By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
A former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has lamented government poor management of Nigeria’s diversity.
Jega made the disclosure in an interview with Arise TV where he said the key objective in a federalism is to manage the people’s diversity. He, however, regretted that in the case of Nigeria, the state has done a poor job with managing multi-culture of the people.
He said: “The key objective of federalism is to manage diversity, foster peaceful co-existence as a precondition for national progress and socioeconomic development. In Nigeria, all these are undermined and obstructed by the perception of inequality because of the concentration of power and resources in the federal government and because of poor governance in the way in which this diversity is managed.”
Jega, now a politician and member of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), argued that while it is a good thing to restructure Nigeria on the bases of economy and politics, those alone would not fix the problem without good governance.
He said: “ In a federal system like the one we have in Nigeria, efforts have to be made to ensure that power, resources and authority are appropriately shared between the national and the subordinate governments, which in our present context in Nigeria is between the federal and the state governments. But sharing authority, power and resources have to be predicated on equity, justice, equality of opportunity and these can only be driven by good leadership in a process of good governance.
“So it is not an either or, they have to be combined and go together. But the key thing is that the Nigerian federal arrangement is characterized by imbalance in the concentration of power and resources in the federal government. It is very important that we address this because it has been generating tension. The key objective of federalism is to manage diversity, foster peaceful co-existence as a precondition for national progress and socioeconomic development,” he said.
On the argument by some that Nigeria should simply adopt the 1963 constitution as the basis of restructuring a new Nigeria, Jega said that would be illogical.
Excerpt of the interview is reproduced below:
“I am one of those who think that history teaches us lessons but in other to make progress we need not to go back to history. So I think any suggestion as to going back to 1960 or 1963 constitutions really is a dream because it is unrealistic. There are a lot of lessons we can learn and certainly if we review that history of past we could see that the democratic arrangement in Nigeria was better managed than it is currently.
“So the lesson is how we can ensure that we introduce substantive reforms of restructuring that can ensure that we manage our diversity much better than those who operated under the 1960 and 1963 constitutions were able to do. The idea of let’s go back to what it was in 1963, I think it is unrealistic but there are lessons we can learn from that which we can combine with the best practices of the management of diversity in other federal systems in the world. And that is for me the pathway forward in terms of how we can improve our present federal arrangement and make it more equitable and be able to generate a sense of belonging for all Nigerians as a citizen of a country that has vast potentials for progress and development.
“The key lesson is that we have to ensure equity and we have to strive to ensure unity in diversity. Sub-national governments need to have relative autonomy in the way in which they generate their resources and in the way in which they manage their resources. And obviously there are lessons to learn from the way in which resources are generated and are shared in the first republic. And those lessons need to be factored into the way we move forward in improving our own federal system.
“But the notion of resource control really I won’t say is abnormal but it is something that connotes something totally different from the traditional and good practice notion of sharing on the basis of equity, justice and equality of opportunity. So this extremist notion of every state in the federation should control all their resource was not what happened in 1960 and 1963 constitutions. But there were opportunities for the regions at that time to have substantial resources from the revenues they generate from within their territories, which enable them to chart a course of development for those who reside in their regions.
“I think in this discussion of how to move forward in this country and choose better concept than those that create more division and more controversy in our discourses. To the issue of resource control, yes it has been espoused and championed and promoted really is not what happened under the 1960 and 1963 constitutions. And it is very important that we recognize this and that why unless we try to improve our federal arrangement and manage our diversity better, it is important that we put aside brinkmanship and pandering to ethno-regional or religious sentiment.
“These are practical matters that can be addressed practically and scientifically in terms of how we can ensure equity in the distribution of resources in our present federal arrangement. Obviously there are inequities and we must ensure that we address them. Two things are significant in the management of power and resources in a federal system.
“First and foremost, obviously is to ensure relative autonomy of what we can call the federating unit but why we will push for that relative autonomy but we must also insist on balanced development because you can’t have a federal system which there is unequal and unbalance development. It can also generate its own consequences. So the good practice in all federal systems that have become models in this world is balancing equity with the necessity of balancing development.
“So I would avoid speaking about resource control because it has its own political and controversial connotations but I would insist that there must be justice and fairness in the way in which we distribute resources that are generated from each of the components of the federal.
