59, and counting…

As we marked Nigeria’s 59th birthday last week, international pundits were not quite sure what to make of Africa’s big brother. Is the country an “Ogbanje” that stultifies even the most credible of witchdoctors, or a phoenix that rises from the very ashes of its ancestor’s destruction?

My answer is that Nigeria is Nigeria. You pigeonhole us at your peril. Ask foreign experts who had predicted Nigeria’s demise by 2015. Instead of dying, Nigeria confounded the world by showcasing a successful transition from one civilian administration to the other. What was supposed to be an apocalypse turned out to be a rebirth of sorts.

At 59, and with serious socioeconomic challenges, everyone knows what is wrong with Nigeria. At the drop of a hat, one could catalogue a litany of problems, but that is the easiest thing to do. I would rather focus on what needs to be done to make the Nigerian union more enduring. It is clear to me, as indeed it is to many other patriots who have not given up on Nigeria, that, in spite of the buffeting waves, this house that Luggard built can still weather the storm. But there is an urgent need to build political dykes to arrest the wave of discontent spreading through the land.

We don’t need to wait for a full blown crisis before finding the courage to do what needs to be done to strengthen our union. It has always been the case that those who think they have an advantage at the moment would dismiss any talk of structural change. Their concern is the here and now. Let tomorrow take care of itself. That is the kind of reasoning that has kept Africa — especially the continent’s most populous country — down for long.

In terms of governance and its structures, I don’t see this warped federalism lasting for long. It doesn’t deserve to. If our goal is development and the release of hidden potentials all over the country, this barrackstyle democracy which concentrates all power at the centre while states and local governments languish in mendicancy or insolvency.

It’s time to harmonise the recommendations of the various national conferences gathering dust on government’s shelves. The reason for the fast pace of development and national cohesion witnessed in the First Republic was the fact that power was decentralised and the various regions were able to develop their own resources and contribute to the federal pool for the running of a lean central government with limited fiscal responsibilities. The role of the federal government should be mostly to enforce agreed centripetal activities, defence and national security, coordination of foreign relations and to act as a symbol of the common weal.

We have to work towards unbundling the current structure which is inequitable and therefore stress-prone. That unbundling has to start from the sacred document governing the relationship between our disparate peoples. Why are we afraid of having a constitution in which we can truthfully say, “We the people…”

It is time, too, to review the revenue sharing formula. The current allocation system instituted over 20 years ago, gives the Federal Government 52.68 per cent, states 26.72 per cent and local governments 20.60 per cent. Also, 13 per cent of oil and gas federally collected revenue goes to oil producing states.

We should put more resources and responsibilities in the hands of the states and local governments. Primary and Secondary education should be the responsibility of local and state governments respectively. Healthcare delivery should also be the responsibility of those lower tiers of government.

To reduce bureaucratic clutter and further empower the states, many of the statutory organisations set up to address specific environmental, developmental and other problems e.g. UBEC, NDDC, Ecological funds etc) should be disbanded and their functions and funds handed over to the states and local governments who should now be tasked with doing directly for their people what the current inefficient federal bureaucracies have largely failed to do as they are mostly seen as gravy trains for political patronage. The Orosanye Report has well-thought-out details on the subject.

Just as obtained in the First Republic, states should manage their own internal security system, complete with their own police services. The argument that state governors could mismanage their police service is as childish as it is illogical as if the federal government is immune from the same bug of self-help. It is like arguing for the abolition of parenthood because of the possibility of child abuse.

If Nigeria worked in the First Republic, why is it not working as well now? The truth is that the country is too large to be run as a military establishment. Countries can be decreed into existence as indeed many were after World War II, but nations are built by collective will and the spirit of mutual respect.

Our commitment to doing whatever is necessary to hold Nigeria together is what matters. If we continue operating from ethnic and religious trenches, then I’m afraid, we may be chanting the nunc dimitis of what appears to have been destined by Providence to be the capital of the black race.

I do celebrate Nigeria at 59. And I have no apologies. I have no other country about which I can feel as passionate as I do, except Nigeria. Looking ahead, I dare say we must expeditiously cultivate the herb of equity and true federalism now so that our children can smoke the pipe of peace.