This newspaper stands for the unity of Nigeria and the indivisibility of the country. It is also our position that the continued corporate existence of Nigeria is not a given but a precarious reality that demands hard work and eternal vigilance from all pro-Nigeria elements, lest the formidable forces of dissolution strike the country a fatal blow in a moment of our inattentiveness, carelessness or mule-headed recalcitrance when the occasion calls for adroit brinkmanship and skilful statecraft to keep the country going as one, indivisible entity.
Today, a resurgence of ethnic nationalism assails Nigeria. Can our country stay strong and ride this latest storm threatening our corporate existence? Many patriotic Nigerians doubt that this nation can continue on its current fractured frame. It appears, strangely, that this misgiving has also found its way into the Nigerian Establishment, even if its spot in the hegemonic space remains peripheral. This nation still has a long, indeterminate shelf life if a ranking figure of the Establishment like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar could call for a structural rejig of the country as he did recently at a public event.
However, it is not yet Uhuru. His Excellency Atiku Abubakar is clearly a force to reckon with in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Nevertheless, he wields no real, executive power today to actualise his new vision of a restructured Nigeria, which he clearly sketched out at the aforementioned occasion. The executive power to launch this national imperative resides in the Presidency, concomitant to the National Assembly.
We are worried, however, that President Muhammadu Buhari’s priorities appears not to include a structural modification of the Federation if his dismissive riposte in a recent media interview to the report of the 2014 national conference organised by his predecessor is anything to go by.
History would eventually judge whether the 2014 National Conference was a last-ditched attempt by a drowning man to clutch at straw as former President Goodluck Jonathan’s adversaries would want us to believe or a genuine, patriotic try at a new nation-building approach as his allies insist. The fundamental goal of a deconstruction and reconstruction of Nigeria’s wobbly structures is the unity and continued existence of the country. It is in this we find the biggest, yet unclaimed, prize in the chequered history of this slumbering giant – the indisputable claim to be “the Father of Modern Nigeria” freely awarded and readily acknowledged by all in the same breath as Atatürk is today granted the ‘fatherhood’ of Turkey as a country, or how the Madiba, the late Dr. Nelson Mandela, is unequivocally granted the ‘paternity’ of a free, multi-cultural South Africa.
In this controlled demolition of Nigeria’s 50-year-old deficient federalism and its prop up on new, strong pillars of Citizen Statehood on the praxis of autochthony in recognition, acceptance and wholesome promotion of the country’s diversities in unity lies the assured survival of Nigeria as a united, peaceful, secure, minimally graft-free and prosperous country where most Nigerians are productively engaged and content in their works of life as possible in a nation created by imperfect mortals.
It is the archetypal quest for open, existential fulfilment by repressed autochthons in all primeval units making up Nigeria that often ruptures to the surface as ethno-economic agitations and power struggles in the country. The triune malaise of insecurity, unemployment and graft, which Buhari pledged to decimate as President is only symptomatic of the struggle to break out of the constricted space for autochthonous expressions in Nigeria by the nation’s ethnic-nationalities, and to address the symptoms of a disease and not its root cause is mere perfunctory genuflection.
With three years still left for him to exercise his popular mandate, President Buhari has ample time – and we believe – the mass backing, albeit increasingly being riled, of the Nigerian People to launch a purpose-fit, autochthonic Perestroika that would keep Nigeria going as one, unlike the unintended results of the original Soviet construct. It is a path this country has not travelled before but will do well to chart now.
The binary opposite to this new vision of a new Nigeria, which this newspaper proffers thenceforth below in limited terms for space constraint reasons, not as diktat but a theoretical grounding to which it invites all patriots to interrogate with a view to fine-tuning it to perfection as much as humanly possible, is clear. It is to suspend our collective disbelief in the obvious failure of how we have structured and ran the country in the last 50 years, continue to claw at thin air and wallow in the falsehood of “Nigeria is working” or throw in more layers on our sky-high pseudo-spiritual accretion of “it is well with our country,” while the rest of the world move on, leaving us to our blissful, delusionary pretences to nation-building.
The choice is ours to make now. If we continue on the path of the status quo, we may well arrive at Eldorado in a zillion years’ time – good luck to the Nigerians who would be around then, assuming the Earth itself makes it that far in time, that is. Or, some parts of the country, tired of the increasingly circuitous conundrum, bomb us apart, slaughter us thither to autonomous entities, gun us out of existence or riot Nigeria to extinction as the Niger Delta militants are currently doing, Boko Haram has been busy at, ‘herdsmen’ are gunning all in their range for and pro-Biafra agitators revel in today, in that order.
Regionalism or Federating States?
We beg to differ radically with many erudite and eminent Nigerians who have made the calls to regionalise the country and govern it as of old. This, in our weighted view, is a recipe for disaster. The proposed regions will only coalescence in six powerful ‘nations’ that will pull the country in six directions and eventually apart. To these six regions will also be transferred all the crises between them and the Centre, that is the Federal Government, today. Instead of who shall be President of Nigeria, the power struggle will shift to where, say, the Premier should come from among the states making up the region. There is also the equitable distribution or otherwise of the regional cabinet posts to contend with.
And if the six regions in the country erupt into these leadership crises, how well can a lean Federal Government that would emerge under the regional system manage these problems in these six power centres even with its control of the Armed Forces? Won’t the six regions collectively at some point call the bluff of the Federal Government and rally their armed police forces against the Nigerian Army on six fronts? Who is to say that this would not be too much for the Federal Government to handle? Won’t this effectively break up Nigeria? Isn’t the call for regional government an atavistic foray into a bygone era that, however rose-tinted glorious, most Nigerians living today would poorly relate with because it is simply outside of their frame of reference?
Similarly, the call for “true federalism” along state line is also very problematic to the peace and stability of the country. For one, the ethno-religious crises, resource sharing challenges and the power game that play out in the current 36 states now, and between the states and the Centre at the federal level would unravel beyond the tenuous control the states and Nigeria have over them today. To illustrate, if Ogun State, which is made up of the Egba, Ijebu, Remo and Egbado sub-ethnic stocks of the Yoruba race, gets oil from its Ijebu waterside territory, which a real possibility since neighbouring Ondo has oil, the age-long rivalry between these sub-ethnic fault line is likely to widen as the state run on the proceeds of crude oil from the Ijebu side. The Ijebu, who have been clamouring for a state of their own, would most likely insist on resource control or at least demand an equitable share of oil money as the Niger Delta is currently asking of the Nigeria State. The quest to lead the state, which is mainly between the Egba and Ijebu today, would take on another colouration based on the economic dynamics, etc. Given that there is hardly an homogenous state in the country, this possible reality is likely to be replicated in all 36 states of the federation, creating a wider sphere of crisis than we currently grapple with in the country and tasking the interventional capacity of the Federal Government beyond limit.
Nigeria, New Vision, New Nation
The new country of this newspaper’s vision would stand on the dual administrative legs of a Federal Government and Local Council, with the latter re-christened as any of “Native Authority”, “Autonomous Community/Council” etc, to accomplish a psychic severance from our 50-year-old trauma and create the psychosomatic catharsis, fresh vigour and renewed energies to launch into this new nation-building approach of autochthonic democracy.
States and their capitals shall cease to be active centres of administrative action and now exist as nominal boundaries like the imaginary lines of the Equator.
The Federal Government shall devolve most of its powers and functions today to the second and only other tier of government – the Local Councils – retaining the Armed Forces for national defence, Immigration, Aviation, Banking and Finance, International Diplomacy and such other sectors as shall be mutually conceded by the Nigerian People in the enabling legislation inaugurating this new system of government.
Local Councils, as the second and closer unit of government to the People, shall have total control of resources in their domains, including those within Nigeria’s international maritime borders that are contiguous to the Council’s geographical, which shall be exploited by an elected Council administration led by a chairman and his Councillors, supported by a constitution-backed House of Chiefs made up of Second Class monarchs in the Council in a similar role to the House of Lords (see below), with 20 per cent of revenue generated going to the Federal Government as tax. The guiding principle here is to make these Councils as economically viable as possible in order for them to take on government’s responsibility to the People in their locality.
It shall be treasonable felony to withhold, short-change the Federal Government of its 20% tax, which crime shall be addressed by a three-month state of emergency in the defaulting Council and criminal trial of its Chairman and Councillors.
Local Councils shall be free to set up internal security apparatuses like the native authority police in a symbiotic collaboration with a federal police force.
Only two levels of elections shall be conducted in the country – for Council chairmen and Councillors, and for the President – for a period of four years per term limited to two terms.
Councils shall be free to determine the remuneration of their workers, subject to labour laws. The Federal Government shall also review its pay system to reflect its new economic realities. Both levels of government would realise that paying pittance would only saddle them with incompetent workers as the best hands become hot commodities in the country.
Federal institutions whose functions are devolved to the councils shall automatically become autonomous and operate like private entities, paying certain percentage of their profits to both the Federal Government and Councils as tax. Such institutions should retain a workforce they need to function effectively from the pool of their current staff, paying considerable attention to competence and federal character.
An institution which thinks that this would be an opportunity for ethnic cleansing of its staff is only mistaken, for words would soon go round about this and the integrity of the institution’s product or service would be seriously questioned by many, which might lead to its collapse. For instance, if a federal university (this newspaper strongly supports the call for full au country, with the National University Commission (NUC) and the national professional bodies working together to formulate standards and enforce them strictly in the universities) that becomes autonomous under this new system decides to take leave of professors and other academics outside the dominant ethnic group of the university’s location, this will immediately become public knowledge, adversely affecting the integrity of such university’s certificates before employers of Labour with dare consequences for the school’s competitive edge in an environment of increased competition that would develop out of this new system.
Workers of ministries and other agencies of the federal and state governments that are no longer needed at the federal level shall either be retrained and absorbed into surviving federal structures, subject to passing standard examinations, or redeployed to their Councils of origin, which shall retain such workers for at least four years and thereafter choose to either continue to employ or retire them based on strict assessed needs and competence.
To create a more autochthonous Council and minimise ethnic-based crisis, more Local Councils can be created out of the current 774, especially if the people lumped together under the existing Councils desire to have their own local council.
The Federal Legislature: Bi-Camera of Change
Under this new vision for a new Nigeria, the country shall retain the federal bi-camera Legislature – the lower Peoples Assembly and the upper House of Lords – to make laws for the.
The Peoples Assembly:
The Peoples Assembly shall be made up of nominated Member from each of the autochonous councils in the country.
The chairman of each Council and his Councillors shall nominate the member of the Peoples Assembly to represent the council. It is up to each council to nominate its very best, or a nincompoop if the council so desires, for the people Assembly and pay such Nominee what it can afford for his or her service.
The Peoples Assembly shall only meet quarterly for plenary and other national legislative duties. At their inaugural meeting, members of the Peoples Assembly shall elect from among themselves the Peoples Speaker and Deputy Peoples Speaker on a North-South dichotomy who shall occupy the offices for four years except if removed by members.
The Peoples Assembly shall also elect – in open session and by simple majority – from among themselves Ministers for the few ministries left at the federal level.
The work of the People Speaker’s Office and that of the Deputy shall be funded by the Federal Government and serve as the administrative organ of the Peoples Assembly, supported by a reconstituted Peoples Assembly Bureaucracy whose staff shall be drawn from the pool of those who pass best the new standard examinations into the Federal Bureaucracy, with each autochonous council having at least one indigene in the Assembly’s workforce.
After all issues on its legislative agenda have been taken at each quarterly plenary, the Peoples Assembly shall adjourn sitting to the next fixed quarterly meeting. However, the People Assembly can be summoned to an emergency session by its Speaker or Deputy Speaker in that ranking order. The plenary of the Peoples Assembly shall not exceed six weeks at a time, except when obviously necessary.
The Federal Government shall neither pay a salary nor provide any form of emoluments to members of the Peoples Assembly.
The House of Lords:
One of the enduring legacies of colonialism that this country has strangely retained is the scant space we granted traditional institutions in the nation’s administration. Whether we admit it or not, most Nigerians still hold the traditional institutions in high respect. If we still desire a united, great Nigeria, the emblematic heads of these primordial institutions – our Royal Fathers – must be brought from the margin of governance to the centre of public administration.
The Dream Daily therefore, proposes that the current Senate be replaced with the House of Lords made up of all the countries First Class monarchs. By providence, few First Class Monarchs in this country today is unlettered. In fact, it is the case that most of them have distinguished themselves in many spheres of human endeavour before ascending the thrones of their forebears. The quantum of experience and quality of service that the current crop of the nation’s First Class Traditional Rulers can deliver to the nation-building process in the official capacity of the House of Lords is simply phenomenal.
We implore the reader to research the pre-coronation professional life of the country’s First Class Monarchs today and imagine them making laws for the country alongside the best brains that each of the Autochonous Councils will send to the Peoples Assembly!
We recommend, for starters, that the readers read up the profiles of the first class monarchs in the country.
Can the reader imagine that these Sovereigns of our great traditional thrones would shirk this great responsibility by sitting down in the proposed House of Lords to pad and pass a padded budget as has been the scourge of this country since at least the return to civil rule in 1999?
Once constituted, the House of Lords shall exist in perpetuity, a veritable constant and stability of the Federal Government that shall always be there as a stream of Presidents and sessions of the Peoples Assembly come and go. This newspaper is optimistic that its proposed House of Lords shall truly unite Nigeria, and check the excesses of any hubristic President, his ministers and members of the Peoples Assembly.
To eliminate any rancour over the headship of the House of Lords, the Royal Fathers should simply draw a straw of numbers at the inauguration of the House and chair the House in that order for one year each, starting from the Monarch who draws Number One.
The legislative relationship between the Peoples Assembly and the House of Lords shall largely remain as it is today between the Senate and the House of Representatives, with minor changes. Committee duties, for instance, should become the exclusive preserve of the Peoples Assembly, with their resolutions or decisions passed on for ratification by the House of Lords.
The Judiciary
The Judiciary shall retain its current court system and appointment/promotion system, with the council taking up the responsibilities of the deleted states within its domain. Magistrate’s and State Courts renamed “First/Second Circuit Courts” while the federal Courts continue to bear their current names. First Circuit Court appointments shall be made by the councils while a reformed National Judicial Council and the Presidency shall appoint other judges or justices as currently obtainable.
Conclusion
This newspaper humbly proffers the foregoing in the strong belief that only a restructured Nigeria would survive and move forward as quickly as millions of Nigerians desire today. We are also of the firm conviction that all Local Councils in the country today or new ones that could be created can and indeed will survive on their human and material resources, albeit based on their own ingenuity in a reformed system that frees up their trapped energies and creativity as we have it today.
It is based on these premises that we offer the above-stated outline of structural reforms, which we recommend to become operative as soon as the complex, national hard work and strong will needed to set it up is done by all with all sense of patriotism and loyalty to the Nigerian Project. Since the nation has operated the highly centralised system of governance for 50 years (January 1966 till date), it will be fair to also operate the proposed reforms for the next 50 years. Thereafter, Nigerians of that terminal timeline should decide whether to continue with it, reform it in line with the realities of their day, or inaugurate a new system of government for themselves.
Of course many of us alive now would be dead and buried in 50 years’ time, if we are lucky to have known graves, that is! A high and healthy sense of our looming mortality as highly or lowly placed citizens should serve to sober us up and make us take urgent steps now to build a functional nation for our children and future generations. The Dream Daily implores President Muhammadu Buhari to take the lead on this national imperative as the “Father of the Nation”.
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