By Kehinde Okeowo
Nigeria being a heterogeneous society deserves a constitution that takes into cognizance its diversity. The absence of such and lack of people’s participation in drafting the current one, probably explain why most Nigerians see it as an aberration. For majority of the populace, it remains a figment of the imagination of the military and not a reflection of the will of the people. As far as they a concerned, to have a just, prosperous and egalitarian nation with a truly representative democracy, the nation must convoke a constitutional conference where all the ethnic nationalities in the union will negotiate the way they want to live together. In a nut shell, it seems that what these citizens have in mind is a return to a semblance of what they had in the early sixties.
Where it all began
A proper federal system of government is not alien to Nigeria’s political culture despite the obvious controversy that greeted the amalgamation of the country before independence. The constitution in use during the first republic evidently revealed that the regional leaders opted for a political system with a weaker center and more powerful regions because they realized that the country was an amalgam of strange bed fellows, whose ways of live, hopes and aspirations differed considerably. Analysts are of the opinion that this era remained the best in Nigeria’s political history as it brought about sustainable development, promoted healthy competition among component units and allowed each region progress at its own pace. It was a period that was associated with economic boom such as the groundnut pyramid in the north, cocoa and palm oil booms in the west and east respectively. It also marked a period in which giant developmental strides were made by the country, one of which is the establishment of the first television station in Africa by the then Western region. In all, it was arguably the only time the tenet of true federalism was adhered to in our body politics.
What went wrong?
On January 15, 1966, a group of mutinous Nigerian soldiers plotted a coup which truncated the first republic. A total of 22 people were killed including the then Prime Minister. These officers eventually handed over to the most senior officer, Major General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi, who later became the head of government and subsequently changed the existing political system to a unitary one. As such, the command structure became more rigid and centralized. This decision adversely affected the regions and whatever progress they made during the first republic. Nigerians, blamed General Ironsi for this. What these critics failed to realize however, is that he was a military man, who operated a command structure that is in tandem with the military culture. This decision however, was a set back from the developmental strides recorded in the early sixties and remained a clog in wheel of our political progress till date.
The reality today
Despite the fact that civil rule returned to the country in 1999, the enormous damage by several years of military incursion into ourNigeria’s politics never really abated. Though the political structure and constitution might suggest the country is back to a federal structure, the psyche of the citizens had been badly damaged so much that in practice, the still operates a unitary arrangement. The centre remains extremely powerful and enormously influential to the detriment of the growth and development of it’s the regions. The revenue sharing principle remains centralized. Rather than allow each region or state to grow at its own paces and encourage competition among the component units, they are forcefully lumped together and technically made to conduct their businesses in similar fashion. For instance, the quota system was introduced to mitigating the socio-economic gaps among the states but it turned out to be a weapon against merit-based systems and competences required to grow and develop a nation.
A case for Restructuring
The way federation is currently structured can only be likened to making monkeys custodians of a banana plantation. The fact that our the gluttonous politicians know that money will be shared at that end of the month without breaking sweat is an incentive for charlatans and corrupt leaders to aspire to political offices. And such leaders can only engender greater insecurity, high rate of unemployment, high inflation rate, looting of the treasury, poor infrastructural development, poor health and educational systems, low patriotism, kidnapping, banditry and other social vices currently witnessed in the country. Therefore, the current structure is neither desirable nor sustainable, hence, the need for a more pragmatic arrangement.
The way forward
The way forward is not cumbersome. All that needs to be done is to replicate the road map that led to the success of the first republic and adapt such to suit the reality today. Nigeria must transform from a structure where governors and local government chairmen stay idle throughout the month but share revenue they knew little or nothing about from the federal purse every month, to an economic culture where they generate such revenue, keep a larger percentage for the socio-political and economic development of their respective states and local governments and remit an agreed sum into the federal purse. Only such a system can throw up strategic, visionary and purposeful leadership. The incidences of corrupt leaders seeking political positions will also drastically reduce as only those strategic enough to create wealth will henceforth seek office. In any case, only an arrangement that takes cognizance of the peculiarity of the several ethnic nationalities in the country can put the country back on the part of tranquility and prosperity as a nation. It is high time Nigeria returned to a modified 1963 republican constitution.