Restructuring: Can APC agenda resolve the Northern ethnic minority question?

OF all the sections of the country, there is no area where the issue of restructuring has engendered more division and controversy than the northern part of the Nigerian federation. It has moved from subdued discussion to open discourse and debate among the diverse ethnic configuration of the North, as two distinct camps have emerged among the plethora of organisations professing one interest or the other, with the clamour for restructuring taking the centre stage.

In the past and lately too, the North has generally been in the news for the wrong reasons. There are the cases of rising ethno-religious crisis; the Zango Kataf killings; the spectre of bloodletting in southern Zaria and Kafanchan; herdsmen and farmers clashes and killings in Taraba, Adamawa, Kogi, Benue, Niger and Kwara bloodshed. These and other similar tragedies necessitated increasing ethnic agitations in those volatile areas for reforms, particularly restructuring of the existing federal structure. Some minority ethnic groups, the Northern Minorities Rights Project demanded urgent intervention to bring an end to the systematic marginalisation and oppression by the political elite in the region of the powerful elite in the region.

In a 48-page document entitled Joint Memorandum to National Conference by the Northern Minorities Rights Projects, Conference of Autochthonous Ethnic Communities Development Association and Middle Belt Dialogue, they complained about the “systematic and institutionalised violation of the rights of the Minority Nationalities, Ethnic, Religious and Community groups,” and the “continuity and entrenchment of some unjust pre-colonial and colonial political structures, institutions and values in the present dispensation that hold some Nigerians in chains and servitude,,” because, according to them, the creation of new states, geopolitical zones and local government areas had not totally solved the problem of marginalisation of the minorities and the taking away of their rights, but had compounded them in some instances.

Their suggestions as the way out of the predicament include creation of states in which the minority ethnic nationalities would be rescued from the hands of powerful hegemonic groups, which monopolise political and economic power in states like Kaduna, Borno, Gombe, Bauchi, Niger, Kwara and Kebbi states. They regretted that some fairly large ethnic nationalities groups have been balkanised into several small units and scattered in several states, such as the Karekare in Yobe, Jigawa and Bauchi States, the Gbagyi in Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa and FCT, the Nupe in Niger and Kogi States, the Adara in four states and Bura in Borno and Adamawa states.

The frustration of the minor ethnic nationalities, according to them, is made worse by what they perceived as the castration of -Local Government administration by pro-establishment elite of the dominant ethnic groups in the North, who relish the selfish advantage inherent in the over-centralisation of power in the states. “In some states, as in Kaduna, in the predominantly ethnic minority areas, the state government has taken the Hausa/Fulani enclaves and made them into chiefdoms independent of the traditional authorities under whose territory they have settled. This goes down to districts where some districts are reserved exclusively for Hausa-Fulani, and in some cases, some Hausa-Fulani district heads resident in chiefdoms headed by non-Hausa-Fulani are made subordinate to Hausa-Fulani chiefs in other chiefdoms. In some areas, some Hausa-Fulani chiefs are appointed to rule over other ethnic nationalities that constitute the overwhelming majority in the state,” the minorities stated. Exigent valves like federal character, power sharing and rotation principles, which ought to insulate the minorities in the North from precarious condition, they observe, are  being “distorted or frustrated by the hegemonic ambitions of the majority nationalities,” who “have tended to bias the distribution of resources and opportunities in favour of their communal and/or political clientele.”

In spite of all these agitations by the minority nationalities, an elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai punctured the argument for restructuring. His contention is that those with legitimate claims could assess the National Assembly to table any form of reform or proposal. He is among other northern leaders who perceived as innocuous, the collaboration among leaders from the three geopolitical zones in the South with the Middle Belt region on restructuring. Yakasai, who served as Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Affairs to former President Shehu Shagari, accused them of undermining the legislature, which has the primary responsibility of making laws for the country. He said: “None of them was elected by their people to speak on their behalf. To the extent that this country guarantees freedom of speech, they are entitled to their opinion. My quarrel with the people who are advocating this restructuring is that they failed to give the details of the restructuring. If Nigeria is restructured, every Nigerian will be affected. So, it is incumbent upon anybody who is campaigning for this to spell it out so that Nigerians can look t it. But to just go about shouting slogans without giving the actual details is nonsensical….I don’t know why they are ignoring the democratic institutions that we have? Why can’t they make use of the democratic institutions? Why are they avoiding the legislature? Why do they think that press conference is a substitute for our elected representatives? In a democracy, you channel your views through your elected representatives if you are serious.”

Yakassai has an ally in such disposition towards the proponents of restructuring in another political titan, Chief Paul Unongo. The hitherto chairman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) said that the North was not afraid of restructuring, which a former military president of the country, General Ibrahim Babangida and a former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar  have since lent their voice.

In their contribution to the raging public discourse and engagement as part of the processes of tackling the riddle over the existing defective federal structure, a group of some eminent persons of Northern extraction have come up with an idea: that Nigeria should return to a 12-state structure. The Northern team include Bashir Othman Tofa; Fatimah Balla; Sule Yahaya Hamma; Abubakar Siddique Mohammed; Sam Nda-Isiaih; Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim; Bilya Bala; Aliyu Modibbo; Usman Bugaje; Hubert Shaiyen; Kabir Az-Zubair, and Jibrin Ibrahim. Their argument is that it best suits the country, recalling the interface held about 27 years ago, by some politicians, intellectuals and technocrats from Northern Nigeria in Kaduna and Kano between the North and the South in the quest to design a new federal structure for Nigeria.

Though the poverty index in the region is often blamed on absence of good governance occasioned by inept leadership, advocates of restructuring say the existing political structure remains the main obstacle, as it is not based on wealth creation but indolence. Senators, under the platform of Northern Senators Forum (NSF), also said it was willing to discuss restructuring with the advocates as the region was not afraid of any “sensible and meaningful arrangement provided it guarantees justice, equity, fairness and the unity of all Nigerians.”  But, they are insistent that all ambiguities surrounding the subject matter must be eliminated by proponents to provide the “directions on how to go about it.”  The NSF through its chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, said the Marshall Plan that would address “the huge infrastructural deficit” in the North, which had stagnated the general progress and advancement of the North.

The 19 northern governors equally set up a committee headed by the Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal,following the intense demand for restructuring. The other members included his counterparts from Nasarawa, Gombe, Benue, Bauchi, and Kaduna, as well as the emirs of Kano, Zazzau,Gummi, as well as the Etsu Nupe and Gbong Gwom Jos, with the deputy governor of Plateau State as secretary of the committee. The committee predated that of the APC headed by the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai. The assignment of the Tambuwal committee, according to the Katsina State governor, Aminu Masari, on behalf of the Northern State Governors Forum (NSGF), chairman and Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, was to collate views and comments on the state of the nation with specific reference to the agitations for restructuring of the country which according to the governors “has assumed different meanings to different people.”

Where does the recommendations of the APC Committee on restructuring come into play in the whole picture? Do they capture the major issues that have led to ferocious ethnic agitations for equity and justice and against political subjugation? With the northern governors yet to subject the recommendations to discussion at their Form, what is the fate of the report since the northern governors equally set up a similar committee which is yet to announce its report? What is the likely disposition of members of the National assembly to the el-Rufai report, as most of the lawmakers hail from states that form majority in the northern lawmakers’ caucus in the National Assembly?

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