Restructuring Nigeria: A Critical Analysis
FSteven Adedayo Bello
or quite some time now, probably since about 20 years ago, there has been agitation by individuals, geo-cultural groups, geo-political associations for the restructuring of Nigeria. The various heads of state and government that had been in power over this period had not seen reasons to give the calls serious consideration. The nearest they have done is either to call a national conference, as Jonathan did in 2014 or to establish a reconciliatory commission as done by Obasanjo or issue a press statement as the Presidency did about a week ago as reported in the front page of the Nation of 31st May, 2017 . There are 3 major reasons for this: Some people believe that there is no guarantee that such an exercise will succeed in moving the nation forward, and that it may even be counter-productive or lead to unexpected consequences; Secondly, prior to 2015, the people who were calling for restructuring never gave a clear definition of what they meant by re-structuring, neither were they specific about the scope, modalities or even the timing of such an exercise; Thirdly, up till 2015, most of the calls for restructuring had been from individuals and groups from the southern part of Nigeria, especially South South geo-political zone. Others from the North probably think that the agitation is because the south controls the major mineral resources that constitute the bulk of Nigeria’s wealth.
However, in recent times or since 2016, prominent Northerners are beginning to join their southern counterparts in asking for restructuring. Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, GCFR recently called for restructuring of Nigeria. Also recently, it was reported that the Speaker, Hon. Dogara suggested constitutional amendment that will deliver the local governments from the hand of governors, this is actually a form of agitation for restructuring.
Also, agitators are beginning to give more details about what they mean by restructuring. Former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, in his speech during the launching of a new weekly newspaper, Daily Stream, listed some agenda items to be tabled during any restructuring exercise, these include devolution of power to the states, reduction in federal government exclusive list(87) in favour of concurrent list(15), developing our own model of fiscal federalism, reduction in number of federating units, administrative restructuring, leaner bureaucracy, local government autonomy (state control), federal ownership of interstate roads, resource sharing. Others have also raised issues such as resource control, state police, federal character principle etc.
The tempo, frequency and spread of agitation are increasing by the day. There is a wide spectrum of agitators both for and against. Agitators from the south are unanimously in support of restructuring while those from the north have divergent views. On one hand you have proponents like Balarabe Musa, Northern Elders Forum as announced by their spokesperson, Paul Unongo, General Gowon etc. On the other hand you have the opponents of the motion like the outspoken Dr Junaid Mohammed, Tanko Yakassai, the little known Northern Delegates Forum led by Bashir Dalhatu. However, agitation by two or three outspoken individuals in the north cannot be used as a yardstick for measuring northern opinion on restructuring; it is mainly by town hall meetings or wide consultation that the people’s opinion can be distilled or synthesized. Also , surprisingly, retired military generals, such as Alani Akinrinade, Tunde Ogheha(Kogi) and Ike Nwachukwu are reported to have also joined the agitation. The same military powers that de-structured Nigeria are now asking to undo some of the changes they made during their 29 years in power. Infact, the incursion of armed forces into Nigerian political landscape is a bag of mixed blessings, some of the structures they created are difficult to dismantle and some of the changes they made are impossible to reverse.
The recent call on President Buhari by some delegates to Jonathan’s National conference, asking for the implementation of the conference proceedings is a pointer to the fact that government can no more neglect these calls nor treat them as mere agitation by advocacy groups. And rightly, Buhari’s government has come out with its own contribution to the debate. According to a publication on The Nation of 31, 2017, government is not actively opposed to restructuring, but believes that such an exercise must follow due process, including a referendum where necessary, and this will require amending the present constitution which may take a long time. Their position seems logical but they gave the impression that it cannot happen so soon. Actually it needs not be time consuming. Infact, the national and state assemblies can amended the constitution in three months if the will is there. With the present tempo of debate, restructuring is likely to be a major campaign issue during the 2019 general election.
Those asking for restructuring are of the opinion that it will make the nation more stable politically and also bring more economic progress by encouraging hard work and competition among the federating units hence allowing each unit to develop at its own pace. However political stability is not a function of ethnic homogeneity or religious purity. Somalia in a nation in which over 90% of the population speak the same language. Also, Somalia is 99% Muslim by religion, yet it is one of the most unstable countries in the world.
On the other hand, Switzerland consists of 3 major languages (German, French and Italian). It has no single gram of mineral resource, yet it is one of the most stable and one of the richest countries in the world. It can therefore be concluded that the mindset of the citizens of a country is the major determinant of political stability and economic progress.
What is structure: From my engineering background, structure can be defined as the number of sub-systems or functional components that combine together to make up a complex system and the rules that govern the interrelationship between them to ensure they all work together seamlessly to achieve a common purpose or a given output. For example, a car, is a system consisting of engine, transmission, gear box, tires, steering system and a chassis. None of the units can work independently without the others. (A system is actually greater than the sum of its component parts). Hence a car is a simple system or a first order system with a simple structure. However, there are super-structures, which are made up of two or more subsystems, each of which can actually exist or produce an output independently. Nigeria or any nation at all can be described as a superstructure consisting of many sub units, each of which can actually exist independently. For example, Singapore is a single city, but it is also a country with its own head of state, currency, national anthem, language and economic system. Lagos can exist as a country and Kano can also exist as a country. The smallest country is Europe, Monaco, is about the same size of Ogori-Magongo LGA in Kogi State. If, for example, today Ekiti State becomes an independent Nation with His Excellency, Fayose as Head of State. It may be relatively poor, its per capital income will be about one-tenth of Nigeria’s per capital income. It has no major mineral deposit, it would be a land-locked country with no access to the sea. It has no major manufacturing industry, no dam to provide water for irrigation in time of draught. The only significant export it has is its professors, which it can export to international universities in Europe or USA. Though it will exist as a country, but the poverty level, at least in the short term, will increase far beyond what it is today. On the other hand, if that happens, it will be forced to start finding innovative ways to survive since there will be no more monthly allocation coming from Abuja. It may call its professor to Ado-Ekiti and tell them to start developing software for Facebook, WIPRO, Microsoft or LM Ericsson in Sweden. Within 5 to 10 years it may actually become a prosperous country like Switzerland or Israel who don’t have any mineral resource but depend only on the brain of their citizens. So the prosperity of a nation is predominantly determined by the mindset of its people. With the right mindset, the nation of Ekiti Republic can become very prosperous if left alone. Also, with the wrong mindset, Ekiti Republic may plunge into abject poverty far above the level they are today when they still have the opportunity to share from the resources of other regions in Nigeria. It is the same scenario for most states in Nigeria. The question is this, how do we generate the right mindset in our citizens in such a way that Ekiti State will be able to contribute as much to the country’s income as oil-rich Bayelsa State. With the right mindset, the professors in Ekiti can generate as much income as Rivers State is generating from oil. India will in 2017 generate over $250 Billion from software export by its IT companies like Infosys, Tata and WIPRO. Ten times more than the $25 billion revenue Nigeria will make mainly from oil export in 2017. It is a matter of mindset or social orientation. I have used these examples to illustrate the fact that political restructuring and resource control will not necessarily solve Nigeria’s problems, since these are the first major issues that come to mind when people hear or speak about restructuring Nigeria. There are different types of restructuring and there are many dimensions to restructuring. This I will discuss in more detail later in the next section of this write-up.
Types of Restructuring
What is restructuring: To simply put it, restructuring is the process of increasing or decreasing the number of component parts that makes up a system and re-defining the inter-relationship between them in such a way that the entire system performs more efficiently. However, restructuring, if not well planned and handled can lead to greater inefficiency or even system collapse.
The first thing that comes to the mind of people when they hear restructuring is political restructuring such as creating more states or merging of states/LGA, resource control, regional autonomy, power devolution etc. The most sensitive of which is resource control especially oil wealth. However, there are many dimensions to restructuring, some of which include political restructuring, economic restructuring, educational restructuring, social restructuring, accounting restructuring, administrative restructuring, restructure of security apparatus etc.
Consequently, since there are many dimensions to restructuring, anybody agitating for it should tell Nigerians the exact type or types of restructuring he or she wants. Modes of Restructuring
Implementing restructuring can take many forms depending on the choice among the following alternatives:- Wholesale restructuring or Piecemeal restructuring; Fast-paced restructuring or Gradual restructuring; Short-term restructuring or Long-term restructuring; Government-driven or people-driven restructuring; and Formal or informal restructuring
The outcome of any restructuring will depend to a great extent on which of the above modes of restructuring is adopted by Nigeria. Past Restructuring Since Independence:
Consciously or unconsciously, deliberately or in-deliberately, most Heads of State or governments we have had since independence have implemented one form of restructuring or the other during their reign. The reasons why we did not know is that the decisions were not called or announced as restructuring, and they were done piecemeal making them un-noticeable by the general public. Even those that made the changes did not know that they were actually restructuring Nigeria, either economically, politically, administratively or otherwise. The restructuring exercises carried out unconsciously by each government since independence are as listed below.
Tafawa Balewa (1960-1965)
(Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe as Gov-General/ Ceremonial President) a) Creation of Mid-Western Region from the then Western Region - Political Restructuring
General Aguiyi Ironsi: - Jan 1966-July 1966 (6 months)
1. Abolished the federating regions by Decree 32. Suspended Federal and Regional parliaments. Power became concentrated at the center (Political restructuring)
2. Cancelled Native Authority Police (Administrative restructure(ng)
3. Federal Government took over control of revenue from natural resources and corporate taxes from regional governments. Shared national income among the regions (fiscal and economic restructuring)
4. Started unitary government with a strong center and weaker regions, a bye-product of military dictatorship ( political restructuring).
General Yakubu Gowon (July 1966-August 1975)
a. Creation of 12 states to replace four regions – ( major political restructuring)
b. Universal free primary education (educational restructuring)
c. Started with 50% derivation payment to oil producing states, – (fiscal/ economic restructuring) (This was later gradually reduced to 13% over a few years)
(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)