National Conference: Sure Way For Nigeria It is gratifying to state that the announcement by President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan GCFR in which he constituted a 13-member Advisory Committee on National Conference is without mincing words, sure way for Nigeria (SWFN). Many Nigerians have been calling for a national conference so as to truly define the state of the nation and the way forward. However, what Nigeria really needs is a true federalism, if I may suggest. For Nigeria to move forward in the right direction, we need a true federalism. Federalism is that form of government where the component units of a political organization participate in sharing powers and functions through cooperation and the combined forces of ethnic pluralism and cultural diversity, among others, tend to pull their people apart. We have the “strong” and the “weak” forms of federalism, there are also periodic variations which permit “strength” or “weakness” within the same system to be measured differently. This was so with Nigeria and the USA during their respective phases of secessionist threats and civil wars. For this national conference to be meaningful, the issues at stake are, fiscal federation/resource control, state/regional police, and equality among all federating units as well as autonomy for federating units, political corruption and poverty /infrastructural decay. Furthermore, Hon. Justice Atanda Fatayi-Williams, later Chief Justice of Nigeria, 1979-83, during an international conference in May 1976 spoke in details of the influence of K.C. Wheare on Nigeria federalism thus: “Unlike most of the older federation, what we did in Nigeria was like unscrambling scrambled eggs. We started as a unitary state and then opted for a federation afterwards. The problem of Nigeria originally in 1951-52 was one of devolution of powers, but when the constitution which was given us by Macpherson broke down we opted for a federal constitution. Very little was known by most of us about the theory of a federation at the time, we would have emerged in our effort to provide our people with a federal constitution that took account of all the peculiar circumstances of our country and our people when things began to fall apart, those of us in the know quickly realized that ours was the tragedy of assumptions. We assumed everybody both federal and regional governments, the opposition, the electorates, the courts, the civil servants, the generality of the people and even the boy, academician, would play the game according to the generally accepted rules. Well, because of the interplay of political forces which were beyond their control, they did not; the result was emergency of military rule. It became clear to us all thereafter, that all the time there was no total commitment to the concept of federalism”. It is abundantly clear that with the return of democratic government after decades of military rule by the junta, the people of Niger Delta now agitate for the full implementation of the principles of federalism as a way towards the effective management of conflict in Nigeria. It is a truism to say that the Nigeria federation has had a chequered history. That is to say, it has been through phases, namely pre-colonial, colonial, civilian, military and post-military. Prior to the discovery of oil in commercial quantity in 1956 at Oloibiri in the present Bayelsa State, other sectors of the economy existed. Agriculture, for instance, was a major source of revenue for the Eastern, Northern and Western Regions. The pre-military federal system that Nigeria operated in the period known as first republic was different from the post military federal structure. To this end, the former, the three and subsequently four regions were fully autonomous federating units. Each region with a premier as head of government operated its own laws and constitution. Each of them had native authority police while the federal government maintained the Nigeria police. Each region was allowed to have its representatives in some foreign countries. In addition, each region had foreign envoys, although not ambassadors but functioned in that capacity. Each region also had its coat of arms and a regional motto, the symbol of its own authority. Importantly, none of them was totally or near totally dependent on the centre for its fiscal and other needs. Each region was strong and rich enough to take care of itself not waiting to share allocation (proceeds from oil) which was not available then. However, the main criticism then was that the regions were too powerful and the centre was too weak for a meaningful federal system and national unity. The regions because of their autonomy, tried to treat the federal government scornfully and disdainfully. The federal government could not impose its will on the federating units. It was generally believed that if this continued, things would eventually fall apart and the centre can no longer hold. In the first republic, some Nigerians prefer the regions to the central, because the central was made less attractive. Today, the reverse is now the case probably due to the oil revenue from the Niger Delta region whose people are currently suffering from abject poverty, while the oil money is being squandered for the development of some parts of the country. In order to strengthen the centre, there was a move towards a pseudo unitary system of government patterned after uniformity of administration. No doubt, the military command structure is antithetical to federalism. This uniformity is profoundly different from what obtained in Nigeria pre-military federalism. Each region had a civil service structure specifically designed to its own developmental and other needs. Each region worked out its own salaries and wages structure and paid what it could afford. The present system where almost every governmental operation is uniform in the thirty-six states of the federating unit is problematic. Importantly, how can one justify a relatively poor state (non-oil producing) to pay its governor the same salary and allowance, including estacode as Bayelsa, a smaller and vastly richer oil producing state? For example, what Delta, an oil-producing state receives from the federation account every month is far, far in excess of what a non-oil producing state receives. It is then not appropriate to compel such a state to pay the same salaries and wages like Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, etc. It is most appropriate to say that if all the states receive equal allocation from the federation account monthly, it would still not be right to compel them to pay uniform remuneration because the states are at different levels of social and economic development. This is because there needs are at different levels of social and economic development and not at par. For example, they do not have the same number of civil/public servants or public officers on their pay rolls. We must all agree that there are some inbuilt features that make for instability in the present Nigerian federal system of government. This is based on the system or method of sharing the oil revenue. It is no exaggeration to say that the fight and struggle for the control of the oil wealth has led to an unfortunate shift from a revenue-oriented principle to an expenditure-oriented principle of revenue allocation. Today, we clamour for more states and local governments because of the revenue sharing not what we can do to sustain and make such states and local governments economically viable. Based on oil revenue, the agricultural sector has gone into incommunicado or extinct. In other words, a policy shift, which places more emphasis on derivation, will therefore make the non-oil producing states to refocus on the areas of their comparative advantage like agriculture. We need to give more powers for revenue creation and control back to the states. Such states will therefore be in a position to take into consideration their peculiar circumstances. To be frank and sincere, what do we need 774 local governments and 36 states for? It is all based on ‘long throat’ for oil money. Many Nigerians have the belief that the committee made up of “13 wise-men including a woman” will do justice to this national assignment so that at the end, President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, GCFR will add feather to his cap. Many Nigerians have been calling for the National Conference. Charles Ikedikwa Soeze, fhnr, fcida, fcai, fswc, cpae, chnr, emba, son, ksq is a mass communication scholar from first degree to doctoral level and public affairs analyst/commentator on national and international issues. 08036724193 [email protected]
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 18:23:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015