Count Down to Restructuring. Part Three

Decentralization without Disintegration and the Imperativeness of a Referendum. 

According to Professor Wole Soyinka, ”Nigeria has proved too large and inefficient for the centralized identification and management of such human skills and material resources, the centre has become self-aggrandizing, bloated, parasitic, and alienated. Now is the time to put into practice that ancient saying: Small is beautiful. We must return to the earlier days of creative rivalry that pronounces that vanishing past an interrupted project of promise, creativity, and productivity. Then, it may be possible for your generation to say contentedly, even while the harvest is still distant but the soil is cleanly prepared, the seeds implanted and germinating: Mission? Accomplished!” Professor Wole Soyinka: "Mission The Future" - A Speech Delivered at the 2nd South-South Economic Summit in Asaba. 03/25/2014

If in the event you have any course to doubt or question the brutal optimism of our Noble Laureate on Decentralization of Power, you will no doubt be consoled and reassured by the eloquence of the former Governor of Lagos  State, Raji Fashola in his Liberating and Coordinating Diversity”, speech at Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, DC, the United States of America on April 2013. 

In the words of the former Governor, “The realization of these demands [Decentralization of Power and True Federalism] on their own may not necessarily leapfrog us into El Dorado, but without them, the journey will be torturous. If they materialize, they liberate the possibilities that lie inherent in the diverse capacities that the Nigerian states and local governments are blessed with. In that event, the Federal Government will not be without authority or responsibility but, in my view, it will be better able to coordinate the diversities for mutual prosperity." Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!

Let's review the last sentence: "In that event, the Federal Government will not be without authority or responsibility but, in my view, it will be better able to coordinate the diversities for mutual prosperity." In other words, it is not a total disintegration or abdication of powers and responsibilities at the federal level. The federal government will still be around, but not in the magnitude that it is presently.

In defining the power and responsibilities, in the previous paragraph, Professor Wole Soyinka provided a pathway. In the words of the Professor, “Leadership is half the battle but followership must also prove its mettle. Each regional grouping should, by its policies, declare an uncompromising developmental autonomy – I repeat, Autonomy - leaving the centre only with its competence provenance – foreign policy, national security, and inter-state affairs ...” 

THE ELECTORAL PROCESS vs SOVERIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE.

I was never a fan or an advocate of a national conference; believing as always, that leadership, to a greater extent, determines the attitude of the governed toward grafts, bribery, and corruption. As a nation-state, we are blessed with a plethora of the "best we never had." So, our electoral process has not been well-rewarding; otherwise, we won't be celebrating the best we ever had after each death.

For a start, we cannot separate our leadership crisis from the manipulations of our federal system and the resultant structural problems. They are one and the same. The manipulations or distortions of our federal system gave birth to structural decay. The structural decay, in turn, creates a fertile ground for nurturing the opportunists we have at the national level, as well as in most of the state capitals and local government councils, via the electoral process. Thus, leading to a culture of low expectations. Apology to Professor Okey Ndibe. 

Undoing that culture is a task before Nigerians through a National Conference or the National Assembly because Nigerians no longer have confidence in INEC. 

If we had selfless or credible leaders from north to south and from east to west, all the calls for true federalism, confederacy, or total disintegration as robust as they are today, would not have known grace. In other words, if we can conduct elections and vote credible candidates into political office, we are on our way to the promised land. 

And from history, that's a sheer illusion. The endemic culture of bloodbaths and underage voting in the North is irredeemable. We can curb vandalism in Lagos or Owerri, but we cannot do anything about underage voting in the North. 

With talented individuals like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Ibrahim Ayagi, Dr Akinola Aguda, Professor Eme Ewa, Professor Adebayo Adedeji, all of the blessed memory, and Dr Kalu Idika Kalu, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Professor Attahiru Jega,  or Dr Akinwumi Adesina holding forth at Aso Rock, just to name a few, no Nigerian would be calling for True Federalism, Disintegration, or Decentralization of Power. 

As President Obasanjo once said, "I don't know who is going to replace me as a President, but I know who won't. And he did. His Vice President was indicted and unindicted, and when it was all over, he was without a political party. And Baba went ahead to impose a near-dead man on Nigerians as President. Granted, he had problems with his Vice President, but why didn't he sponsor Dr. Ibrahim Ayagi, a religious and ethnic neutral tested Banker, and a member of his Economic team? 

Given the not-so-endearing history of our electoral process, I firmly believe that we will not be able to elect selfless visionary leaders capable of bringing to fruition our dreams of a great and egalitarian society. The dictatorship of a very privileged few, supported by the gangsterism of the bourgeois class they created via the spoils of office, determines who runs or wins a political office. That's why the National Conference is the most ideal in the circumstances. 

Also, the outcome of the last Presidential election is enough to convince informed-thinking Nigerians of the futility of our electoral process in electing credible candidates. When you altered the leadership structure of the apex court a few months before the Presidential election, without regard to established orders and imposed on us someone who wouldn't have been in the apex in the first case, the do-or-die scenario was set in motion. As expected, he won at the apex court. Surprisingly though, they couldn't give reasons why they ruled in his favor. 

So, it has not been edifying through the ballot boxes. The MKO Abiola debacle is rather left untouched. Suffice it to say it remains the best Presidential election result we ever announced. If the outcome of a policy framework or electoral process is perceived, subjectively, if I may add, not to be in the interest of a faceless group of Northern mavericks and powerbrokers, it is not good for Nigeria. That's our history. 

THE CASE FOR THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE AND THE SEMI-AUTONOMOUS STATUS IN THE NORTH. 

Today, right now, Nigeria has no President. There is no President called Mohammadu Buhari in charge of our affairs. What we have in the place of a Presidency is an institution - a Fulani institution, aided by the Hausas and the Kanuris, managing the affairs of this great country remotely. And 2023 is more unrealistic as the day goes by. 

The country is falling apart, but no leader worth his salt has the moral strength or the audacity of his exalted office to stand out and declare in an unmistakable term to Boko Haram and the Fulani terrorists: Peace, Be Still. 

The Minister of Defense tells Nigerians, "Defend yourself." President Buhari echoes his Minister's command, "Shoot anyone you see carrying AK/47." Kidnapping is on the rise and no one is shooting at sight carriers of AK/47. No one is visibly in charge and the shipment of guns and weapons of war to the South is on the rise. 

True Federalism and semi-autonomous status are already in operation in the Northern Region of Nigeria. Did Sharia Law receive the approval of the sitting President, sitting in an Executive Council of State, or the votes of the National Assembly? No. It is the same story with the introduction of Native Police in Kano and Katsina States, for example. 

Whereas the crude oil and gas deposits in the Nigerian Niger Delta and under the exclusive control of Abuja, the gold deposits in Zamfara State as well as other numerous natural resources deposits in the North are under the control of the state governments and the private sector. If it is good for Zamfara State, it should be good for the Niger Delta. 

If elements of semi-autonomy are presently in full swing in most Northern States of the country - an unwritten code of ethics that is consistent with Sir Ahmadu Bello's understanding and interpretation of Nigerian federalism - why is such a demand an aberration or subversive manoeuvring in other parts of the country?  

Loyalty is the bedrock of allegiance. You cannot be Nigerians and continue to pledge support and unapologetically deferential to lawless foreign invaders and killers because of blood ties and business relationships. Your loyalty is not to Green White Green but to your tribe and your wallet.

Our entire armed forces and security networks are massively infiltrated and compromised. The terrorists have the upper hand at the combat fronts because the movement of our forces and deployments of weapons are most often revealed to the terrorists ahead of attacks. Our men and women in uniforms are being slaughtered every day and no one is giving an account.

The Fulani terrorists are doing in Nigeria what they cannot do in Ghana, Guinea, CAR, Mali, or the Niger Republic because they have been made to believe, thanks to Miyetti Allah, that the Nigerian land belongs to them. And that they can invade, kill, and destroy without prosecution.

The argument that the killers or terrorists are foreign Fulanis is half-baked an excuse and it is not sustainable. There are unanswered questions bordering on immunity and a sense of entitlement. How did they enter this country and why do they feel so comfortable in their conquest mission - killings, vandalism, and bestialities?

The Killer-Herders didn't enter Nigeria with sophisticated weapons. Who is facilitating the delivery of weapons inside Nigeria? Who is managing the logistics support? You armed and psyched them up, to wit, they are martyred warriors, fighting a noble war because the Nigerian land is their land. By your conduct and utterances, they are sold the narrative of absolute immunity.

Fulani herders have been with us for years. And they have never been known to carry weapons or derive pleasures in knowingly and purposefully trespassing into the private properties of other Nigerians and destroying them with enthusiastic abandon.

The nationwide stories of kidnapping, brutal sex and extorted kisses on harmless farm-working women are a recent development, though it has been going on in the Middle Belt and North West for decades. The nationwide phenomenon began the very day President Buhari was sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Section 14 (1) of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria as amended, does not give you the right to trespass into the private properties of other Nigerians. Section 14 (1) does not give you the right to forcefully enter and destroy the cultivated farmlands of other Nigerians. Section 14 (1) does not empower you to invade the local communities of others, with the intent to kill, dispossess and assume permanent occupation of the now-vacated land by the original owners. That you have the right to settle anywhere in Nigeria is not an unqualified right; it is subject to existing rules and regulations that protect the rights of other Nigerians, especially the original landowners.

CONCLUSION.

You love power, but you don't have the managerial capacity and selfless resolve to use it for the benefit of all. Even if you do, your feudalist fervour and unrestraint appetite for nepotism; your religious bigotry, even when it serves no useful end; as well as the unchecked observance of the caste system has proscribed you from using the power for the good of the generality of the people. A Governor openly celebrates the Almajiri culture, the blight of informed culture. A former Governor lampooned the departing President Jonathan as being naive for providing Western education for the Almajiris whom they have used to vote him out of power.

The avalanche of poverty and mass illiteracy in the far North, even though the region has received more Federal funding for education than any other region in the country since the end of the civil war, is directly related to your embrace of George Orwell's famed maxim, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than the others." The spillover effect of that culture is what has brought Nigeria down to the standstill we are right now.

Those you have misled and failed to fend for since the end of the civil war are not just turning against you right now, they are terrorizing the entire country and making Nigeria ungovernable. And those you have systemically marginalized and left out of the power-sharing equation have had enough; they want to go. And they want to do so in peace.

You are a drawback in the wheel of progress is an understatement. That you are an unmitigated impediment in ensuring peace and security throughout Nigeria is beyond debate. Your incompetence makes the massive corruption, embezzlement of public funds, and squandering of our riches possible.

Nigerians are more than sophisticated for your managerial acumen and the leadership you are capable of providing is not for the present and emerging generations. That explains the enormity of the disillusionment in the system, the unbridgeable political divide, and the demand for the Decentralization of Power.

On a final note, it is the responsibility of the leadership of the Fulani tribe to expose and isolate the criminal elements and terrorists within the tribe. You know them, we don't. You are hiring and recruiting them from all over the West Africa sub-region. And we are not. To the extent that vocal segments of the Fulani tribe are openly rationalizing the sanctity of blood tie with the outlaws, unwilling to condemn their natural impulses to kill and dominate, and to rein in on the killers to desist from kidnapping, open grazing, and conquest mission; and accepting the paradigm that Nigerian geographical space and the land therein do not belong to the Fulani tribe; and to the extent that accessory before and after the fact remains a criminal offence, that vocal segments, the Miyetti Allah leadership, and those arming and sheltering the terrorists will never evade indictment. They are as culpable as the killers, the bandits, and the kidnappers at the frontline.

Nigeria is worth saving. Those who make it ungovernable MUST NOT GO UNPUNISHED. And I Stand by Decentralization without Disintegration. Let the National Conference be televised. And it must start right now.

Mr. Alex Aidaghese.

A Review of my Three-Part Series on Restructuring and National Conference.

I have my reason for using the works of Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, Mr. Raji Fashola, and Mallam Nassar El'Rufai to make my case for a National Conference and Restructuring. If they could make such a compelling case for True Federalism and Decentralization of power a few years ago, why is APC, their political party, and the party in power, not enthusiastic about convening a National Conference? Simple. No excuse. President Buhari may be holding out as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but APC, the political party that he heads is not in power. President Buhari is simply a metaphor. An institution that is fundamentally opposed to what APC stands for and campaigns for is in control. That there is no mass resignation from the cabinet explains the greedy culture that our public servants cannot overcome. They won't quit and they won't object, even if they have already accumulated wealth that they and their future generations cannot exhaust in years.