Restructuring : A moderating view

By Joseph Edgar….

I recently read Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State and APC chieftain’s position on restructuring of the federation and that of the esthwile military President Ibrahim Babangida. These two views represent two extremes on this matter. Let us start by saying that the call for restructuring of the country looks like a middle ground or a seeming compromise from that far outright position of the Biafrans as led by their leader Nnamdi Kanu for the balkanization of the country. More moderate voice have called for a restructuring rather than the atrocious separation of a country which fought a fatricide war of unity some decades ago.

Recent positions have now also thrown up the two extremes even in this moderate position. First let us look at the call for restructure as championed by Babangida. This position simply says that rather than a secession , more power should be devolved to the federating states and that the Federal Government should limit itself to the economy, foreign policy, currency amongst others. This position stands in tandem with true federalism as it would definitely answer the controversial issues of resource control, which in itself ignited the Niger Delta uprising, Federal Character which tried with appealing failure to equalize glaring lopsidedness in federal appointments and also the question of state policing.

On the face value, one would be tempted to pitch his tent on this position as it gives the states a better attempt at self fulfillment. Even though we still have as it were pockets of agitation within the boundaries, the nationalities with cohesive and precise leadership would find it easier to weld their common interest thereby ensuring egalitarianism within their boundaries.

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With the federating states given the full powers to judiciously vacate their resources and keep a considerable percentage internally for development, while sending a few to the centre, you will see that development including grassroots development would be faster attained. This would also lead to greater unity stemming from the confidence that bilateral trade pushed by the simple principle of economic comparative advantage would rule. So for example, the state’s in the north that are agrarian by nature would foster very powerful trade relations that would see them trade in their agrarian products for revenue hike also exchanging them with goods they do not have a comparative advantage in producing. These are some of the benefits of more devolution of powers to the federating states that jumps out when the issue is being discussed.

On the other side, is the El Rufai school of thought. This position is very stringent in its call for us to ignore this agitation, going ahead to even label its proponents as opportunistic and hypocritical. If we are to play politics of personalities I will agree with him. The people, in this case, IBB while in power fostered and benefited from the present system. The unitary style of government that the military ruled with caused this major dislocation in our structure. During that era the centre was all powerful, commandeering total resources and ensuring that it maintained full control even up to the local government levels. States were just appendages of the state and were ruled by Military Administrators who took orders from the centre. All resources were corralled and moved to the centre and from their disbursed on the whim and caprices of the military overlords.

What we now had was simmering agitation which hurt us violently with the Ogoni uprising leading to the death of a Ken Saro Wiwa, the legendary writer. Today, years out of power and in the twilight of his life, IBB has reneged and called for a devolution.

For me, either of this two positions without true copious leadership will lead us no where. What is lacking is leadership and no matter what system we want to run, if we keep being led by this level of best leadership we would still find ourselves in the hole that we have been put all of these years.

We need the patriotic leadership that would take us out of the woods simple and factual.

 

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