Fixing Nigeria

 By Sola Ebiseni

ON this page October 31, with the title, “Now the day is over”, one of the favourite collections of the Songs of Praise in our days in Primary and Secondary schools, we sought to remind political actors of matters arising after the judgement of the Supreme Court ending the tortious journey of the 2023 presidential election.

We reasoned that vacuum is inconsistent with life which experiences perpetual changes even as it is ironically constant and permanent. Heraclitus it was who illustrated the reality of life’s perpetual flux with the phrase “you cannot step twice into the same river”. For those of us born and brought up by the riverside into which we revelled diving and swimming,  this allegory brings permanent memories and perfectly simplifies this ancient philosophy. 

When the electoral hullabaloo is finally rested, the burden of the victor is ironically greater than the vanquished.

The anguish of the latter is momentary and if he is not one whose life is ruled by being in power, he moves on, his obligations only limited to interventions in personal expectations considering the level of pauperisation in our peculiar situation. On whom the mandate is declared lies the burden of all. It is not a tea party and the time so short.

Taking a cue from our experience, particularly from the advent of the current civilian administration since 1999, no matter is more arising now than the restructuring of Nigeria in the interest of a truly federal, democratic, peaceful and prosperous state to which we all voluntarily owe unqualified allegiance. Afenifere talking restructuring sounds, to many people, like a broken record, yet it is proven the only way forward for Nigeria in several ramifications.

Since the introduction of colonial and protectorate administration in Nigeria in1900, amalgamation of 1914, creation of Provinces in 1915, the Willink Commission 1957 on the Minority Question, the January 15, 1966, the reprisal coups of July 1966, the 30 months civil war,  the Aburi declarations, military takeover of government and its creation of states and local governments, the NADECO struggle to push the military back to the barracks, other conferences and committees, including the Resolutions of the 2014 National Conference and the APC Committee on Federalism (El-Rufai Committee) , are all efforts to find an agreeable structure and formula for the peaceful coexistence of the constituent ethnic nationalities brought together by the British.

 The bane of the Nigerian state is the courage to dispassionately confront the structural question in a statesmanlike manner such that the incumbent political actors will not be deterred by the fear of loss of enormous powers derived under the present military Constitution or considerations of the interests of his own ethnic group. 

The Obasanjo administration, in fairness to it, was preoccupied with  ensuring that the military is permanently kept out of power which it did effectively by weeding out soldiers who have had any form of engagement with power. On the economy, it ensured the cleaning up of the debt accumulated by years of military rules. The Obasanjo administration, however, preserved the structure of the 1999 Constitution which was essentially derived from the Obasanjo 1979 Constitution.

The Yar’Adua/Jonathan administration strived to end the Niger Delta restiveness essentially in the interest of the nation’s economy through enhanced oil production. It was rather late in time before Jonathan, in 2014, constituted the National Conference with very broad terms of reference covering all conceivable issues in the federation, including devolution of power political restructuring and forms of government, national security; environment; politics and governance; law, judiciary, human rights and legal reform; social welfare; transportation; agriculture; society, labour and sports; public service; electoral matters, Foreign Policy and Diaspora Matters, Land Tenure Matters and National Boundary. Trade and Investment Committee, Energy; Religion; Public Finance and Revenue Generation, Science, Technology and Development Immigration.

Important highlights of the Conference’s report include the local government system on which it was resolved that only the federal and state governments shall be the tiers of government while local governments will exist by the laws of the respective Houses of Assembly, the resultant effect of which is that the local governments listed in the Constitution shall be delisted to enable states create local governments at their capacities.

 Internal security with state police was another important issue in the reports of the Conference. Nigeria is the only federation in the whole wide world wherein the central government has absolute control of public finances amounting to 52 per cent of the revenue of the federation. 

The Conference resolved in the unbundling of the exclusive legislative list such that most of the powers therein were moved to the concurrent list to be shared by the Federal and state governments.

Talking about devolution of powers, most roads categorised as Federal roads could better be handled by states through which they pass or by  joint efforts of states linked by them.

 We left Akure over the weekend to share in the joys of Chief and Mrs Gabriel Okolo; and Mr and Mrs A. E Oghenejobo all of Delta State as they gave their children, Andra and Akpevwe out in holy matrimony. The journey from Akure to Warri which should not ordinarily take more than a maximum of four hours lasted eight from 5.30am to 1.00 pm. Of course we missed the church programme at Orhuwhorun because of the state of the road.

 In the first place, my driver insisted he would prefer going through Ore to Benin because of the recent news of kidnapping and terrible state of the otherwise faster Akure-Owo-Ifon-Benin axis. His preferred route was no better. Right from the Akure-Ondo road which had been washed off at Owena, it was hell from Ore to Benin.

Unfortunately for us, my driver was still living in the past when we used to have smooth ride on the Benin bye-pass enroute Warri. We were initially disturbed as there were no vehicles in front or behind us on both sides of the road. 

Our apprehension graduated into fearful desperation as we rammed into large pools of water cutting through the entire breadth of the road in several parts. Anyone could have been kidnapped at those spots as the road, unknown to us, has been abandoned with no form of security in sight. Benin-Warri road is itself hellish. The point being made is that if power and concomitant revenue are appropriately devolved to the states, they could fix these roads within their domains.

Trust Nigerians, happiest people on earth, the reception party was the most grandeur I have attended in recent times. The dignitaries led by former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mama Patience had Governors, members of the national and state legislatures, captains of the oil industry, arrays of traditional rulers from all the states of the Federation.

 One thing that struck me was that whereas both families of the couple were Urhobo, the presence of the Ijaw bigwigs was awesome. We had beautiful times as we were invited for visits after the big event by many of our friends we haven’t seen for a long while. Going back, I thought I was a member of the National Assembly with N160 million for the new type of vehicle for Nigeria’s special roads. Thank God, we are back safely.

Nigeria, we hail thee.

*Ebiseni  is the Secretary General, Afenifere and South West Coordinator OBIDATTI Campaigns.