians were impatient, adding, however, that if the nation must undertake any major reforms of the polity, it should not be based on the report of “a conference,” apparently referring to the 2014 confab, which it stated was made up of unelected delegates.

“It would be morally preposterous and undemocratic to shortchange the people by pandering to reports by unelected group of elite.

“Political parties which wish to structure the country should reflect it in their manifestos and use same to canvass for electoral mandate needed for implementation,” the ACF said.

The forum said since multiparty democracy allowed plurality of opinions, those clamouring for restructuring could form a party to project their agenda.

“I say this because while there is national consensus on problems of a nation, there is often no such national consensus on methods of solution. Hence, the significance of multiparty democracy which allows political parties to represent distinct methods of solution of national problems as contained in their manifestos. That is how democracy works. Those who profess to be jaunty face of democratic values should not be seen as promoting undemocratic practices.”

 

Buhari’s New Year message an embarrassment —Ozekhome

Constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome, described as embarrassing, the New Year address by President Buhari, adding that it was an indication the he had lost touch with the Nigerian people.

Ozekhome, who made this known in a statement on Monday, disclosed that the address by the president was not only embarrassingly banal, but that it is also “uninspiring, empty, myopic, unrealistic and bereft of any benefit of historical dynamics.”

The lawyer said the speech did not talk about or told Nigerians what the president was doing about the putrefying and oozing corruption located within the government with evidence of untouchable cows left unprosecuted.

“President Buhari, in his speech, dismissed with a wave of the hand the genuine and shrill cries of minority of Nigerians for an immediate restructuring of our fundamentally flawed federal system of government, which is actually unitary in nature and operation. I couldn’t believe he could muster enough courage to blame helpless and hapless Nigerians for allegedly being inpatient in expectations of good governance after two years and nine months of his becoming president with approximately only  one more year to another election.

“Can someone help me remind him that he and his APC voluntarily entered into a written contract with the Nigerian people in their manifesto and road map charter with about 41 mouth-watering eldorado promises that completely hoodwinked Nigerians to queue behind him?

“When he was accused of not possessing school certificate qualification or its equivalent, Nigerians fired back that it did not matter; that they were satisfied.

“Such was the sheer passion when he was pronounced winner, one Nigerian actually trekked from Lagos to Abuja in solidarity whilst another rode a bicycle from Kaduna to Lagos. Alas, the promises and hopes of a better tomorrow have since become a mirage, reminding one of Julius Caesar’s tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” Ozekhome said.

He reiterated that the president went further to blame Nigerians for the unexpected shortage of fuel and gas that grounded Nigeria for weeks and forced them to spend their entire yuletide days and nights at filling stations for non-existent fuel that had been diverted.

Condemning the message further, Ozekhome held that the president “surprisingly exonerated a colourless, rudderless and corruption-laden NNPC that is not accountable to the Nigerian people. President Buhari failed to do a self introspection to discover that he, as the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources (since he could not trust any other Nigerian honest enough to head the ministry) had failed Nigerians.

“While discussing the insecurity that has since exacerbated under his very nose and close watch, he never for once mentioned even by way of passing remark, innuendo or allusion, the rampaging and vanquishing  herdsmen that have since overtaken Boko Haram in terms of their deadly potency and limitless capacity to murder, pillage and spill innocent blood. He simply, as is now legendary with him, passed the buck of every national malaise. He incredulously blamed everyone and everything else, except himself, for the unprecedented divisiveness in Nigeria today, the increasing ethno-religious strives, loud self determination  agitations, mass suffering, starvation, squalour, melancholy, hopelessness, regrets, gnashing of teeth, chaos and near anarchy that Nigeria has descended into under his government.”

The senior advocate queried how ordinary unarmed oil merchants and marketer could be blamed for unavailable fuel when the government held the knife and yam, the stick and the carrot?

“Has Buhari’s visionless “advisers” (who falsely dress him in the garb of redemptive messiah-nism), his large army of hero worshippers and deity appeasers ever read about ex American president, Harry Truman’s immortal words, “the buck stops on my table?

“Nearly half of the speech was wasted on discussion of railway projects which do not add value to immediate issues about hunger, mass unemployment and Nigerians’ bare desire to survive. The more I read the speech, the more I am convinced that Nigeria is in real trouble,” he said.