It is now most likely that only some terrible, unforeseen circumstances, would make President Muhammadu Buhari shift an inch from his ramrod stand against restructuring despite his recent panegyrics to true federalism. This will be sad given the dire circumstances Nigeria is in and the fact that there is no dearth of advice from respected elders whose patriotism is beyond doubt.
So serious is the Nigerian condition today that elders like Emeka Anyaoku, Wole Soyinka, and some clerics, especially Catholic Bishops, can no longer remain silent but had to talk. We must, however, quickly make a distinction between these patriots and those who simply want to hear their own sound bites; crass opportunists to whom Nigerians no longer pay attention. Without a doubt, the President’s non action, and seeming rigidity, after publicly announcing that the time for true federalism is now, a whole three months ago, is more than baffling.
Let us recap that occasion as presented by the Leadership newspaper’s very analytical editorial of 22 May, 2019. Wrote the paper, mutatis mutandis: “Since he won the February 23, 2019 presidential election, President Muhammadu Buhari has been commenting on some topical national issues hitherto considered no go areas. Considering his party’s criticism of those Nigerians clamouring for restructuring, not many expected him to endorse true federalism. But that was what he did when he broke his silence on the issue by declaring that true federalism is now a necessity. The fact that he chose the occasion of the APC Governors Forum’s presentation of an appreciation award to him for his outstanding performance in his first term to make the unambiguous statement was taken as a sign of utmost seriousness. Said the President:
“Your Excellencies, it will be belabouring the point to say that true federalism is necessary at this juncture of our political and democratic evolution. At a time when some few privileged individuals and groups have chosen to exploit and manipulate the ethnic and religious fault lines for seeking personal and partisan advantage, we need to build bridges across the different divides and instill faith in the unity and indivisibility of one Nigeria”,
If he had made that statement during the campaigns, many would have concluded that he was merely playing politics.
Last year, APC had set up the Nasir el-Rufai committee to study the issue of Power Devolution and make recommendations but the report, despite being approved by the party’s National Executive committee, has been gathering moth at the technical committee to which it was cleverly remitted. Suffice it to say that the recommendations were supported by even the likes of Bayelsa state governor, Seriake Dickson, as it recommended resource management, internal security, and merger of states.
Continued the paper: “With the increasing security challenges, which have obviously overwhelmed the armed forces, and the police, the first step towards true federalism should be the creation of state police. It should also include state participation in enterprises hitherto monopolised by the Federal government. It should include fiscal federalism which will enable the states to fully develop, and strengthen, their internal sources for revenue generation. The federal government should, therefore, move fast and review the revenue sharing formula in favour of the states to shore up their resources.
The National Assembly, it said, should work harmoniously with the Executive and do the needful with regards to the amendment of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). President Buhari must march words with action by promptly setting up a committee to harmonise the reports of all previous national conferences and constituent assemblies, including the recommendations of the 2014 national confab to evolve a working model of true federalism for the country. Members of the committee should be knowledgeable, visionary and patriotic Nigerians drawn from all strata of the society.
Considering the daunting economic challenges and dwindling resources facing the country, the president is admonished not to constitute another national conference because it will be wasteful. Although the editorial says that recommendations should go to the National Assembly for ratification, I think it should go to a national referendum for that purpose as the National Assembly should have cured the lacuna of absence of referendum in the constitution. Finally, says the paper, the President must demonstrate the political will to return Nigeria to the path of good governance where the social, economic and political rights of all Nigerians are well protected.”
Given the parameters laid out in that very lucid editorial, 3 months is absolutely too much to have wasted doing nothing in respect of the President’s professed new love for true federalism. So we ask: what happened? For a certainty, the President wasn’t taking Nigerians on a jolly ride. Or has he since come under pressure as happened when he was constituting his new cabinet?
It is beyond me to suggest that the President didn’t quite get what he was setting Nigerians up for when he sang panegyrics to true federalism. Our conditions are more dire today than they were 3 months ago. As Jide Oluwajuyitan put it in The Nation of Thursday, 8 August, 2019: ”Today nearly all Nigeria’s major ethnic groups-the Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, Ijaw, Tiv, Birom, Ogoni, and Munshi etc. are at war with the state. Last Saturday, a coalition of 406 indigenous youth groups in Nigeria and the Diaspora, under the aegis of the Nigerian Ethnic Nationality Youth Leaders Forum (NENYLF), also raised an alarm about the creeping anarchy in the country admonishing “no responsible government and its leadership could continue to fold their arms pretending that all is well.”
We are today; encircled by sundry enemy forces- bandits in the Northwest, Boko Haram in the Northeast, kidnappers absolutely dominant everywhere in the South, together with armed robbers and ritualists. Therefore, Nigerians are asking: what exactly is happening? Why the unnecessary delay after whetting our appetite and why has he not moved an inch beyond the status quo since he uttered those beautiful words in May? Our circumstances today demand much faster speed than Husain Bolt, the multi- Olympics sprint star was ever able to offer at those meets .
President Buhari has more than demonstrated his love for the country. He had, in fact, put his life on the line, on battlefields, so that Nigeria can remain a united, and prosperous, country. What has suddenly happened to cause this non movement on an agenda that is guaranteed to return Nigeria to a state of peace, and harmony, in contrast to our current parlous circumstances?
Have some faceless advisers changed his mind? Is he torn between loyalty to country and loyalty to his ethnic nationality? Does he think the North has too much to lose in a restructured Nigeria? Even if yes, won’t he prefer to have his name written on the right side of history and be the Buhari of Nigeria, like Zik of Africa, rather than be the Buhari of an ethnic redoubt?
Wont
I am a committed Buharist, and I love, and support him, but I feel honour bound to ask these questions even if top party chieftains, and his senior advisers cannot, because they are consumed with daily reading his body language. I am more than eager to see his name etched on the right side of Nigerian history. He has earned it, as a man of incandescent incorruptibility and high integrity, but he has to be extremely careful not to lose it all. He must not allow men whose names will not even grace the footnotes of Nigerian history to mess up all he has done for Nigeria. These are tough times and he must rise up to it as it is as sure as day follows the night that post- restructuring peace, harmony, concord and development in Nigeria will lift him very high amongst the pantheons of Nigerian leaders, past and present. And that will be a duly earned legacy for a man who has so meritoriously served his fatherland.
In concluding this piece may I, respectfully, draw the President’s attention to the following portion of Professor Jide Osuntokun’s article in The Nation of Thursday, 8 August, 2019 wherein he wrote:
“What President Buhari should do is bring up constitutional proposals to prune down the size of government. This should involve the idea of a unicameral parliament and doing away with the present wasteful, and expensive senate, while radically reducing the number of the members of the House of Representatives, as well as cutting down by half, the wasteful do-nothing 774 local governments. The present states should be the unit of effective administration in a much decentralized government with power and financial resources transferred to the periphery where the people live. This will not only reduce tension in the land, it will also enhance security because the states and the much stronger local governments will be able to design appropriate security architecture, as desired, and determined by the peculiarities of each state and local governments, away from the current lumbering homogeneity and the inefficiency of the present”.
I wish President Buhari well.
Credit: Femi Orebe, The Nation