DESTINED FOR THE ARCHIVES Legislature
holding their own conference yesterday. Now this was what happened in 2000. Obasanjo called a meeting of all the leaders of the six geo-political zones in Abuja where Senator Adesanya led the South-west delegates and Professor Ben Nwabueze led the South-east delegates. Obasanjo asked for what should be done to preserve the future of Nigeria; Nwabueze was the first to speak and he spoke about the need to restructure Nigeria while Adesanya endorsed everything he said as the leaders of the South-south and the Middle Belt also endorsed it, but only the leaders the group of people who held a conference yesterday got up and said ‘oh we didn’t know this was what we were coming here to discuss’. We will go back home and come back, but till today, they have not come back.
“To think that Nigeria may be kept as it is for long is clear deception and delusional. If they don’t allow us to restructure Nigeria with what would destroy all of us staring us in the face is short sighted, myopic and a clear lack of understanding of where Nigeria is and what has happened to other nations that have refused to do what is needed.
“Many of those countries have disappeared from the map of the world. So let them continue to do what they are doing, and we will continue to insist that we must sit down and make this country a proper one by the structure unit, and by God’s grace, we shall gather on May 2 in Abuja,” he said.
Some Important Recommendations of 2014 National Conference
Though there were dissenting voices against the conference but at the end of it all, some far-reaching recommendations were made. Some of them are listed below.
Creation of 18 New States
The 2014 national conference: recommended three states per geo-political zone and among them are Apa, Edu, Kainji, Katagum, Savannah, Amana, Gurara, Ghari, Etiti, Aba, Adada, Njaba-Anim, Anioma, Orashi, Ogoja, Ijebu and New Oyo. The conference also recommended one new state for the South-east to make the zone have equal number of states with the other zones except the North-west which has seven. It also recommended that states willing to merge can also do so based on certain conditions.
Resource Control/Derivation Principle/Fiscal Federalism
Agreeing that assigning percentage for the increase in derivation principle, and setting up Special Intervention Funds to address issues of reconstruction and rehabilitation of areas ravaged by insurgency and internal conflicts as well as solid minerals development, require some technical details and consideration, the conference recommended that government should set up a technical committee to determine the appropriate percentage on the three issues and advise government accordingly.
At this point, it is important to underscore the fact that issues relating to how resources domiciled in each state, particularly in the Niger Delta region where Nigerian oil wealth is derived, have been the real aspect of argument as regards the present structure. Some of the states would prefer full resource control as against the current 13 per cent derivation.
The 2005 National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) had recommended an increase in the level of derivation from 13 to 17 per cent in the interim pending the report of the expert commission and that massive and urgent programme of development of infrastructure and human resources of the Niger Delta should be embarked upon by the federal government.
Public Finance/Revenue Allocation
The 2014 conference noted that the sharing of the funds to the federation account among the three tiers of government should be done in the manner that the federal government gets 42.5 per cent, state governments (35 per cent) and local governments 22.5 per cent.
Forms of Government
It was recommended that the country adopts a modified presidential system, which would be a home-made model of government that effectively combines the presidential and parliamentary systems of government. Where such recommendation sees the light of the day, the president would be picking the vice president from the legislature.
The national conference recommended bicameral legislature, where all elected members of the legislative arms of all the tiers of government would serve on part-time basis
Power Sharing/Rotation
It was also agreed upon that the presidential power should rotate between the north and the south and among the six geo-political zones while the governorship will rotate among the three senatorial districts in a state.
Local Government
Going by the recommendation of the conference, local government will cease to be the third tier of government. The federal and states would remain the only tiers of government. States government would however have the power to create as many local governments as they want. The Joint State/Local Government Account be scrapped and in its place the establishment of a State RMAFC with representatives of LG and a chairman nominated by the governor. The constitution should fix the tenure for local government councils at three years. Conference also recommended the scrapping of State Independent Electoral Commission, SIECs.
Immunity Clause
The immunity clause would be removed if the offences attract criminal charges to encourage accountability by those managing the economy. Independent Candidacy
It was recommended that every Nigerian who meets the specified condition in the Electoral Act should be free to contest elections as an independent candidate without requiring the platform of any political party.
Governance
In the 2014 national conference the creation of the office of the Accountant General (Director-General) of the Federation as a distinct and separate office from the office of the Accountant General of the Federal Government was recommended. The office of the Accountant General of the Federation shall oversee the accruals of revenue into and disbursement from the Federation Account as and when due; and shall administer these funds as required by the Constitution, while the office of the Accountant General of the Federal Government shall oversee the accounts of the Federal Government.
Anti-corruption:
2014: A special court to handle corruption cases should be established in the light of undue prolongation in the trials and prosecution of corruption cases in the regular courts. A non-conviction-based asset forfeiture law should be enacted with broad provisions to deal with all issues of proceeds of crimes by the anti-graft agencies and the courts.
Land Tenure Act
According to the conference, the Land Tenure Act should remain in the constitution but it would be amended to take care of those concerns, particularly on compensation in Section 29 (4) of the Act to read “land owners should determine the price and value of their land based on open market value.”
National Anthem
The old national anthem was to be reintroduced
Religion
The conference recommended that there will be no government sponsorship of Christian and Muslim pilgrimages to the holy lands. It also resolved that churches and mosques should begin to pay tax to government.
An Unending Clamour for The Implementation
The argument by the North and even Buhari runs contrary to the sustained quest for the implementation of the conference report by all other geopolitical zones. In fact, eminent Nigerians, including a former running mate to the president, Pastor Tunde Bakare have continued to implore the Nigerian leader not to abandon the recommendations of the 2014 national conference for any reason.
Bakare, in stressing the need for Buhari to implement the recommendations of the 2014 national conference, has persistently noted that its outcome is in tandem with the All Progressives Congress (APC) manifesto. In a state of the nation address in his church entitled: ‘Road map to successful change,’ Bakare said though APC opted not to participate in the exercise, the report was done by Nigerians.
“Let it be known that in spite of the rejection of our pre-election call for a transition period, Nigeria is now a nation in transition. This transition period will predictably be followed by a revolution which will, in turn, be followed by a reformation that will eventually usher in the desired transformation of our nation. A key outcome of this process will be the emergence of a true peoples’ constitution that will facilitate national integration and provide a suitable governmental framework for the Nigeria of our dreams – a truly federal state with such powers vested exclusively on the federal government as are necessary to firmly and prosperously knit together the federating units upon which residual powers shall be vested,” he said.
The renowned cleric said further: “That promise of true federalism is contained in Article 14 of the Nigerian Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration, which was unanimously adopted and signed by the delegates to the 2014 national conference, including myself, as the basis of our union. I appeal to President Buhari not to ignore the report of the 2014 national conference! God went ahead of you to provide a navigational map with which you can begin to steer the ship of state to a safe destination. The APC may have refused to participate in the 2014 national conference, but the report of that conference is completely in tandem with the promise of the APC manifesto.”
During the 17th convention of the Igbo Youths Movement (IYM) held in Enugu last year January, the same position was endorsed by former Vice-President, Alex Ekwueme; former governor of old Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife; former National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) chieftain, Ayo Adebanjo; former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana; former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi; renowned author, Arthur Nwankwo; Niger Delta activist, Ms Annkio Briggsand others. They all enjoined Buhari to restructure Nigeria in line with the principles of true federalism and the option of the implementing the 2014 constitution conference was also on the table.
Addressing the theme: ‘Still in Search of True Federalism’, all the speakers at the event advised Buhari to implement the 2014 national conference report as a prelude to restructuring the country. They asserted that the current spate of sectional protests and demand for separation by various groups as well as other socio-economic crises could be reduced if the conference report is implemented.
Ekwueme, a proponent of the current six geopolitical zones structure, which now takes
That promise of true federalism is contained in Article 14 of the Nigerian Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration, which was unanimously adopted and signed by the delegates to the 2014 national conference, including myself, as the basis of our union. I appeal to President Buhari not to ignore the report of the 2014 national conference!
care of minorities in the south and the north, has always maintained that Nigeria agreed with the colonial masters to have a regional government where each has a constitution, annexed to the Republican constitution of 1963.
“There is need for us to return to the basics from what we inherited from our founding fathers,” and to him, that would be the Republican Constitution which stipulated 50 per cent revenue sharing formula for the regions, 30 per cent to a pool from where it could be shared and 20 per cent for the centre.
A Kaduna based legal practitioner and member, 2014 national conference, Barrister John Achimugu, has advocated that a committee be set up by Buhari to take a critical look at the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference with a view to implement them for the progress of the country.
“It was the first time that people with diverse opinions came together for the purpose of discussing national problems and finding solutions there to. Most of the members came to the conference with nationalistic interest and tremendous energy to find a way to advance and develop full potentials as a country to be reckoned with globally,” he said.
While Bakare’s advice would pass as a candid suggestion from a sincere friend, agitations among other Nigerians are indeed pointers to the importance of the topic in the scheme of things in the country. And as most of his predecessors, the president can’t deny the unending agitation among Nigerians that the best legacy he could give the country is to allow a political restructuring of the country whereas the implementation of the report is one important step in that direction. The proposal is that Nigeria must restructure to correct the glaring mistakes in its federal system.