Restructuring: Let’s damn the Federal Government

THE Yoruba nation, on September 7, in Ibadan, took a big leap towards achieving the much talked about restructuring of the Nigerian polity.  Hitherto, some commentators had attempted to dilute the message and equate it to a sort of Tower of Babel conversation. Opponents of the restructuring agenda had told us the idea means different things to different sections of the country. They said the confused state of the agenda makes it unattractive.

But at the grand rally on restructuring in Ibadan, the Yoruba simplified the matter by identifying restructuring to mean a return to the 1963 Republican Constitution. The Yoruba dismissed the emerging stereotypes around the agenda and clearly proffered workable possibilities.

The communique read in part:  “That Yoruba insist that Nigeria must return to a proper federation as obtained in the 1960 and 1963 Constitutions. This has been our position since 1950 Ibadan conference and developments in Nigeria over the last fifty years reinforce our conviction.

“That Yoruba are clear that restructuring does not mean different things to different people other than that a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria can only know real peace and development if it is run ONLY along federal lines.

“That the greatest imperatives of restructuring Nigeria is to move from a rent-seeking and money-sharing anti-development economy to productivity by ensuring that the federating units are free to own and develop their resources. They should pay agreed sums to the federation purse to implement central services.”

The summit equally resolved that Nigeria shall consist of six regions and the states and that the regions shall have powers to create states while the states will create the local councils after the conduct of a referendum.

The states would, however, be free to choose the region they want to belong to other than the zones where they currently exit.

On the fiscal side, the summit resolved that: “The sharing ration of all revenues raised by means of taxation shall be 50 per cent to the states, 35 per cent to the regional government and 15 per cent to the government of the federation.”

The essence of the restructuring is that we have to move away from the rent-seeking and feeding bottle federalism we have been saddled with by the military to a productive system such as the one granted to us by the 1963 Constitution.

Do we need any further evidence that the feeding-bottle federalism is not working? Reports of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its latest report on debt structure of the Federal Government and the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) provide clear evidence. According to the NBS, the Federal Government and the states put together, owe N14 trillion and $15 billion in foreign and domestic debts. All of the states, including those that generate near zero of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) owe huge foreign and local debts and you wonder how they plan to exit the debt mode before they talk of development. Restructuring the polity will certainly guarantee that exit in no time.

Yes, the Yoruba have charted the way forward and I hear the leaders of the South-East, the South-South and the Middle Belt, who were also present at the Ibadan rally have committed to floating similar summits to sharpen their focus on the restructuring agenda.

But how long do we need to wait for the actualisation of this dream?  Can the National Assembly as presently constituted guarantee a shift from the status quo? How do we take this quest away from the level of mere agitation?

My take is that having identified the possible solution to the state of underdevelopment Nigeria currently finds itself, the leaders should be quick to adopt what the David Mark’s Seventh Senate used to call “radical solution.” It is about taking practical steps as quickly as possible once the problem is identified. My take is that the Nigerian nation, the oligarchs and status-quotists are not going to give up easily; especially as there is still oil money to be shared in Abuja and there is one looter or the other to heap government’s failures on.

My word for the leaders of the South-West, South-East, South-South and the Middle belt who are sufficiently concerned about the rate of underdevelopment is that they must be prepared to lift their immediate zones out of the Nigerian standard.

The Nigerian standard has been exhibited to mean abhorrence of excellence and hard work. Where a child with two percent can secure admission fasted that those with 50 percent; where those who score 120 in public exams would secure admissions faster than those that score 200 and above; where employment into sectors regarded as the commanding heights of the economy is by man know man.

Now, having identified the issues that can ginger development, can the Yoruba of the South-West, the Igbo in the South-East and the nationalities of the South-South ensure that charity begins at home, by ensuring that the Governors in the respective zones undertake those things within their powers to first standardize governance?

For instance, the Yoruba states do not need the permission of the Federal Government to institutionalise the Development Agenda for South West (DAWN) Commission. The Igbos too don’t need one. Even though they have a bill in the National Assembly, that bill should be withdrawn. All they need do is to get all the State Assemblies in the zones to pass laws establishing and financing the Commission. That would guarantee that even if the states belong to different political tendencies, the Commission would stand. That done, they can then easily pull resources together for practical development of roads, rail, education, health, Agric and others at the zonal level.