S.O.S: Before The National Assembly Sets Nigeria On Fire, By Femi Orebe

As things stand today, they are serving themselves and working, unerringly, towards incinerating Nigeria

Was His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto and President of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, deliberately setting Nigerian Christians on a wild goose chase when he said, this past week in Ibadan, that there was no grand plan to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state or is it that members of the National Assembly are hard of hearing? Didn’t they hear the highly regarded Sultan foreswore any clandestine plan to Islamise Nigeria? These questions have become quite germane given what allegedly transpired at plenary in the House of Representatives this past week. According to a Dr  James Onuigbo,  a Nigerian based in Italy, and those who saw the session relayed by NTA 2  which,  deliberately blocked the event from its subsequent news bulletin, the bill to legalise the implementation of the criminal aspects of Islamic Sharia law in Nigeria at both the federal and state levels has passed the second reading.  Surprisingly,  it was reported, not a single Christian member of the budget-padding ravaged House raised a single objection as the embattled Speaker Dogara committed it to committee level where you can be sure not a soul would object.

Writing further, Dr Onuigbo said that even as the bill has passed the second reading, Nigerians are kept in near-total darkness just as they did during their consideration of the controversial cattle grazing reserve bill. Are these people too young to learn from history, even our recent ones? Long before the 2nd Republic, Muslim leaders in Nigeria have always agitated for the full implementation of the Sharia in Nigeria.  That was before a state governor in the north unilaterally introduced it in Zamfara, followed by a rash of it, and as believed by many, ended up easily birthing the Boko Haram movement which became a menace after its leader, Yusuf, was brutally murdered by the Nigerian system. The animated debates that took place at the Constituent Assembly of 1978 about the place of Sharia in the 1979 Constitution are still fresh in our memories. Christian members naturally kicked against its full implementation arguing that non-Muslims would, unconstitutionally, fall victims of such a law.  At the end, a compromise was reached which permitted Sharia Personal Law, but not its criminal aspect.  The same thing happened at the 1988 Constituent Assembly which also came to nothing. General Ibrahim Babangida, the Nigerian military president at the time, was smart enough to stop all debates relating to Sharia and other sensitive issues when he saw how inflammable the debates were becoming. He thus retained the status quo. The 1999 Constitution drew much from both the 1979 and 1989 Constitutions and retained no more than the Sharia Personal law.  Now, what has changed or who is it that is eager to replicate the turbulence in Turkey here in Nigeria? Given the National Assembly’s disdain for the Buhari government, it is obvious, even to the blind, that he has nothing to do with this shenanigan. They may, in fact, be out to embarrass him but what is not beyond conjecture,  since the Assembly claim it is very broke, is that Mid-East money, tonnes of it, could very well be at play as the late Ghaddafi was believed to have once attempted.  But they had better watched it, or they could very easily write Nigeria out of existence.

However, since it appears these legislators have nothing worthwhile to do with their time but are eager to amend the constitution – a huge sum is voted for that – I would like to recommend, for their adoption, and approval, the following proposal by a patriotic Nigerian group which is guaranteed to more than quadruple our current electricity generation capacity:

NIGERIA MUST BE FREE! BY THE #RESTRUCTURE NIGERIA GROUP

“The entire Niger Delta and some states  in the East have more than abundant gas reserves to build gas-driven power plants in that region to give them  uninterrupted  power supply. The only obstacle militating against that possibility is the 1999 Constitution.  It is that constitution which declared the Niger Delta gas as belonging to the federal government thus forbidding the Niger Delta states from using this resource to generate and distribute electricity without first connecting it to the national grid.

“Niger State is host to three dams with a combined capacity of 1,900MW, yet the state is in near total darkness. It has pleaded with the federal government to give it just 13% derivation from the electricity generated from the dams but that request was refused thus denying them a fair share of the electricity generated in their own backyard.

“Zamfara State is blessed with abundant wind to generate electricity for some parts of the state but according to that same 1999 Constitution, the state has no power to exclusively distribute electricity it generates without first connecting it to the national grid.

“Sokoto, Kano, Borno, Kogi, Enugu and some other states in Nigeria have natural comparative advantage to generate and distribute electricity and distribute to their people but the constitution has remained their albatross.

“The reason Nigeria does not have enough electricity is not because the states are not capable but because the constitution is obstructing them from generating power in a competitive manner.

“During the Goodluck Jonathan administration, both governors Fashola of Lagos State and Amaechi of Rivers wrestled with the federal government, demanding that their states be allowed to generate, and distribute electricity to their people. The federal government refused, citing the 1999 constitution.  Indeed, at a point, Lagos had excess electricity it generated for its public infrastructure and was begging the federal government to allow it distribute to private residences. The 1999 constitution was the albatross.

“You will be alarmed at how much the FG has invested in power generation and distribution and what the result is.

“The concept of a national grid is an outdated model. We must allow every state to generate and distribute its own electricity. We must even allow small and big cities and towns to generate and distribute electricity. Competition is what drives national development.

“The 1999 Constitution is the number one enemy to Nigeria’s economic development. Nigerians must rise up to demand the unbundling of the federal government so as to give constituent states as much political and economic powers that they require to thrive.

“In a federal system of government, every tier of government is autonomous and should have no obstacle for its development. Nigeria, as presently constituted, is retrogressive and its system skewed against development.

“If militants blow up a gas pipeline in Bayelsa, electricity goes off in Abuja and Adamawa. What kind of system is that? Why can’t we have a system that allows every regional crisis remain a regional crisis without it affecting everybody in the country?

“The Nigerian system of government under-develops the South and incapacitates the North. We must all rise up to demand for a restructured Nigeria.

“The federal government MUST give up its exclusive right on electricity generation and distribution if we must have electricity in Nigeria. Anything short of that is a waste of time and resources.”

Since President Buhari’s number one priority today is how to revive the Nigerian economy, he needs not convene a full-fledged national talk show, the type President Jonathan preferred but did nothing to execute its recommendations; not even those that were within his executive powers. Instead, rather than wait until Nigerians rise up in a humongous  demonstration, our less than busy National Assembly should amend the 1999 constitution along the lines proposed above,  table the resulting bills probably as members’ bills and forward them to the president for his accent. That way, they would be seen to have earned their fat salaries and allowances. As things stand today, they are serving themselves and working, unerringly, towards incinerating Nigeria. God will not permit them.

Credit: Femi Orebe