A Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has reminded Nigerians once again of the imperative of restructuring the country into a true federation to guarantee its long-term survival as a viable union. His call followed the contentious 2023 general elections that, as usual, shook the fragile amalgam, reopened the fault lines along nationality, region, and faith, and accentuated long-standing divisions. As the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), winds down, all stakeholders should double down and adopt restructuring as the preeminent national agenda going forward.
Soyinka rightly assessed the problems besetting the country as myriad, but with the faulty federal structure and the enabling alien 1999 Constitution as the main obstacle to harmonious co-existence and progress. He advised the next government to hearken to the persistent calls for restructuring or see all its programmes and policies face serious challenges.
With the unemployment rate projected to increase to 40.6 per cent in 2023 from 33.3 per cent in 2022, and inflation trending at 22.04 per cent amid a ballooning population, 133 million of whom are battling with multi-dimensional poverty; the imperative of restructuring the country is never more urgent than now.
Therefore, the next administration, unlike the unimaginative Buhari regime, should not waste a minute in repositioning the country for good governance, efficient public service, economic productivity and growth and national development by driving the move for restructuring. Fortunately, the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, has been an advocate, though his voice has been muted in recent years due obviously to political expediency. He should be vigorous in driving the process.
The inherent distortions in the constitution had spawned imbalances that create excessive bureaucracy, and fuel corruption; worse is that they accentuate divisions and ultimately foster disharmony. These deficiencies have stymied development, encouraged wastefulness, and continued to reward mediocrity across all levels of governance. This in turn multiplied poverty and pushed the country to the lowest rungs of the ladder in human development indices.
Moreover, unprecedented insecurity and violent movements have taken root, claiming thousands of lives, drenching the land in blood and gore. The once peaceful North is ravaged by Islamist terrorists in the North-East, while bandits have turned farms to a ‘no-go’ area for farmers. The result is that the produce cannot be harvested, leading to huge losses and spikes in food prices.
The failure of successive governments to heed the clarion call to reposition the country is also felt deeply in the South, which is now assailed by kidnappers, armed robbers, ritual murderers, criminal gangs, and militants. The rabid opposition to restructuring by successive federal administrations and entrenched interests has severely weakened law enforcement as policing is vested solely in the Federal Government, locking out the states. Despite co-funding the police with the central government, the states have little authority over the police in their various jurisdictions and are thus unable to combat crime effectively.
The absence of the key pillars of fiscal federalism–resource control and autonomous policing – constitute a big challenge to Nigeria’s development, which the next government must address with utmost urgency. Indeed, inclusive government, a shrunken federal structure, better diversity management, and justice for all must be the basis of the restructuring agenda. Restructuring must empower the people at different levels to develop according to their human and material resources, thereby unleashing their talents and abilities, andengendering healthy competition and diversification of the economy.
Several attempts at restructuring the country through the constitution amendments by the National Assembly and state assemblies have failed. There should be a new approach through the adoption of the ‘doctrine of necessity’ to convene a national conference to include all stakeholders and representatives of the nationalities to agree to a new arrangement acceptable to all.
No government that is serious about security operates a single policing system as it obtains in Nigeria. Security is in layers, and it is no surprise that other countries realistically operate a decentralised policing model. In the United States, there are federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. The decentralised policing model operates in every other federal country. The US epitomises decentralisation, and devolved policing is also established in all 24 other federal polities. The United Kingdom, a unitary state, similarly devolves policing,and even one-party communist China grants significant autonomy to its regional and provincial police units.
Clearly, successive NASS sessions have proved to be obstructionist rather than being enablers of positive change. Their amendments have been shallow, failing to overthrow the centralising provisions of the constitution. The ninth NASS, like its predecessors, wasted the opportunity to plant the country on the path of economic development by rejecting the bill on derivation fund, which would have ended the states’ dependence on federal allocations and stimulated healthy competition among the states.
The next government should be focused on the revival of the country through the political and economic restructuring of the country. A genuine constitutional reform process would reset the grundnorm of Nigeria’s social contract in a way that fundamentally renegotiates the relationship between the diverse nationalities and groups, units, and determines their preferred structures of coexistence and governance.
Nigeria needs lean government, decentralised policing, independent judiciary, and self-reliant and financially self-sustaining states.
Soyinka’s words resonate: “…the people of this country will not cease demanding a restructuring of this nation. New voices are being heard and they are more powerful than before. They are not just whining voices; they are voices based on actualities. We have failed in so many directions and they are saying, ‘let us try in this direction’ and you cannot ignore it.”Ignoring this necessity is dangerous.
Nigeria is a natural federation. Apart from it over 250 ethnic nationalities, it is multi-religious and multicultural; many of its components have widely differing worldviews and aspirations. A constitution recognising all this is the natural way to organise such an amalgam forced together by a ruthless colonial conqueror. All other federations of the world adopt this model; Nigeria should do so too without further delay.
