Nigeria cannot develop under 1999 constitution —ASOMBEN Scribe

Nigeria attained 60 years of independence on October 1st, the Secretary General of Association of Middle Belt Ethnic Nationalities (ASOMBEN), Reverend James Pam, speaks with ISAAC SHOBAYO on the myriad of problems confronting Nigeria and why the country is yet to be a nation. Excerpts:

What is your assessment of Nigeria at 60?

It is sad that 60 years after independence, Nigeria is still not a nation. We are yet to blend into a nation.  The major problem is found in our constitution. The constitution is the major obstacle in the blending of this country into one nation. I noticed 10 things in the constitution causing major problems and that is why many Nigerians are calling for restructuring and the restructuring is to amend those 10 things in the constitution. The first one is the number of states in the country. There is a competition between North and South. The North has 19 states and the South has 17 states thus, the North has advantage of two states over the South.

The second one is the number of local government areas in the country, while the North has 401, the South has 373. So, the South has fewer local government areas. The North has 58 senators and the South has 51, totalling 109 senators. The members of the House of Representatives from the North are 191, and the South 169, giving you a total of 360. For the number of ministers, the constitution says the president must appoint one minister per state, there are 19 ministers from the North and 17 from the South.

The next major problem is religion and this can be attributed to the 1999 constitution.  The 1999 constitution takes care of only one religion, the religion of Islam. It made every arrangement for Islam from Sharia Court to Sharia Court of Appeal and to the appointment of Grand Khadi. In Nigeria, Christians and Muslims are of equal proportion in terms of number.  We don’t have exact figures because in 2006 when the population census was conducted the Northerners said there was no need to include tribe and religion.

We don’t know the number of people that are in every tribe and religion, but we put it at 50-50. If 50 per cent of Nigerians are Christians, why don’t we take care of this in the constitution?  Moreover, not everybody is either a Christian or Muslim in Nigeria. There are those called the traditionalists. We have had one or two ministers in this country who took oath of office by their traditional religion. The constitution has made Christians to be angry.

Another thing is that the power of the Federal Government is too vast in the constitution. The constitution has given almost 90 per cent of governance power to the federal government. In the federal exclusive list, there are 68 items and in the concurrent list which states can legislate on, there are only 30 items, so, the federal government is too powerful and the states have become almost ineffective providing governance to their people.

The Land Use Act is part of the constitution, and it states that the mineral resources in the states do not belong to the states, they belong to the federal government. Most of the states in the country would have been rich but only the federal government can issue licence for mining.  That is why we talk of devolution of power. We need to reduce some of these powers possessed by the Federal Government.

Also, in the constitution, any law made by the National Assembly is superior to the law made by the State Assemblies. So, even the 30 items in the concurrent list which states can make law on, can be usurped by the National Assembly if it decides to make a law on any of these items. In a situation like that, the Federal Government law will supersede that of the state. In fact, states in Nigeria are beggars, they are small instruments in the hands of the federal government to do whatever it likes.

Also, states that are considered as federating units do not have constitution and police while the local governments which are third tiers of government do not have police. If you call Nigeria a federation, then, who are the federating units? Is it the states that come together to federate and form a federation and why don’t they have a constitution? We were a federation from 1960 to 1966 until the first coup suspended the constitution. We had four regions; every region had a constitution. They owned all the mineral resources but in this new constitution, there are no federating units. What we have are fake federating units.

Are you saying Nigeria is still underdeveloped, despite all what we are seeing around us in terms of structures and education among others?

The development of Nigeria has been retarded because the federal government takes over everything to itself and states are unable to develop. States will never develop. Nigeria will never develop and make progress under this 1999 constitution. This is the problem of Nigeria which has not allowed the country to blend into a nation.

Let the states have their constitutions then, we will have true development. When the South-West was a region with its own constitution, it built the tallest building in West Africa through money made from cocoa. Kano had groundnut and cotton pyramids.

The constitution has not allowed Nigeria to develop again because the federal government is so big, so powerful and corrupt. This present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari said it is fighting corruption, but it cannot because those in government are the contractors; they choose the contractors.

Most importantly, the 1999 constitution has not been accepted by Nigerians. It was written by the military government of General Abdulsalami in 1999, he did not give it to Nigerians to read in a referendum, in fact, he passed military Decree Number 24 of 1999 and gave us a constitution and today that constitution is strictly illegal.

It seems Nigeria is currently more polarised than before. There is disunity, and ethnicity has become a yardstick for appointments. What is your perception on this?

All these things I listed earlier have polarised Nigerians and for us to have unity, the different ethnic groups in Nigeria need to be given a chance to come together to determine the terms of living together. The military decree that was given to us cannot do it. In fact, it is causing problems, and we want to decide how we will relate with one another.

Also, Nigeria is not a federation. If we are a federation, we are supposed to be equal partners. Nigeria is made up of many ethnic nationalities. These are the people who should sit down together and decide. We need to sit down like what Goodluck Jonathan did in 2014 through the National Conference. That conference was the best thing that ever happened to Nigeria and if we are to move forward and blend into a nation, we must implement the recommendations or send them out for referendum or else organise another national conference that will be better than that of 2014.

But the National Assembly is at present talking about constitutional review… (cuts in)

The National Assembly is correct. The 1999 constitution did not make provisions for a brand new constitution. It only made provisions in Section 9 for amendment. They can amend it, but it cannot bring a new one. For example, the 2014 National Conference recommended 375 amendments to the constitution to make it into what we want.

60 years down the line, good governance is elusive in Nigeria considering what the country is passing through in terms of corruption and other misdemeanors… (cuts in)

The political system we are operating does not present the best people in the community as the good people are schemed out. Godfatherism has taken over. Some powerful people make sure that their own candidates win at all costs. So, with this situation, we cannot have good governance.

Also, the presidential system is very expensive to run. It is also full of corruption. Parliamentary system is better and cheaper. In presidential system, why we have bad governance is because those who did not win are appointed. In fact, they are the majority of people in government. President Buhari was elected but the presidency has so many appointees such as the Minister of Justice who did not run for election, but he is one of the most powerful people in the country. In parliamentary system, all ministers are legislators who won election. Take Plateau State for example, the former Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, was not the best person from Plateau State to be given Ministerial position, did we choose him? Now, it is Mrs. Pauline Tallen. Is she the best from Plateau State? Did we choose her?

Also, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not independent. It is fallacy to call it Independent National Electoral Commission because members of the Board of INEC are all appointed by the president who comes from one political party. All the senior people in INEC today are APC members. It was like that also when PDP was in power. So, the post of chairman of INEC should not be given to the president to appoint. It should be advertised in the newspapers. The 12 board members of INEC should be sent there by states on equal basis.

INEC should be unbundled because it has too much work. It needs to be split into three units. One unit should be for elections; another unit should be saddled with electoral malpractices, and the last one should deal with constituency delineations, registration of political parties and monitoring of political parties. INEC, at the last count, had about 700 cases that people filed against them.

With all these analyses and explanations, are you saying Nigeria is a failed or failing state?

It is a failing state and not yet a failed state. The symptoms of her failings are showing all over the place. The biggest and obvious one is insecurity. In all the 36 states, including Abuja, everybody goes to sleep in fear. We can no longer drive on our highways without the fear of abduction, kidnapping, or armed robbery. All these are signs of failing.

Also, joblessness is on the increase. Eighty per cent of Nigerians are living below the poverty line. Corruption is tearing the nation apart. Governance is nothing to write home about, and we have suddenly become a borrowing nation.

The government has not been able to manage the economy well. We were in recession in 2017 and by the end of this quarter, we are entering another economic recession. We recorded negative GDP growth at the end of second quarter. At the end of third quarter which will be September ending, everybody knows we are going to record another negative growth. Negative growth recorded in two quarters in economics is called recession.

Can we say we have come of age at 60?

We have not come of age in any parameter. We still have out of school children, and unemployment of about 40 per cent. In the past five years, economic growth has been stagnated.

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