Restructuring: Nigeria’s elite selfish—Teniola

Mr Eric Teniola, a veteran journalist, speaks with MOSES ALAO on the clamour for the restructuring of the country, calling on advocates of restructuring to take a bold step by sending the 2014 National Conference report to the National Assembly as a private member bill.

There has been clamour for restructuring in recent times, but a section of the country does not buy into the demand for restructuring. As a facilitator at this meeting, what is your view?

As I said earlier at the meeting, restructuring has become quite inevitable and you will agree with me that a lot of people agree with that. The issue, however, is how do we restructure? Do we restructure outside the constitution? We say we want to restructure, how do we do that without amending the constitution? Restructuring cannot be wished into existence though it has become a singsong on the lips of everybody. How do we achieve restructuring without amending the constitution? The steps for amending the constitution are clearly spelt out in the constitution; you can submit the report of the 2014 National Conference as a form of a bill and it has to be passed by two-thirds of the National Assembly and ratified by two-thirds of the Houses of Assembly in the 36 states. That is what you do to amend the constitution.

Secondly, we say we want to restructure; the basis for our protest today in Nigeria is the revenue allocation and it all began with the O.I. Dina Report of 1967. It was as a result of that report that the executive powers of the regions were taken and given to the centre and since then, the Federal Government has not returned those powers. The unitary system of government that we call federalism, which we are operating today started with the Dina Report. Chief Dina was a retired permanent secretary in Western Region then and the Federal Government asked him to write a report; at that time, there were four regions. In that report, he suggested the transfer of some of the responsibilities of the regions to the centre, because the Federal Government wanted more powers then, as the country was about to start a civil war. So, if we want to restructure, we need to take a look at that Dina Report so that we can know how we got to this place and how to return those powers to the states.

As it is now, we can sing and shout about restructuring all year round and nothing will be achieved. So, my submission is that they should put the National Conference report as a form of a bill; whatever we want to restructure, let the delegates submit it to the National Assembly. In any case, why are people talking about only the 2014 National Conference report as if it was the only attempt made to restructure the country? What about the 2005 Political Reform Conference organised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo?

Do you think the report can be submitted to the National Assembly by the people despite the fact that it has been submitted to the Federal Government, which convoked the conference?

Yes. You can do that if you want. If you read the 1999 Constitution (as amended), you will see the basis for the amendment of the constitution and what you need to do. How do you achieve restructuring and true federalism that we have been shouting about? They cannot be achieved by sitting down and talking; it has to go through a bill and this bill has to pass through the National Assembly and the Houses of Assembly.

But don’t you think that the bill can be shot down by the North, which has the majority in the National Assembly and the state Houses of Assembly, bearing in mind how the restructuring debate has taken a North versus South dimension?

But that did not start yesterday. There were four regions in 1966, what really happened that by 1967 it became 12 states and one region had six states while the remaining three regions were left with six states? In 1967, there were also four regions; the Northern Region under Major Katsina, the Eastern Region under the late Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Mid-Western region under David Ejoor and the Western Region under Major-General Adeyinka Adebayo and then Gowon came up with Decree 13 and said he was creating 12 states. In our very eyes; he split the Northern Region into six states and left the remaining three regions to share six states. People looked at him and did nothing until Murtala Mohammed came and created two additional states each in the remaining three regions. That was when the states became 19 and we had Oyo and Ogun in Western Region. If not for that intervention, only God knows where we would be. This skewed and imbalanced system did not start yesterday and people allowed it. Afterwards, General Ibrahim Babangida came to power and took the tally to 21 states, again creating additional states in the Northern Region. This thing did not start today, so fearing that the North has a majority in the National Assembly and Houses of Assembly will not stop the issues; we all witnessed when it started and did nothing. When they were creating states, people danced instead of protesting the inequality and imbalance, so that one Northern Region has now become 19 states while the remaining regions now have 17 states. It was gradual.

So, how do you think the bill for restructuring, which is currently being opposed by the North, can scale through?

Honestly, I do not know.

Does that mean there is no hope for restructuring?

I have not said that; what I am saying is that we have to start the process for restructuring and not just sit down and be talking about it. We have talked about it for too long.

The talks about restructuring became heightened following threats of violence among major ethnic groups. Do you really think restructuring can take care of that ethnic mistrust?

The restructuring that is being touted is just by the elite; the ordinary man in the street does not know anything about restructuring. The elite in this country are the worst people; they are only concerned about themselves. If something does not affect them, they will never speak up. What does a poor man know about restructuring? What concerns a common man with whether someone is Hausa or Igbo or that he gets a larger share of the nation’s resources? But the elite are the ones singing the restructuring song now, probably because they have failed to get what they expect. So, the same elite will not allow Nigeria to be destroyed, because there is nowhere they will enjoy their loot like Nigeria.

But as I have said earlier, restructuring is good and it can be achieved but it will not be by speaking. We must test the ground by submitting it as a bill for constitution amendment. The constitution allows a private member bill.