A case for Devolution and not Restructuring:
From a business perspective, restructuring is defined as “bringing about drastic or fundamental internal change that alters the relationship between different components or elements of an organization or system.”
Politically, restructuring speaks to “political re-imagining of the state as per the spirit of the time.” And it is a continuous process in democracy.
Based on the above, does Nigeria need to restructure?
There has been and is continuing, a lot of dialogue regarding this matter of restructuring Nigeria. The question that I have is whether Nigeria truly needs to be restructured. From my lay persons perspective, when I read and evaluate the discuss regarding Nigerian restructure, what comes to mind is this move for a total rework of our current political agreements and dispensation. Even some have called for gutting our current constitution to accommodate all the divergent views about restructuring the country.
However, when you peel the onion skin, it is obvious that most persons want more inclusion and recognition in Nigerian politics and not necessarily restructuring as is clearly defined above. Again, it is only when their appeals and agitations seem not to be making any headway that they resort to more aggressive talk about restructuring and hoping that, given the current political environment, more aggressive measures and loud voices, they could be able to steer some things to the advantage of their tribes. Yes tribes!
Make no bones about this, Nigeria is as tribalist as tribalism would allow! And the earlier we recognize this phenomenon or country trait, the better for future dialogue and negotiations. The Nigerian political climate does not lend itself to typical ideologies such as conservatism, Liberalism, Marxism, communism, or aristocracy etc., neither do we ascribe to leftist and the right-wing ideologies either. Our politics is simply based on regional, sectional, tribal sentiments, and in some cases greed and opportunism. All one has to do is look at the ease Nigerian politicians defect from one political party to the other. The motivation for these defections is based solely on personal aspirations, however, the defectors are careful to choose to defect only to those parties that also reflect their tribal sentiments.
So, when we talk about restructuring, what are we really restructuring? What do we really want done to satisfy most of us urging for this process to take place? Would re-writing the constitution help? Will it be better to go back to the regional system of governance that we practiced in the past? Or even reverting back to a parliamentary system of government? Well, I do not believe that any of these will get us anywhere or even begin to address the challenges created by tribalism that is slowly crippling and eventually will kill Nigeria – that white elephant that we all have bluntly refused to see, but is sitting not only in the room with us, but riding our backs slowing and paralyzing our entire process.
A bad workman always quarrels with his tools.
There is nothing wrong with the system of governance currently being practiced in Nigeria. Our constitution if applied correctly will actually serve us well. Instead, we have chosen to misinterpret and misapply the content of the constitution to the benefit of whichever tribal or sectional views we want to espouse. This is not good! So, if not restructuring, then what?
We need to recognize that we all are different and divided based on tribal sentiments, and these sentiments run deep in our veins. So deep that one can venture to say that it simply the way we are wired! Acknowledging the fact that we cannot see past our tribal and religious sentiments will go a long way in helping us manage those biases while attempting to discuss matters of national interest. We must; like Stephen Covey said, “seek first to understand, and then to be understood” True, it does not make any sense to locate our refineries in the north while the oil wells are in the south. However, we need to seek to understand why the northerners want these refineries in the North and then develop mitigation for whatever fears they may harbor due to their own tribal understanding of what they need to survive.
Nigeria does not need restructuring as currently being advocated by some. What we need most is a devolution of powers to enable states and local government take charge of their destinies. It has been said that state governors have massive powers already, but that is not true when all essential elements of progress and security are concentrated at the national level. The states should have control over certain resources within their regions provided we put in place processes that will ensure that no states or regions will be starved of any such resources.
To effectively devolve power, we need to revisit the Exclusive and Concurrent lists as enshrined in the constitution. Categories such as police, education, land use, traffic management, and public transportation and even control of natural resources, should be added to the concurrent list thereby giving state and local governments the power to manage those areas. Being so close to their constituents, the state and local governments are in a better position to effectively identify challenges, including crafting fitting solutions for their regions.
Recognizing our diverse and often tribal, sectional, and religious orientations, these local solutions will better reflect the wishes of the localities. As a guard against abuses, the federal government should retain the power to protect people’s fundamental rights. This way they should be able to guard against religiously motivated ordinances that may negatively impact non-
of the state. In essence, a Christian in the Muslim north should not be pressured appear before a sharia court for crimes if they prefer being tried in the conventional court. In fact, anyone, Muslims, and non-Muslims should have the choice of choosing if their case should be before a Sharia or conventional court setting.
We must decentralize the police. Our police are so ineffective thanks in part to the central command which is concentrated at the national level. This set up has made it impossible for the police to effectively respond to security challenges facing the nation. In emergencies, the local divisional police command will have to wait for directive from their superiors before responding to the challenge. And, by the time they get the orders, it is often too late to make any difference.
Achieving the above will mean creating federal, state, and local police; whereby the local governments should be allowed to institute local policing for their areas. Yes. some may worry that the state governors and local government officials may use the states and local police as a tool against their enemies or opponents. That may be true, but there are ways to manage and control the excesses of these local authorities such as making the state and local police independent and answerable only to the courts and voters. Rather than the federal police running down rabbit holes, they would need to devote their resources towards federal crimes and managing abuses by the local police. Yes, we crafted our presidential system of government after the United States system, the least we should do is to study how they deal with some of these issues and adopt the ones that best suit our varying cultures.
We all know that the responsibility for defending our national boundaries should be solely vested in the Federal government, however, good governments know to position their military in such a way as to enable them respond to any attacks from any corners quickly and effectively. Also, we should reconsider the use of the military to perform police work. Most military men are trained to fight wars and not community policing – they are trained for wars and we should keep it that way. In the US, responding to national security issues or state of emergencies are done by the National Guard and not the military.
Devolution of powers means taking a look at the powers of the presidency. Today, he/she can basically do whatever they want with no consequences. It goes to show then that if we elect a president who has religious, tribalistic or sectional tendencies, that individual, by the enormous powers vested in them could be able to enact rules that may negatively affect other tribes and religions. All politics is local. The president should not be able to wade into the political affairs of the states, unless in cases where it has become necessary to deploy federal might to restore order. Yes, as the party leader, he has the right to make sure the states’ political apparatus is towing the ideological lines of the party, and that is if we have party ideologies, but we must guard against the president influencing state political affairs. Same goes for governors as it relates to local elections. This phenomenon has created so much divisiveness within our political parties. Today, the president and our governors feel that as the party leader, they alone can select who will run for office under their political banner. This is wrong. We cannot be good at anything until we allow competition to bring out the best among us to manage our affairs.
Even Independent National Election Committee (INEC) should be decentralized with the states and local governments taking charge of their elections and the federal offices acting as supervisors. Again, the goal would be that of self-determination. We should have local, state, and federal INECs throughout the country. In fact, even the presidential election should be managed by these local INECs based on their own local rules with the results submitted to the national office after collation. This is how it is done in progressive countries. Nigerian elections are too massive and big given our population and size to be put in the hands of a single individual, the time is now the reconsider this choice.
Finally, let me say that Rome was not built in one day. This talk about restructuring should stop, and our focus directed towards finding better ways to manage the laws currently on our books. We need to discard this attitude of throwing out the baby out with the bathwater whenever we feel we are not favored in any battle. Our focus should be looking locally and finding areas that we could have the most impact for the progress of our country. Yes, we should think globally, but act locally. That is where it should begin and where we will have the most impact.
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