By Segun Ayobolu
As far as the Senate President, Dr Ahmed Lawan, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami are concerned, the recent call by the southern governors for restructuring of the country as part of the resolutions reached at their meeting in Asaba is wholly unjustified. Both men have forcefully expressed the view that the restructuring advocacy by the southern governors can only be worth a hearing if they initiate the restructuring process from their respective states by guaranteeing the financial and functional autonomy of their legislative and judicial arms of government as well as allowing their local government councils to operate genuinely as the third tier of government as prescribed by the constitution.
This perspective cannot be said to be without some merit. This column once advocated what I called ‘restructuring from below’ arguing that most governors are veritable emperors in their domains with the legislature, judiciary, civil service and local governments under their unquestionable suzerainty.
It is impossible to wield the kind of powers that governors enjoy and deploy in their states without getting imperiously inebriated. The truth of the matter is that since 1999, the principle of checks and balances has been more operational and effective at the centre than in the states. Although the National Assembly has been consistently perfunctory and tardy in carrying out its duty of screening stipulated categories of appointees to public office, it has been relatively more rigorous in debating and scrutinizing federal budgets, performing its oversight role over Ministries, Departments and Agencies and in debating critical national issues.
Both the legislature and judiciary at the federal level are financially autonomous of the executive and any subservient disposition of either the law –making or law-adjudicating branches to the presidency is a matter of voluntary self-abasement rather than due to any compulsive stranglehold of the latter. This is clearly not the case at the level of the states where what we have in most cases is effectively one man, not even one party, rule.
But does this justify the rather abrasive dismissal of the southern governors meeting and resolutions by the duo of Malami and Lawan? I don’t think so. For one, the 17 governors who attended or were represented at the Asaba meeting are elected representatives of their people speaking on behalf of roughly half the population of the country. The mandate the governors wield as elected leaders of their states is as sacrosanct and inviolable as that held by President Muhammadu Buhari in a federal polity. A substantial number of the votes that enable Buhari to hold office today are from the south, which the governors spoke for in Asaba.
Again, Lawan is a senator elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) while Malami is presumably a sympathizer of or even a card carrying member of the ruling party. On the other hand, the southern governors who met in Asaba were from the APC, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Their position, therefore, transcends partisan political divides and this should certainly be taken into account by Lawan and Malami.
Beyond this, one of the resolutions reached at the Asaba summit was the call for an urgent national dialogue to deliberate on the state of the nation and the way forward. Surely, such a forum will offer an opportunity for interested participants to raise the questions posed by Lawan and Malami such as the need to guarantee autonomy of the legislative and executive arms of government in the states as well as the structural and functional viability of local governments.
Indeed, the Senate President and AGF must be commended for pointing out the patent lack of equity, balance and fairness in the way in which power is distributed among the arms and levels of government at the sub-national units of governance. Since they advocate the de-concentration of powers from the person and office of the governor at the sub-national level, however, they cannot logically be opposed to the demand for the decentralization of more powers, resources and responsibilities from the centre to the lower levels of governance in accordance with the dictates of federal practice.
Surely, Lawan and Malami cannot be indifferent to the fact that the entire country is fast collapsing all around us with many parts daily degenerating into veritable theatres of anarchy and mindless blood- letting? No part of the country is spared the menace of one or the other of the atrocities of insurgency, banditry, rape and kidnapping that claim valuable lives on a daily basis. It is thus obvious, for instance, that the present security architecture in the country is outdated, dysfunctional and ineffective. The centralized policing structure put in place by the extant constitution for a plural, complex polity is unsustainable and the time is long overdue for the decentralization of the policing structure as stated by the governors. Of course, in doing this, Lawan and Malami will rightly be concerned that appropriate checks against misuse of state police to harass, oppress and victimize opponents by temperamental, volatile and emotionally unstable governors must be put in place.
The view has been expressed in some quarters that the southern governors could more appropriately have sought audience with the President to make their views known to him. But there is absolutely nothing wrong in the southern governors putting their position in the public space for all to see and appraise. In any case, there is hardly anything new in the resolutions passed by the governors. The same positions have been advocated at various times by diverse stakeholders from both the north and the south. Given the critical positions they occupy, the governors of the south joining hands across intra-regional and partisan divides to publicly articulate and advocate these demands will help impress on President Buhari and his kitchen cabinet the need for urgent action to stem the country’s current dangerous slide.
In his reaction to the resolutions of the southern governors, Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello, admonished that “when it appears as if you are fighting President Muhamadu Buhari, our father and our President, we are all getting it wrong because we get (sic) to where we are today as a result of maladministration of successive administrations”. In my view, it is precisely because of diffidence towards and respect for the President that the southern governors and other stakeholders have not publicly staked this kind of position before now. The language of their communique was neither provocative nor insulting and they strongly reiterated their firm commitment to the continued cohesion of the nation.
Some of the most influential members of the President’s kitchen cabinet stood by him loyally and steadfastly during his long years in the political wilderness as he sought in futility three successive times to be President of Nigeria. It is only human and natural for Buhari to appoint such people into sensitive positions in his government and to repose implicit trust and confidence in their good faith and commitment to the best interest of his administration. These beneficiaries of his benevolence in this regard must be concerned about the President’s reputation or the legacy he will bequeath to posterity. Because they enjoy the trust of the President, these members of his kitchen cabinet have a responsibility and duty to utilize their influence to help steer the administration in a direction that unites rather than divides the country thus distracting attention from much of the good work being done in key sectors including agriculture, social intervention initiatives and infrastructure upgrade.
For instance, in passing a resolution banning open grazing across their states, the southern governors are obviously motivated by the need to take drastic action to halt the ceaseless flow of blood in large swathes of the south as a result of invasion of farmlands and host communities by herdsmen. This has become a source of danger not only to lives but to livelihoods in the south. As the Chief Security Officers of their states, the southern governors can certainly not be indifferent to this. And a broad consensus has emerged across both the southern and northern governors’ forums and even including Miyetti Allah that open grazing has become anachronistic and must give way to modern ranching across the country.
In disagreeing with the southern governors on this point, the AGF is concerned with the constitutional right of citizens to live and pursue a legitimate livelihood anywhere in the country and this is an important right that must be protected. However, open grazing of cattle has become so hazardous to peaceful co-existence across the length and breadth of the country that there should be no legal squabbles on whether or not the practice should be scrapped. It belongs to a bygone era. If vehicle spare parts sellers pursue their business in such a way as to pose danger to lives in the north or anywhere else, a poser raised by the AGF, they should be banned and deported to their states of origin.
Malami and Lawan want restructuring at the sub-national levels. The governors want restructuring from the centre, devolving more powers and serious to the states. The two positions are not mutually exclusive. The governors must immediately heed Lawan and Malami’s advice that they should take the initiative and begin the restructuring process from below. It is up to the governors to urgently begin to work with their lawmakers in the National Assembly to actualize the restructuring of Nigeria in line with their demands.
