RESTRUCTURING OF NIGERIA FEDERAL SYSTEM

RESTRUCTURING OF NIGERIA FEDERAL SYSTEM

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is calling for a deeper understanding of the current restructuring debate in the country, and supports the idea of having State Police in the country accordingly to his spokesman, Mr. Laolu Akande.

Akande said there are have been different interpretations, meanings and purposes to which the restructuring debate is being put to.

The Vice President's Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity made the clarifications in Abuja and while speaking to a radio programme on Orange FM in Akure, Ondo State amidst some media reports that the Vice President opposed the restructuring because of his reported comments during a question-and-answer session at the Second Foundation Day Lecture of the Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin in Ondo State last week.

But Akande explained that while the Vice President questions whether the allocation of more funds to the states from the federal would be helpful at this time considering the dwindling revenues from oil and taxes, he wholly supports the idea of having State Police across the country as articulated in the APC's Roadmap to a New Nigeria.

Akande said it was important Nigerians understand that the issue of restructuring should run deeper than some of the superficial and surface value focus. According to him some of the issues involved include notions or views calling for a return to regionalism, fiscal federalism, devolution of power, state police among others, adding that different interests are taking different approaches and at times this confuses the debate and reduces it to mere political rhetorics. 

He said the Vice President while reacting to a question on whether allocation of more resources to states from the center would make them meet current demands of governance at this challenging period, emphasised that focus should be on economic diversification especially towards agriculture to make the states more vibrant in the wake of dwindling revenues from  oil and taxes.

"Restructuring debate should do deeper than what we see on newspaper headlines and we need to understand all the angles to it...What do people mean when we talk about restructuring? some focus on regionalism, some focus of the fiscal part, allocation of more resources  devolution of power, state police...it's important we understand which part we are talking about at any given time."

Continuing Akande said "in recent times, ‎we do not have much resources that we used to have from oil and taxes and what we need to get the states to be more vibrant is to diversify the economy‎." 

He said the constitution recognises a Federal System of government already and the federal government is truly committed to true federalism.

Akande then submitted that the federal government is giving much attention to fighting corruption and ensuring effective governance at all levels because this is far more important than some of the political rhetorics and superficial arguments around restructuring so far.

Speaking on the president's view to put the 2014 Confab report in the archives, Akande said with or without any Confab resolution, the Buhari-led government is much concerned with ‎the overall well-being of the people, delivering results and bringing governance closer to them. 

He said for instance, the current administration has implemented some of the decisions listed in the 2014 Confab report, not because it was in the report but because they were sound decisions. He listed two of such decisions including the merging of Budget office with National Planing as one full-fledged ministry and also the adoption in the 2016 budget of a 60-40% recurrent and capital expenditures

"The president will do what is right even without recourse to the Confab report. We have an agenda which is to promote the well being of the people and bring the benefits of governance to the people‎". Akande said, adding that "we will not be stuck in an elitist political rhetoric that does not deepen the issues."

POLITICIANS are at it again. Just like the struggle for a Sovereign National Conference by the defunct National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, they have taken the dispute over the need to restructure the Nigerian federation to the verge of conflict, hoping to force govern­ment to make concession. Since last month when former Vice President AtikuAbubakar fired the shot by calling on government to restruc­ture the Nigerian federation to cater for the aspirations of its component units, it has been strategic risk-tak­ing by politicians and academics.

Pressure groups are not left out in the brinkmanship over the need to restructure the nation. To speak on the issue is now like a rule sanctified by tradition and there is the division of groups into mutually antagonistic factions. The struggle, as it is, seems to be between the “moderates” and the “hardliners.” And over-reliance on the literal interpretations of the nation’s laws and the will to coerce others who think otherwise might be afoot. At the center of the contro­versy are the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference.

THE 2014 NATIONAL CONFERENCE POSITION ON FEDERALISM

Former President Good-luck Jon­athan inaugurated the 2014 Nation­al Conference on the 17^th of March, 2014 in Abuja. About 492 delegates represented a cross-section of Ni­gerians, including the professional bodies. Headed by Chief Justice Idris LegboKutigi, the conference lasted for weeks. It broke into 20 committees that included Public Finance, Political Restructuring and Forms of Government and Revenue, among others. After five months of national restructuring debate at the National Judicial In­stitute, NJI in Abuja, the National Conference produced its draft final report of the 20 committees set up during the conference.

In the conference report under political restructuring and forms of government, the conference agreed that “Federalism denotes a political arrangement in which a country is made up of component parts other­wise called federating units,” and that “in a Federation, political pow­ers are constitutionally shared be­tween the central government and the federating units.”

It took a look at the advantages inherent in a federal system of gov­ernment in a heterogeneous society such as Nigeria and identified the sustenance of unity in diversity, expanded opportunities for various people, including minority groups, to participate in the governance of the country. The conference was also not unmindful of the minimi­zation of the fears of marginaliza­tion among minority groups. What is more, the conference recognized the promotion of a broad-based de­velopment as one of the benefits of federalism.

Consequently, it recommended the retention of a federal system of government, the core element of which shall be a Federal (central) Government with states as federat­ing units. The groundswell of the conference recommendation in the area of federalism is that “without prejudice to States constituting the federating units, States that wish to merge may do so in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), provided that:

(a) A two-third majority of all members in each of the Houses of Assembly of each of the States in which such merger is proposed, support by resolution the merger.

(b) A referendum is conducted in each of the State proposing to merge with 75 percent of eligible voters in each of those States approving the merger.

(c) The National Assembly by resolution, passed by a simple ma­jority of membership, approves the merger and

(d) States that decide to merge shall also have the right to demerge following the same procedure and processes for merger.

The conference did not foreclose the issue of a Regional govern­ment, saying instead that each State that is regionally based should cre­ate a self-funding Zonal Commis­sion to promote economic devel­opment, good governance, equity and security in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Repub­lic of Nigeria (as amended). It also did a test, determined by the forms and content of government fit for Nigeria, using the Presidential and parliamentary systems of govern­ment as indicators. To arrive at a fair assessment for the purpose of choosing which system that will best serve Nigeria and Nigerians, the conference assigned qualities to the entrenchment of the prin­ciple of separation of powers for the presidential system and the promotion of cooperation and har­mony between the Executive and Legislature for the parliamentary system of government. The verdict is a homemade model of govern­ment that effectively combines the aforementioned qualities of the presidential and parliamentary sys­tems of government, code-named Modified Presidential System.

The Modified Presidential sys­tem recommended is a new and in­ventive idea, which stipulates that the president shall select not more than 18 Ministers from the six geo-political zones and not more than 30 percent of his Ministers from outside the Legislature.

It also recommended the Nige­rian Charter for National Recon­ciliation and Integration, aimed at encouraging inclusiveness and the need to build a fully integrated nation. The conference expressed concern that since the post-in­dependence political upheavals, which ended the terms of nation­hood entered into by the nation’s founding fathers, “the diverse eth­nic nationalities of Nigeria have never had ample opportunities to formally express their consent to co-exist as one nation.” But while the conference resolved in their recommendation that “Nigerians will live in unity and harmony as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation under God,” it also suggested as worthy of being accepted “the right to self-deter­mination by the States as federat­ing units,” and that “such rights be extended to ethnic nationalities within the States.” “States shall have their respective Constitu­tion,” and “there shall be revenue sharing formula established by law in every State.”

SOYINKA STOKES THE DEBATE

Early this month, Nobel Laure­ate, Prof. Wole Soyinka joined the fray by calling for the restructur­ing of the Nigerian federation. To Soyinka, the nation’s sovereignty is negotiable. Like Atiku, he said the decentralization of the na­tion would ensure healthy rivalry among the component units. He knocked past leaders for their non-negotiable stance and added that their stand is diametrically op­posed to development. “I am on the side of those who say that we must do everything to avoid disintegra­tion. That language I understand. I don’t understand Obasanjo’s lan­guage. I don’t understand Buhari’s language and all their predecessors saying the sovereignty of this na­tion is non-negotiable. It’s bloody well negotiable and we had bet­ter negotiate it. We better negoti­ate it, not even at meetings, not at conferences, but every day in our conduct towards one another,” Soyinka said.

ATIKU’S TEASER

Also last month, former Vice President and Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC opened up vistas of expansion into the almost forgotten issue of the need for the restructuring of the Nigerian federation when he launched a blistering salvo that provided the spark of interest on the subject matter. According to him, the structure of the country is heavily defective, as it does not provide the enabling envi­ronment for growth and progress among the 36 component states of the federation.

The former vice president spoke against the backdrop of renewed agitations by militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). He recalled how Nigeria once operated a federal system at independence that allowed the regions to retain their autonomy, raise and retain revenues, pro­mote development, and conduct their affairs as they saw fit, while engaging in healthy competition with others. “Agitations by many right-thinking Nigerians call for a restructuring and renewal of our federation to make it less centralised, less suffocating and less dictatorial in the affairs of our country’s constituent units and localities. As some of you may know, I have for a long time advocated the need to restruc­ture our federation. Our current structure and the practices it has encouraged have been a major impediment to the economic and political development of our country. In short, it has not served Nigeria well, and at the risk of re­proach it has not served my part of the country, the North, well.

“The call for restructuring is even more relevant today in the light of the governance and eco­nomic challenges facing us. And the rising tide of agitation of some militants requires a reset in our relationships as a united na­tion. Some may say that we are saddled with more urgent chal­lenges, including rebuilding our battered economy, creating jobs, fighting corruption and securing our people from terrorism and other forms of serious crimes. I believe, however, that addressing the flaws in our federation will help us address some of those very economic and security chal­lenges facing this country.

“Nigeria must remain a united country. Our potential is enor­mous. But I also believe that a united country, which I think most Nigerians desire, should never be taken for granted or tak­en as evidence that Nigerians are content with the current structure of the federation. Making that mistake might set us on the path of losing the country we love or, as Chido Onumah puts it, result in our ‘country sleepwalking to disaster. Let me quickly acknowl­edge that no federal system is set for all time. There are always tensions arising from matters re­lating to the sharing of power, re­sources and responsibilities. But established democracies have de­veloped peaceful mechanisms for resolving such conflicts among the tiers of government. They recognise that negotiations and compromises are eternal,” the former Vice-President submit­ted at a book launch on “We are all Biafrans”, written by ChidoOnumah in Abuja last month.