Tag: Band

There is always something animated in our polity to engage Nigerians; sometimes real, and sometimes distractions for political ends.  Restructuring is now at the front burner of the national discourse and the word in fashion.  It is so loud and strident across the political spectrum and demographic divide that we are all sitting at the edge.  It is beginning to send jitters into the spines of the unconscionable irredentist gladiators behind it as it is slipping out of their hands.

But wait a minute, what is this restructuring argument all about?  Is it synonymous with self-determination or secession, ala the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)?  Is it about resource control like the drumbeat from the South-south and Niger Delta or a calibrated order and declaration of one ethnic group persona non grata by the other in the fashion of the Arewa youths?  Is it a demand for the operation of the constitution on the basis of true federalism?  Questions, questions and more questions!

Methinks most people have joined the fray just to be politically correct without advancing any argument what they are canvassing for. Whatever the argument and postulations about restructuring, one thing is at least certain; it is the fact that it is a vote of no confidence on the ruling elite who have kept the country perpetually in tethers.  The visionless leaders never stopped blaming the military and the imperfect constitution it bequeathed to Nigerians as the cause of our woes after 18 years.  Blaming past governments over everything from corruption to poor management of the economy is the fashionable thing among government officials and this they have elevated to religion rather than face the serious business of governance.  Our leaders have continued to show lack of mental capacity and critical thinking to interrogate the real issues responsible for our under-development and growth, insecurity and mutual suspicion amongst the ethnic nationalities that make up Nigeria.

It is puerile and mental indolence to continue to blame our constitution; our constitution is not our problem.  There is no perfect document anywhere in the world that serves as a constitution of any country.  Rather we have documents that are work in progress which the people must fine-tune to achieve their desire goals according to the reality of the time and circumstances.  This is the reason why we have the legislature everywhere in the world whose duty it is to make laws for the good of the country.  But here in Nigeria, we have the misfortune of having people with traders’ mentality presiding over the affairs of our nation who think with their stomach.  Politics to them is therefore about bread and butter and a do-or-die affair not for what they can offer but for what they can get.  They succeed in part because ours is a docile and uncritical electorate of cash and carry.

All the noise about restructuring will go to no issue where there is inequality and lack of social justice.  Restructuring will not bring the ordinary man on the street to the level of the government officials who intentionally flout law and order in brazen manners.  It is not restructuring that has made it impossible to secure conviction in known and obvious cases of heist and corruption by government officials and their minions.  It is sheer indolence and un-seriousness of unimaginable proportion to continue to lament about what the military did or failed to do or the constitution for being responsible to our problems.

If we have imaginative political leadership with patriotic fervour, we should have detached ourselves from our past and move our country to the right direction; 18 years is long time enough.  We have good parts in the 1999 Constitution; what have we done with those parts like Chapter two which is on ‘fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy’.  Restructuring for autonomy for the state or region may as well be asking for the replication of the tyranny at the centre in all the states.  The governors are behaving like emperors already and given the opportunity, they would become local tyrants and lions let loose on a sheep when you now endow them with absolute power to control state police etc.

The counter argument is that we need to strengthen our institutions to engender the rule of law and social justice.  We perhaps need is true federalism that will promote productivity and development without losing national cohesion and unity.  We have become suddenly so loud about the Jonathan-led government National Conference of 2014 which to me was a mere political chicanery and distraction by a government that was out of steam in the face of daunting security challenges that saw the state losing territory to the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-east.

The leading economies of the world like America, China, and India etc. do not have homogenous population and they are secular states where the rule of law is held above social status of individuals. These are societies where people are held accountable in accordance with the rule of law no matter the social status and political affiliations.  The former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert has just finished serving a 16 month jail term for corruption.   But here in Nigeria, the laws come alive only when the oppressed masses are involved.

At the end of the day, the masses remain the victim of the political greed of the deceitful ruling elite. Reverting back to geo-political regional arrangement would not make the ordinary man in Lagere in Ile Ife to be on the same platform with the counsellor or commissioner in the state just the same way the fish farmer in Duguri Island in Borno State will continue to live in deprivation of the basic things of life.  When the agitators and ethnic irredentists light the flame, the masses are the canon folders who would be at the receiving end.  They would be the ones to take the bullets from the unprofessional security forces who have scant regards to human life in their mistaken believe that they are the object of protest by the man on the street.  The masses are the ones who would die on the road in mass exodus from one region to the other while the mischievous elite behind it go for negotiation and get better deal not for the masses but for themselves. The so-called elders are not speaking with wisdom while the youths are too preoccupied by the survival question to be concerned how the government machine is run.  Patriots, this is a call not to join the band wagon but to take what is ours from the charlatans in political garb.

• Kebonkwu, a legal practitioner writes from Abuja.