BABAGIDA ALIYU'S VIEW AT CHATAM HOUSE
Niger state governor was in London. Muazu Babangida Aliyu was only honouring an invitation to the Queen’s country, he did not go to see the Queen. The clarification is necessary, in case watchdogs want to bark about waste of public funds. So His Excellency was delighted to be at Chatam House, he said. That independent think-tank on international relations had once refused to invite a former military head of state to stand on their podium, the governor noted, so he was delighted to be invited. In fact, he recollected praying hard so that he would not be sick on the D-day! And he showered encomiums on the chairman of the occasion - Alex Vines. He added that Vines has OBE, and he didn’t forget to say, “And my own is CON.”
The governor thought the management of Chatam House was doing a remarkable job. He would want them to keep it up. What was that about the Director of the think-tank calling Niger State as if he meant Niger Republic, in pronunciation at least – Neejay? Talban Minna corrected him. He would correct anyone, even those he thinks recommends the wrong dose for solving Nigeria’s problems, which to him include advocates of a Sovereign National Conference. It was a focus of his lecture that time.
But, first, he didn’t forget to introduce members of his entourage. His Highness, the Emir of Minna was in the House: “He is the chairman of our Niger State Traditional Council,” the governor informed his audience. The British audience understood royalty, of course. So they clapped for His Highness.
And there was also the Speaker of Niger State House of Assembly. Back to business. Aliyu acknowledged the member of staff of Chatam House who worked hard to ensure he came. The staff had thought His Excellency was an excellent orator enough to grace such an elevated podium; it must be the reason a former head of state “begged and pleaded” to be allowed to stand there. What did the chairman of the Northern Governor’s Forum speak about on that podium? Nigeria. “I am here to speak about ‘Nigeria’s unity and regional socio-political groups: Influence and impact of the northern state governors’ forum.’”
So he went ahead to describe Northern states and its governors to his audience. He mentioned the diversity of Nigeria, the competing aspirations, and north’s continuous struggle for relevance, but he admitted that the nation is saddled with a fragmented elite. He said the Nigerian elites can go by that name, only when corruption is at issue. But then corruption knows no ethnic group, he said. “Every ethnic group is involved.” As a matter of fact, ethnic groups may defend a member of the elites that steals because sometimes they see him as if he steals on their behalf, “even if in the final analysis, he is really cheating not only the ethnic group, but Nigeria.”
Yet the nation continues to explore diversity for strength, he said. And in circumstances where issues came up that affected the nation’s life, he and the northern states’ governors made their influence felt, in one way or the other. So he went ahead to give some examples where the governors had exerted their influence on national issues. There was that time a past president of the nation was ill, and he was taken to Saudi Arabia. Lawmakers would not deal with the then vice-president unless there was a letter to the effect from the president. A crisis loomed, Aliyu observed. He and the northern governors had acted in the nation’s interest, in the interest of democracy, as well as in self-interest of course – for if the house collapsed, every one would go. The Governors had a meeting that time, and they later ended up in Abuja where they put pressure on the lawmakers who had the constitutional power to deal with the situation. Lawmakers came up with the doctrine of necessity and thereby empowered the vice-president to take charge of the country in acting capacity.
There was also another occasion when rotational presidency – taking the presidency to the North and then to the south, and among each of the nation’s six-geo political zones, became an issue. North was yet to exhaust its eight years, but south, at the time, was about to take over again after it used its term. But rotational arrangement was the ruling party’s position, not the constitution’s. The matter generated much heat in the north in the months leading to the April 2011 presidential elections. North’s governors sat, Aliyu explained, and decided that the constitution was superior to the ruling party’s agreement on rotation. In that case, they insisted, the sitting president should be left to contest. Anyway, the many aspirants that emerged from the north meant votes would be split to their disadvantage. By the time one aspirant emerged among them, the damage had been done. Fourteen of north’s governors had voted in favour of the constitution and the right of the sitting president to contest. And till date, many of them have not been forgiven by certain elements for siding with constitutionalism, and what they were convinced would be to the benefit of a stable Nigeria.
Aliyu also mentioned the issue of fuel subsidy which he and his fellow governors had recommended should be removed because it didn’t get the masses, rather a few people in the society benefitted from it. It was the governor’s view that there was no point allowing almost half of the nation’s budget to be handed over to a few. He enumerated sequence of events, and how that period of alignment that should make right what was wrong in the petroleum sector was lost. All because the governors recommended subsidy removal, but when the men at the federal level went to town with the new policy, they didn’t bother to hold proper consultations with the recommenders. So it failed. But northern governors had supported removal of fuel subsidy because it was in the interest of the nation. “All I am saying is that if the governors had not taken that position, the issue would have continued,” and the governors believe it is the entire structure of the petroleum sector that should be reformed, not just the subsidy removal, Aliyu had added. These examples serve as some sort of background to something else he said that is of interest in this piece. And he had meant it as a knock for the proponents of the idea - the SNC, Sovereign National Conference. It was here he made reference to the constitution, how it affects the north and its development, and what should be done to the constitution in order to correct the anomalies.
There was a time regions were strong and the federal government was relatively weak, Aliyu said.
“But with the coup of 1966 and the subsequent military government that came, the federal government became so strong.” In the event, the federal government announced what it wanted to do, and all that happened was that it sent funds to the governors at the state level. And he used the example of his state, Niger state, to show how the current federal structure does not allow him to utilize one of the best natural resources he has – arable land – which is ten percent of what the nation has. Decisions that are taken at the national level on agriculture, such as stopping importation of food items are not implemented because a corrupt few ensured it is not implemented. His state, a big producer of rice, for instance, would have benefitted from the policy. Yet, he could not make the most of his land to benefit the nation, because of the defect in the federal arrangement. “So these are some of the problems,” he submitted, before he hit proponents of SNC for the restructuring of the power relationships in the federal arrangement.
The Northern Governors Forum does not believe in the break up of Nigeria, Aliyu said. “We have had so much noise about sovereign conference to solve our problems. And our argument is, you cannot have two sovereigns in one place. We have a National Assembly, we have a provision in the constitution on how to amend the constitution….So our argument is this: whatever you think it is should be done, should be done within the concept of the sovereignty that we have at the moment.”
Well, for starters, the call for SNC is not a noise but a legitimate aspiration expressed by well-meaning, and no less patriotic Nigerians. However, Aliyu referred to devolution of power to states, as it used to be under the regional arrangement of the pre-1966 era. Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Such move would be to the advantage of not only Aliyu’s state, but the whole of the country, and help rectify the current practically inefficient federal arrangement. Aliyu and the patriots who want to use the SNC are on the same wavelength on that, only the means of getting it done is different.
It has always been the view of this writer, that if taking power back to the state is what the current federal administration achieves, it is worth it. That there is a process of constitutional review going on is good; it is good that President Goodluck Jonathan takes active interest in it, meaning that Aliyu’s, and northern governors’ view on how to get this done through the lawmakers is what is in vogue.
Some in the civil society such as Olisa Agabokoba, SAN, have no problems with that; he has, in fact, admitted that for now, the lawmakers appear to be the only available means by which civil society would have to pursue their aspiration of helping to restructure the country. Now that Aliyu and northern governors share this position, and if every other stakeholder is serious with it, concerned Nigerians may well look forward to a better federal arrangement. This is the foundation of every other good thing they wish the nation is.
Written By Tunji Ajibade
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