In this piece, Ondo State-based lawyer Akinlolu Akintewe argues that devolution of power from the centre to the component states will make the country function more effectively.
Akinlolu Akintewe
Before the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914, what is known as Nigeria today was being administered as separate colonies.
As colonial rule evolved, there were demands for participation in governance at all levels by the local elites. Since that time,there had been a search for a viable structural arrangement for the country,Nigeria.
Between 1946 and 1999,we’ve had seven constitutions,but it was the 1954 Constitution that formalised and consolidated a federal structure for Nigeria,with three regional governments and a central government.
The diverse character of the regions which constitute the present Nigeria,with a diversity of nations,empires,kingdoms with different cultural patterns,historical realities,social,political and economic identities, is what made the choice of federalism inevitable.
Before the grant of Independence to the country in 1960, we had negotiated and agreed on a full blown federal structure,with the three regions and their respective capitals at Ibadan,Enugu and Kaduna,and Lagos as the seat of the Federal Government.
The federating units,that is, the three regions,were controlling their resources and paying the appropriate royalties to the central government.
Each region was independent of the central government.Each region was able to develop at its own pace and pursued its own developmental agenda and policies.
This was the position until the Military took over governnance in 1966.
When the military intervened in Nigeria’s politics,they displaced the politicians and subsequently supplanted them.They suspended the Constitution and ruled by decrees.
The polity became centralised in line with the hierarchical nature and command structure of the military.
One important feature of federalism is the relative autonomy of the component units.
This is often guaranteed under a democratic system through a democratic process prescribed by a constitution.
Federalism is a form of gevernment in which political power is divided between the federal government and the regional or state governments so that each of them within its own sphere,is independent of the other.
An essential element of federalism is a written constitution which cannot be altered by the ordinary process of legislation.
The constitution defines the powers of each government by placing some items on the Exclusive legislative List over which only the Federal Government can make laws,the Concurrent Legislative List, over which both the Federal and State Governments can make laws and the Residuary matters,reserved for the states.In other words the federal structure is created by the constitution.
With the military incursion into government,the three-year civil war and the creation of additional states,there was a consistently progressive erosion of the powers of the states by the Federal Military Government,which led to an over concentration of power in the centre.
As things stand now over 80% of the matters which were previously in the Concurrent Legislative List at the time of independence were now placed on the Exclusive Legislative List,over which only the National Assembly can pass laws.
This is what is responsible for the large number of Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
When the Military left in 1999,they imposed on the country a bastardised federal system,which violates one of the basic tenets of federalism.
Ordinarily In a true federal set-up,the Federal Government is supposed to be concerned with only few items that border on national interest,like foreign affairs, defense, currency,overseas trade,maritime shipping,while municipal institutions,schools, hospitals agriculture,property,civil rights,administration of justice within the state and other matters that are clearly local in nature should be alloted to states.
However under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,(as amended)we have 68 items in the Exclusive Legislative List and another 30 items in the Conccurent Legislative List.
At independence,the federal centre was so weak that the regional tails wagged the Federal dogs,but now the federating states are small in size,weakened,and have become prostate beggars that grovel before the almighty Federal Government for crumbs to develop their states.
These aberrations and distortions have been so perfected that the states are so weak and infinitesimally small that they cannot challenge the Federal Government.
The central government has become an overlord that can usurp the rights and privileges of the federating units with impunity.
That was why,even under a democratic dispensation,President Obasanjo was able to seize local government funds in Lagos State with impunity.
What we have now is not a federal constitution,but a unitary constitution,masquerading as a federal constitution,which ensures that one of the federating units,the Northern Region with 19 states, more Senators,more Reps,is placed at an advantage over the other three regions with 17 states.
There is now a very strong centre and weak component units with a noticeable complete domination and marginalization of the federating units, which are now seen and treated like conquered territories.
Given these facts,the CFRN 1999 is not an original act of the people of Nigeria, but the act of a centralized autocracy, an illegitimate unitary constitution being operated in a federal system.
The foregoing is responsible for the ongoing wave of clamour for restructuring Nigeria. A restructured Nigerian polity is the only guarantee for the continued existence of this country as a corporate entity.
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Restructuring is the only viable remediating measure to avoid the looming doomsday,(I didn’t say revolution oo)because there is an impending implosion if we do not address the unfairness, injustices and imbalances in this country as it is presently structured!
It is practically impossible to go back to the old structure prescribed by the 1960 Independence Constitution or the 1963 Republican Constitution.
The least we can do is to amend the imperfect 1999 Constitution along the lines proposed by the El-Rufai led Restructuring Committee put in place by the ruling party,the APC.
The duty rests squarely with the National Assembly and the States’ Houses of Assembly,to amend the 1999 Constitution by devolving more powers to the states, that is, to reduce the number of items in the Exclusive Legislative List and consequently reduce the revenue allocation to the Federal Government.
That is the restructuring we are talking about and this is the restructuring we are asking for, devolution of powers from the centre to the component states.
So why can’t we have the restructuring NOW?
The first impediment to devolution of powers is the size of the federating states. The states are so small that to devolve more powers on them as they are now is to put on them loads that they cannot carry,that is,to give them duties and responsibilities they cannot perform.
Another reason is that the groups and individuals who are benefitting from this imbalance and lopsided structure will resist the reform. It is on record,or is it not, that the authorities at the villa, and the Supremo General in Sokoto,for instance,are against restructuring. (Do not say I told you) The National Assembly is against restructuring,because they would have less work to do.
One thing is clear, however, things will not and cannot continue like this. Something would have to give, who knows, maybe another disaster like Abacha would happen to this country, and then it will be ,to your tents O Nigerians!
- Akintewe is a former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of the federation in the Federal Ministry of Justice.
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