RESTRUCTURING NIGERIA THE RIGHT WAY
From every corner of Nigeria, the raging debate on everyone’s lips is about restructuring. A day hardly passes without restructuring the entity called Nigeria coming up in the media.
Nigerians from all walks of life are not let out of the debate. The opposition parties are seizing on this debate to position themselves in the mind of Nigerians as the country move closer to 2019 general elections. Sensing the danger of not responding swiftly, the ruling party has constituted a committee to properly articulate the party’s position on restructuring.
Also, recently, former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubarkar, challenged the Federal Government of Nigeria to restructure as a strategy for the unity and survival of Nigeria.
In my opinion, Alhaji Atiku and other stakeholders that have aired their views on the issue of restructuring got it right. The committee constituted by the ruling party needs his wisdom and experience in resolving this impasse of national dimension or simply put the survival of Nigeria as a united and one country.
It is better late than never to speak truth to power. I commend the thoughtfulness of the former VP. His wisdom and his political will to correct the wrong.
It is my believe that former President Obasanjo got it wrong and did nothing about restructuring Nigeria. Atiku is realistic and pragmatic.
I was part of the Washington (NADECO) conference of Nigerian which came up with the six geo-political zone during Abacha's reign of terror.
Abacha adopted our recommendation for his own political interest but rather than creating six-geo autonomous zones, he adopted six geo political zones to sustain himself in power as a means of becoming a civilian president. He needed the unitary system to retain absolute power and control.
In developing the six geo regional zones, there were three assumptions from the Washington (NADECO) conference of Nigerians:
1. The decision must be based on what is best for the unity of Nigeria and her people.
2. The decision cannot be based on personality, selfish interest and emotion but must be based on fact, data and analysis of historical and future trends and aspiration for Nigerian economic productivity, development and sustainability.
3. The new thinking must be regional economic viability, resource control, economic and entrepreneurial growth and development with full autonomy, where regions decide the number of states within their regions and the number of local governments and structures, The unit is only one sixth of the federation in terms of resource allocation sharing, creating equity, fairness and balance.
3b. Each region will have a vice president with a portfolio at the center. The presidency will rotate between the Northern and Southern regions. The center will control the military, fiscal policy, customs and immigration, ports, aviation. There will be regional police, state police and local police. The regions will control their resources and pay federal tax, state tax and local tax to sustain the system. Any Nigerian citizen can live and own property anywhere in Nigeria and can contest for political positions of interest as long as they meet residency requirements without violation of citizen rights.
These were some of the issues addressed in the restructuring of Nigeria but Obasanjo's administration refused to consider the wisdom of this proposed structure because as he put it --"there is nothing wrong with the Nigerian Structure"
Indeed, Obasanjo got it wrong. There is absolute everything wrong with the present Nigerian structure. I hereby call on all Nigerians to continue to speak truth to power!
The struggle continues. Let's keep the discussion on restructuring of Nigeria alive. Go on with one Nigeria but restructure - get rid of Unitary System. It will kill Nigeria.
Restructure now with six equal regions!
Prof. Babs Onabanjo, President: Nigerian Alliance for Democracy (1993-1999)
He can be reached on: [email protected]