DISARMING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Alright, now it is time to clap for senators. And another round of clapping for state governors. Nigerians overheard that both will cooperate in the process that will lead to the amendment of the 1999 constitution. Okay, if that’s not good news, let someone tell Nigerians what other good news there are on the national space. He won’t even have one to point to, or what with Mr President saying job seekers should forget it, that his hands are full of Boko Haram problems at the moment.

Discerning Nigerians know that this marriage between lawmakers and state governor calls for celebration. And the reason is simple. While lawmakers had fought among themselves over who would chair constitution amendment the last time, state governors, like hungry termites, had waited for the amended document; it was known that they intended to make the document a heap of papers in waste bins though their state legislators. This time, senators were clever, they carried the governors along when they sat at their retreat targeted at preparing the ground for the constitutional amendment process. Listen to the Senate President, hear the Deputy Senate President, and pay attention to the Senate Majority Leader. Worthwhile words. Of people that have a mission. Nevertheless, the threesome seem to be saying something on behalf of their distinguished colleagues that Nigerians don’t hear for now, and what they do hear they hear as mere promises; it will become audible when this job is truly done.

And what was that this writer was saying to some colleagues the other day? President Goodluck Jonathan had said security challenges would make his administration take focus away from some of his development plans, and that the issue of job creation had taken a back seat. The worry that caused among job seekers was not little, the fear understandable. So this writer had propounded - maybe all that Nigerians will get out of this tenure is changing the face of the Nigerian political space. Disarming the dinosaur that goes by the name federal government in Abuja, by breaking up the castles it has built around itself over the years - NNPC, PHCN, NITEL, Nigerian Police Force, Federal Road Safety corps, and the rest of it, as well as devolving other form of powers, handing them back to the states is worth attempting at this time. And it’s got to be done at one time or the other.

Restructure the federal arrangement, get the federal government to fully offload - and that may be the main achievement of the current administration when history casts a backward glance at it. But why would that amount to anything considering the myriad of challenges that confront the nation?

Anyone who understands how harmful this non-performing behemoth that the federal government is, would also understand the harm the current arrangement is doing to this nation. It must be harmful because the military incursion into politics that brought it about, was in itself an aberration. All that those guys in khaki did was to take gun and order the former regions in the first republic to surrender their powers, then they broke the regions into states to further nail the damage. The breaking up was not even a well-thought out thing. It was simply an attempt to balkanize Eastern Region, and get the bottom out of the region that was about to be declared as independent Biafra.

The Regions, the component parts of the nation, used to send stipends to the federal government. Turn that on its head – states come to the federal government to seek for funds – and a shade of the harm done becomes glaring. Strange, the states that used to have abundance are now said to be bankrupt, at least a couple of them. As a result, they have been fighting to have their fingers on what is in every account – Federation Account, Sovereign Wealth Fund, Excess Crude Oil Account. In a little while, they may start to fight over crude that is yet to come out of oil wells in the Niger Delta. That is what the stealing of power by the military’s unified command structure did to the ability and capacity of component parts of this federation to create wealth, generate funds and provide the kind of enabling environment that would make commerce thrive, as well as create employment opportunities.

Now what is the crux of the matter at hand, and why does it matter that this latest attempt at amending the constitution must work? Senators mentioned a couple of them when they sat at their retreat. And they said the list is what they would attack when they eventually sat to consider amendments. And of course, they didn’t have a position on any of the items they had listed. The interest of Nigerians is paramout, Senate Deputy President had said. No problems. Nigerians will believe anything at this time, even though it is a well-known suspicion that the leadership of lawmakers have the lips of Mr President. So they have as number one on the list one term of five years for the president, vice president, governors and deputy governors. Okay.

That is not new. It came up earlier on in the life of the current administration. The brouhaha around it made the government back off. Now it is back. Not a bad idea. It saves Nigerians the stealing and stockpiling of funds for elections that start barely two years into the first term of any administration. Then they sit down and do nothing when they get the second term. Enough of such. Devolution of powers for true Federalism is number two on the list. That one two is long overdue. Return power to other tiers of government from where it was taken in the first place. Indigenship and section 42 of the constitution comes next. It is about the provision in the constitution that a federal minister must be an indigene of a particular state. Someone says representation of a state should be the key word, rather than indigeneship as a constitutional requirement. Thorny, that. But it is time to have it stated in the document, and let’s watch what the operators do with it. It is an opportunity to let Nigerians make effort at building a more united entity, to one divided on the basis of tribe. This recommendation is one way to further demonstrate how united the country wants to be.

Financial autonomy for state Houses of Assembly. Hun? How would that play out? National Assembly wants to legislate on how states run their finances, while the move in vogue is towards devolution of power? Maybe. Creation of one State for the South East Zone. Alright. Except that every local government council area might soon become a state, although it is natural justice that the East is at par with other geo-political zones. But this call comes at a time when the current states are said to be bankrupt, because they won’t generate much internally in order to sustain themselves. Even states that were created under the General Sanni Abacha administration strictly on their ability to generate revenue internally now come to beg for funds in Abuja. Creation of State police. Nigerians clap for that. This thing about giving orders from police force headquarters doesn’t work. Policemen don’t even have enough local knowledge of where they are posted in order to be effective in combating crimes, for instance. Considering the fact that state governors now conduct big ceremonies to showcase how many vehicles they donate to the police, air force, navy, army, civil defence, and one would see how skewed the situation is.

The federal government owns these security forces, yet state commands blackmail state government into making funds available for them. One commissioner of police was talking on TV the other day – he called on the state government to assist by providing the police with logistical support. That, after a serious crime was reported. What is implied in the call by the commissioner is obvious. Yet there was a time, Emirs approved the fund to have native policemen and prison warders trained in Kaduna, and it was a source of pride when such young men returned and they became an addition to the steadily growing intelligentsia in their local environment. The quality of personnel was somewhat high at certain cadre, and policing was more effective because officers were natives, not transferred from Lagos to Maiduguri as it is the case at the moment. When some officers were sent in that direction lately, it was reported that mass resignation loomed. It’s one more reason to have state police force. Let governors have charge of what they are forced to make provisions for. Judicial reform is another item on senators’ list. Go ahead with it. And it is time to go for much more than this in the constitution. For in the end, the military would be thrown out of power finally, and out of the nation’s constitution.

Now, to a bit of argument. Some argue that it is not the document that matters, that is it is the operators. And so it. But they miss a point. Power has been taken way from the spots where individuals such as Obafemi Awolowo, Sardauna Ahmadu Bello and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe used to operate, and which made their sections of the country, as well as the nation as a whole tick. That power has for long been handed over in the military era to a centre that doesn’t have the capacity to effectively operate what is given to it. So let there be a document that favours the pre-1966 federal arrangement, and let the human angle have enough room to maneuver. The human operators at the lower tiers – who know what it means to be in the corridors of people, are already gearing up for the wonders that the new document would allow them to carry out in their states. Some of them have been challenging the federal government even, such as the two governors that have been in power in Lagos State. If this democratic dispensation had had more of such governors, the country would have moved on from here, and have the federal government put in its proper place.

Or what with a Supreme Court that loves to side with the states on the few things the Constitution says in their favour, and would not even pay any attention to the human busybodies that do not know how to fully utilize the powers that belong to the federal government, but would still want to grab what belongs to the states? Such elements hide under the current constitution to cause the government unnecessary embarrassments, mostly for personal motives. So the umbrella must be removed from their heads. That is another argument in favour of touching this document, because, as it stands, it does not serve the best interest of Nigerians.

Written By Tunji Ajibade
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