A group of Nigerians under the name, The Patriots, visited President Bola Tinubu of late. They requested that the president should turn his attention to political reforms. It was my summation of their request that another constitution should be written and a referendum should take place to ratify it. Of course, we all take out what we wish from each event. I’ve been submitting here for long that no mistake in the history of this nation surpassed the obliteration of the federal arrangement we had pre-1966. Soldiers seizing power in 1966 began the process.
Some point at the ‘pottage’ men in khaki everywhere may offer to justify military rule over civilian rule. It’s for me a wrong-headed argument, a lack of appreciation of the monumental damage done to Nigeria with the cancellation of the pre-1966 Federal Constitution. Now, this isn’t the first time The Patriots visited a sitting president. This same month in 2013, they were in the State House with a similar request and this led to the national conference of that period. It’s worth noting that they didn’t approach the immediate past president on the same matter, possibly because of the body language of the time. Now they’re back to see Tinubu whose antecedent as a partaker in the fight for the return of democracy was mentioned by the Chairman of The Patriots, Emeka Anyaoku.
Another correlation here to past events was that my highly respected elder, Distinguished Senator Ben Obi, is a member of The Patriots. As Adviser on Inter-Party Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, he arranged the last meeting in 2013. As Obi explained in 2013, the president said if Nigerians wanted to talk, he would allow them to talk. So the National Conference was held. That too wasn’t the first to be held since the return to democracy in 1999. One other conference took place in 2005 under President Olusegun Obasanjo. But to date, the 1999 Constitution regarded by many as the soldiers’ constitution has yet to be scrapped. Only amendments have happened to it. I shall explain why I go into this detail.
While responding to The Patriots, Tinubu said, “I am currently preoccupied with economic reform. That is my first priority. Once this is in place, as soon as possible, I will look at other options, including constitutional review as recommended by you and other options.” It’s important to point out that sometimes the mood of the nation influences what a political leader focuses on. For now, the economic situation is what matters to the people. So the president is right in stating this as his number one priority. There are fundamentals here that need to be tinkered with. My belief that Asiwaju has the mindset and the will to do this was the reason I began to support his bid for the presidency in May 2022. It wasn’t only in the aspect of the economy though; I was of the conviction at the time that he could take bold action regarding other important national issues as well.
Of all the candidates in the 2023 presidential election I believe Asiwaju has the right political capital and acceptance to get fundamental reforms, including political reforms, over the known hurdles in our nation. Hurdles. From my reading of the situation of our nation, the president can get economic reforms done with fewer hurdles. In any case, all Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic and religious differences, will applaud a leader who makes life much easier for them economically. Political reform, especially constitutional reform, is where the challenging hurdles are. Was that a reason getting the reforms executed since the first conference was constituted in 2005 had become impossible? There are many reasons. Some are malleable, others are rigidly constant.
It’s constant that lawmakers play a role in the execution of the request The Patriots made to Tinubu. Whatever came from the 2005 conference was killed in the lawmaking chambers. The Patriots want a constituent assembly. Lawmakers always view any assembly aside from theirs with suspicion. If they don’t kill a constituent assembly before it gets convened, they wait for its egg to arrive in their hallowed chamber to decide if its content will ever get hatched. It’s worth noting that it’s the same lawmakers The Patriots recommend the president should first send an Executive Bill to, which will subsequently give life to a constituent assembly. This is the number one hurdle.
Let’s get to number two. There’s the need to get the buy-in of opinion leaders and other stakeholders across the country as well as across political parties. This is no mean feat to achieve in our complex nation and only a president with enormous political capital can get past this hurdle. There’re the state governors and the state Houses of Assembly they control. Constitutional reforms had been truncated at their doorsteps in the past. A Constituent Assembly will throw in some recommendations that governors will find ‘obnoxious.’ Opinion leaders may be easier to convince, leaders of political parties are a different ball game. The inevitable political calculations will come into play, and by the time these are weathered, getting the process off the ground would have lost valuable time. No political leader will spend time on a volatile issue that the nation can resolve from now into the future.
Yet, I believe the president won’t shy away from attending to this matter in one form or the other. It may well be part of the legacy he plans to leave for the nation. But do we really need another full-blown conference or a constituent assembly, one that requires electing some members as The Patriots have recommended to Tinubu? To me, the more important aspect of constitutional reform that we need is the return to federalism as it obtained pre-1966 or something close to it. More devolution of powers from the Federal Government to the sub-units should happen. In summary, the sub-unit shouldn’t be this dependent on the centre. They were more independent of the centre and the nation didn’t disintegrate before soldiers seized power in 1966.
In fact, the nation was stronger, better united as each region was able to see to its development with control over resources in its area, giving to the centre a certain percentage. This made the regions do for their people much of what the Federal Government is now expected to do. Fiscal federalism that is now obliterated is responsible for the current situation and this should be reversed. In fact, I think rather than the Federal Government sharing more and more funds with the sub-national units, fiscal federalism is where to start the reforms. We know what has been happening to what is shared with the sub-national units. This won’t change for as long as sharing by the Federal Government, rather than fiscal federalism, is what we do.
So, for the devolution of power and fiscal federalism to happen, do we need a Constituent Assembly? I take the view that with the past conferences and recommendations made by different panels on reforms on federalism, including the one headed by the former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. We can collate and execute issues relevant to the devolution of power and fiscal federalism. This is easier as well as time-friendly for us to achieve. Except for the psychological boost of “we the people”, not the military, gather to frame a “people’s constitution.” Constituent Assembly and the attendant long process it requires may not be compulsory in achieving purpose. With goodwill on the part of everyone, even The Patriots may collate and submit aspects concerning the devolution of power and fiscal federalism that support their view of what can sustain our pluralistic nation.
Nonetheless, the effort made by The Patriots is commendable. They mean well for our nation. They have identified what the nation stands to gain if we allow federalism to be the framework. They want our nation to stand, stay united, and make progress which is what federalism offers any pluralistic nation. The president’s response shows he views their effort with great respect. What stands out for me is that he says he’ll consider the options. Whatever options he thinks our situation can accommodate in this drive to undo the mistake of 1966, I hope The Patriots and other players will bring their wealth of ideas to the table to execute it.
Credit: Tunji Ajibade