Restructuring, mad man and the medicine man

Restructuring, mad man and the medicine man

Monday, August 8, 2016 1:27 pm


Buhari

Buhari


By Celestine Okonkwo

Once again, Nigeria’s political air is stuffed with a new song – “restructuring.” This new song has been found as the cure for the nation’s multiple ailments including insecurity (Boko Haram insurgency, Fulani Herdsmen scourge, Niger Delta Avengers’ pipeline explosion, and Kidnappers’ orgy), secession threats (IPOB, NDA). Added to these ailments is the lopsidedness in the distribution of national wealth and appointments. To these ailments, prominent persons, including the clergy have been brainstorming to find a cure or cures to these ailments. They seem to have unanimously agreed that the solution is to restructure the frameworks of the nation.

Prominent among those who see restructuring as solution is former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. He is of the opinion that measures so far canvassed and adopted to solve Nigeria’s problems have not worked adequately to enhance national integration and the sustenance of democracy. “If anything, our unity has been fragile, our democracy unstable, and our people more aggrieved by their state in the federation. We have always responded with a suspicion of the “other” in trying to deal with challenges to our integration and democratic survival. And, quite naturally, our responses/solutions have also been, at least partly, shaped by sectional interests and sentiments,” he said. Atiku agrees that there is something wrong with the structure of this country and that we must see it for what it is. He said that even in the unlikely event that federal allocations are shared equally among all the states, we would still be in trouble if we cannot generate revenues internally.

As solution, he canvasses for devolution of power so that the center is not saturated because, according to him, too much concentration of power at the centre hurts the country as it destroys the economy and values as well as putting too much premium on the struggle for power at the centre. “Those who argue that restructuring the polity won’t be necessary once we diversify the economy are mistaken. As long as the federal government remains overly dominant relative to the federating states, it will continue no matter which section of the country ‘captures’ federal power with its attendant instability,” Atiku says.

The Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Okogie, has also added his voice to the restructuring song but his emphasis is on the constitution. He says that those who wrote the constitution appeared to have in mind only a Nigeria awash with petro-dollars hence the present clamor and resistance to restructuring. He adds that the debate on restructuring is cloudy as neither side seems to know what the terms are. “Many of those calling for restructuring have not been able to explain what precisely they mean,” the Bishop says. For him, restructuring means among other things, the reduction in the number of states. “The size of government is such that government is the largest employer of labor. It is extremely difficult, almost impossible to prevent political office holders from placing men and women of their ethnic, religious and political affiliation on government payroll even when they lack requisite intellectual, moral and technical competence,” he argues.

For Niyi Osundare, a writer, President Muhammadu Buhari should work on the implementable aspects of the 2014 national confab report as an act of restructuring Nigeria. “Buhari should not to be afraid of restructuring but he should be wary of those who use the slogan of restructuring to preach hate and the summary dismemberment of the country. He should also be mindful of those who scream against restructuring as a strategy of keeping the nation in fossilized underdevelopment and Stone Age depredations simply to perpetuate an unjust system and its entrenched privileges,” he recommends. Notable personalities from the southwest at a forum also came out with their own variation of the restructuring song.

“We frown at other effects of the unitary economy, especially its assault on Nigeria’s federalism, which has now created the absurd situation where the federal government treats states like beggars and doles bailouts to them with stringent conditions from the resources which actually belong to them but which the federal government uses its unitary fiat to corner away from them,” the communiqué after the meeting, said in part. Nosa Igiebor, the president of TELL magazine is also a member of the restructuring choir. He says that fiscal federalism has become imperative and that it can only be done by restructuring a political architecture and administrative system that is obsolescent and dysfunctional. “To continue insisting that the present unjust system of robbing little, helpless Peters to pay big, powerful Pauls should be retained is a recipe for political and economic disaster waiting to happen,” he intones.

For him, unless this is done, the Niger Delta problem will remain and may even worsen. “Those, who remain deaf to the legitimate cry of the Niger Delta should be reminded of what befell the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, just to mention a few of the multi-ethnic nations that dissolved into oblivion – some without firing a bullet, others violently at the cost of hundreds of thousands of human lives and incalculable destruction of their social and economic fabric. So, those who stand against peaceful change in Nigeria today are only courting a violent one tomorrow,” he cautions.

In his contribution to the song, Femi Falana countered that the national conference did not ask for restructuring of the polity. He said that contrary to the misleading impression of certain highly-placed Nigerians, the 2014 national conference did not recommend the restructuring of the country. He said that the most reactionary recommendation of the conference was that Nigeria should be split into 54 states and the review of the revenue allocation formula to reduce the allocation of the federal government alone from 52 percent to 42 percent while the states and local government should be allocated 58 percent. “Other recommendations include the creation and funding of local governments by state governments, transfer of certain items from the exclusive list to the concurrent list in the constitution, revival of agriculture and development of solid minerals, stoppage of official sponsorship of holy pilgrimages, establishment of special courts to fight corruption, exclusion of immunity from corruption and other criminal offences,” he contributed.

Good as these songs and recommendations are, there have not proffered deep-rooted solutions that will cure the most dangerous and almost terminal ailments afflicting Nigeria including corruption, Kleptomaniac politicians and government officials, political emptiness, hypocrisy and prostitution of those seeking to rule Nigeria, sycophancy among politicians as well as rascality in the National Assembly. Other serious ailments afflicting Nigeria which restructuring does not seem to have addressed include ignorant and docile followership, uneducated electorate, imposition of uniformed leaders on the people as well as ethnic and religious bigotry.

What has the restructuring song done to cure Nigeria of what politicians are currently doing? If the country is restructured along the lines advocated by those prominent Nigerians, what solutions have they found for the kind of frauds discovered in ecological fund projects by various states, budget padding in the National Assembly, election rigging by political parties, sleaze in the army, malignant stink in the nation’s National Assembly as well as the rot in government agencies including the Niger Delta Development Commission?

For Niyi Osundare, a writer, President Muhammadu Buhari should work on the implementable aspects of the 2014 national confab report as an act of restructuring Nigeria. “Buhari should not to be afraid of restructuring but he should be wary of those who use the slogan of restructuring to preach hate and the summary dismemberment of the country. He should also be mindful of those who scream against restructuring as a strategy of keeping the nation in fossilized underdevelopment and Stone Age depredations simply to perpetuate an unjust system and its entrenched privileges,” he recommends.

According to Ayo Sogunro, the legislature is primarily concerned with mundane laws and mundane issues and nobody cares about the ordinary Nigerian. He says that there is nobody out there thinking about how to do some good for the ordinary Nigerian – not the president, not the ministers, not the legislature, not the judiciary and governors and local governments do not care. “These people want to rule the people, not govern the society. We elect our public officials to think about us. We empower them with the full resources of state. We pay them in taxes and our collective resources. We house them, feed them, transport them, nurse them, clothe them, and may even bury them in exchange for their concern over our affairs,” he laments. What has restructuring done to solve these problems?

What suggestion has current apostles of restructuring given to heal Nigeria of the disease of almost illiterate electorate who vote without thinking? How has restructuring addressed the problem of politicians, who, during campaigns and without clear manifestoes, inundate the electorate with lies and impossible promises? What will restructuring of the polity do about the electorate that votes for politicians simply for some packs of noodles? What has restructuring got to do with no questions asked about the pedigree of would-be governors and legislators and political office holders and about their past records before they find themselves in the corridors of power? How will restructuring of the polity provide voter education to the electorate to choose qualified people to lead them? Why has restructuring exponents not addressed the issue of the caliber of people to administer the restructured polity? Are they not the same politicians that are responsible for the past and current poor state of the nation?

Is it because of lack of restructuring that yam-producing states such as Taraba, Benue, and Nassarawa have not deemed it wise to invest heavily in the product and flood Nigeria as well as the West African markets with yam in order to broaden their revenue bases? Or is it for non-restructuring that oil-producing states have not utilized their derivation percentage in developing at least one aspect of their states instead of waiting for the federal government to do everything for them? Why has Kano State, for example, not been able to restore the groundnut pyramids for which it was known or cocoa-producing states not been able to at least establish a chocolate-making factory to feed the country and neighboring countries? Is for lack of restructuring that state governors, who insisted on sharing the excess crude oil funds, cannot show anything for their share of their funds?

If the country is restructured will it produce serious legislators and not those who scale fences? Will it produce politicians and government officials who will not steal state funds and bury them in farms or buy exotic houses and cars? Will restructuring produce selfless leaders who will strive at developing the nation rather than inflating their personal pockets? How will restructuring prevent the creation of the type of nouveau riches, who claimed to have fought for their people and for resource control only to become extremely rich and build empires for themselves rather than develop the areas for which they supposedly fought?

The current debate on restructuring, sound and intelligent as it is, is like the story of a mad man taken to a medicine man for treatment. The medicine man frets and chants incantations, rings various bells and beats different sizes of drums and gongs in his domain, while the mad man looks on. “You are doing all these acrobatics because you are preparing drug to cure me. Supposing you finish your concoctions and I refuse to drink?” the mad man asks the medicine man. The same question goes to all those currently fretting about, organizing forums and symposia and presenting papers on restructuring as “inevitable and the only solution to the myriads of problems confronting Nigeria.”

Supposing after all these debates, papers and solutions, politicians and government officials, who are the implementers of the policies and constitution, refuse, as they are currently doing, to change, or heed or drink the portions currently being prepared from the debate? Who will restructure the politicians and officials and indeed, who will restructure Nigerians and their skewed value orientations? This is the restructuring that must be addressed first before any other if not the solutions will come to zilch.


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  • […] Restructuring, mad man and the medicine man – Once again, Nigeria’s political air is stuffed with a new song – “restructuring.” This new song has been found as the cure for the nation’s multiple … office holders and about their past records … […]

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