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Tag: Federalism

  • The increasing call for true federalism

    The increasing call for true federalism

    We have survived because the ordinary Nigerian overwhelmingly desires to live together in one united country under some commonly acceptable arrangement

    I have had this running dialogue with my very good friend, Antony A. Sani, Publicity Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum (A C F) who sees any talk of regional economic integration or any effort at canvassing true federalism as nothing but a façade for ethnic nationalism that I could not but shout hurray when in recent times equally significant voices from the North have come out loudly in support of both. In an article: The State Of The Nigerian Nation, by Alhaji Ahmed Joda, and, also, by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as recently as at the ceremony of the award of the Leadership Governor of the Year by the LEADERSHIP newspapers at Abuja this past week, a ringing support was lent the drive towards true federalism which remains about the only panacea to our lingering problems as a country.

    Wrote Ahmed Joda: ‘Our country has passed through difficult times, including a civil war and has survived. We must not mistake the fact of our survival to anything such as military might. The truth is that we have survived because the ordinary Nigerian overwhelmingly desires to live together in one united country under some commonly acceptable arrangement. It is quite clear from all we are passing through and from all the political debates in which we have been engaged, that there is a sufficient body of opinion around the country that the present arrangements are not adequate and need to be discussed further.’ And in his opening remarks as Chairman of the 2012 Leadership Conference and Awards Ceremony at Abuja on Tuesday, September 18, 2012, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, not only called for the overhauling of Nigeria’s political structure in order to pave way for true federalism, he publicly regretted not supporting former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme’s call for the creation of six semi-autonomous regions. Said he: “Now, I realize that I should have supported him because our current federal structure is clearly not working. Dr Ekwueme obviously saw what some of us, with our civil war mindset, could not see at the time. There is indeed too much concentration of power and resources at the centre. And it is stifling our march to true greatness as a nation and threatening our unity because of all the abuses, inefficiencies, corruption and reactive tensions that it has been generating.”

    Without a doubt, the modus operandi towards achieving the desired goal has been as varied as there are calls for true federalism. While many have called for a Sovereign National Conference Alhaji Ahmed Joda apparently fears this model, believing it could be a recipe for disintegration. He was winsome enough, however, to concede that though such an outcome cannot be ruled out, the problems we face will not permit us to ignore the fact that we need to, and must, address these problems in order to safeguard our future either as one unit or under some other form of arrangement; concluding that it is much better to face the issues frontally, and to discuss them frankly in an open forum to come up with solutions that can ensure a peaceful existence for Nigeria. His preferred route is via a Constituent Assembly which he presents as follows:’ It appears that a likely more acceptable arrangement will be the establishment of a Constituent Assembly, with a full mandate to comprehensively review the Constitution. The Constituent Assembly should be composed of an entirely elected membership. No representation should be permitted for special interests. The election should be on zero political party bases. Serving Members of any legislative body should not be eligible. Public Servants, who wish to serve, must resign from their offices. And it should be brought into being by an Act of the National Assembly.’

    With this well reasoned position, and more, in support of true federalism, it will be apposite for opponents of true federalism to go back and re-learn their history of Nigeria in order to understand how in the First Republic of 3 regions, regional autonomy galvanized overall national development through positive inter-regional competition.

    This, incidentally, was a theme that featured prominently in the Keynote Address by the Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, at the recent National Convention of Egbe Omo Yoruba (National Association of Yoruba Descendants in North America, held in Baltimore, Maryland.

    Happily, many of the things he recalled for the Western region, if not most, are replicated in the other regions of North and East. During that period, he said, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, as Premier, established the first TV and Radio Station in Sub-Saharan Africa, Cocoa House, Ibadan, he said, was built from revenues generated from cocoa and coffee just as the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, was established from same sources. Under the auspices of one of the best organized political parties in Africa, the Action Group, he continued, the government inaugurated the free primary education programme which, till today, has put the South-West in good stead politically, educationally and economically. It was in that era too, he reminisced, that such great institutions as the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, were established in the North and the East, respectively.

    However, on the contrary, the military with its command structure mindset came in 1966 and imposed a suffocating unitary system that had remained the bane of the country even where sustained struggle had rid Nigeria of military autocracy.

    His address then continued: ‘At independence in 1960, there was regional autonomy and each region had its own constitution. There were only about 26 items on the exclusive list of the Federal Government but today, there are 66 thereby nearly completely suffocating the states. Suddenly our unity in diversity was trampled upon by the military with far reaching consequences. For instance, he said, the totalitarian imposition and horrendous decimation of the Yoruba educational system, its economy and commerce let to many of the Yoruba intelligentsia leaving in doves to Europe and America; people who, today, cannot guarantee that their own children will ever return to Motherland, thus culturally, and otherwise, depleting the Yoruba’. If the above is true of the Yoruba, so also is it true of the 250 other ethnic groups in Nigeria.

    But there remains a window of opportunity which is restructuring towards true federalism which will, once again, engender positive inter-regional competition and co-operation instead of our unedifying atavistic politics of who controls the unitarist federal government which, as Vice-President Atiku says, has proved thoroughly inefficient.

    Not surprising though, the opposition is totally unrelenting. Indeed, so enervating has opposition to regional integration and true federalism got that I once responded to Tony Sani as follows: ‘These things, Tony, are about perspectives, and a pointer o each group’s preferred developmental paradigm for the nation. For the status quoists, what is on ground is simply the best. But for majority Yoruba, stronger regional groupings will make for a much stronger, more peaceful and equitable country. I then said: ‘consider, for instance, that both the North-East and the North-West had each synergized earlier via integration and economic cooperation, both would probably have chalked up developments that would have made Boko Haram a most unlikely phenomenon. I intend, one day soon, to consider doing an article on your strongly held opposition to regional integration which I see as a fall out of the North’s fear of the unknown. Whilst not only Europe or the Americas are synergizing, I am perpetually astonished at your angst against mere regional economic cooperation as a way of maximizing development and catalyzing national development and cohesion’.

    Today, I feel certain that my friend will sooner than later bow to a development whose time has come and for which leading lights in the North are beginning to lend their support.

  • ‘True federalism is the way forward’

    ‘True federalism is the way forward’

    Protocol

    I greet our distinguished tra-ditional rulers. Kabiyesi, k’ ade pe lori o, ki bata pe le se, irunkere a di abere, ase a pe lenu o! Your excellencies the executive governors of all our states, Our highly regarded elders, former and serving members of Federal and state legislatures, ministers of the Federal Republic and state commissioners, retired and serving jurists, former and serving ambassadors, members of the professions, members of the organised private sector , members of the Armed Force, members of the Forth estate of the realm, representatives of market women, artisans, road transport workers, students, representatives of the unemployed in our region, distinguished ladies and gentlemen.

    I greet you all and heartily welcome you to this important gathering of the Yoruba family from all parts of our country and the Diaspora. I thank the government of Oyo State for allowing us the use of this ‘PLACE’. A very symbolic place in our history just as the city of Ibadan.

    I am Alani Akinrinade, a Yoruba and Nigerian patriot. I believe in the unity of our federation and have spent most of my adult life lending credence to that assertion. I have, after wide consultations with elders and leaders in Yoruba land; called this family meeting to reflect on how to make Nigeria conducive to the development of Yoruba civilization.

    Today’s meeting is not to do or say anything that will detract from the unity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is intended to allow us, as Yoruba sons and daughters all over the federation to rob minds on the way out of the country’s crippling underdevelopment, with special emphasis on the parlous state of affairs in the Southwest. Our forefathers have a maxim that says: Omode gbon agba gbon ni a fi da Ile Ife. Today’s assembly is to allow the Yoruba nation, across social, political, and sub-ethnic divides to rob minds about the future of our own corner of Nigeria.

    Historical background

    But first, let me crave your indulgence to take you on a very brief historical journey of the Yoruba. Our people are believed by historians backed by archaeological evidence to have lived in this very place for over 1,000 years. Our ancestral home, Ile-Ife, was already a thriving kingdom by 1000 C.E. Most of our major cities have celebrated over 500 years of their respective kingdoms. By the time Portuguese explorers first came to what later became today’s Nigeria in the 1400s, many of the Yoruba City-States were comparable to cities of similar size in Europe. Yoruba land at that time was considered one of the most urbanized areas in the world.

    Before the arrival of the colonial enterprise in the 1880s, the Yoruba had already established one of the most complex federal or con-federal networks of kingdoms in the world. This was centuries before Switzerland or Belgium created a system of government that gave constituent parts of each country, simultaneously, the freedom to progress as equals and the responsibility to cooperate with each other for advancement of common goals.

    Around 1500 C.E., when Oduduwa sent different groups, each led by one of his sons, to found new kingdoms or city-states, he gave them the crown and the freedom to rule the new kingdoms without being subjected to a fiat from Ile-Ife. In the few cases when empires grew within the Yoruba territory, we all know that such efforts led to civil wars.

    In other words, the Yoruba have traditionally organised their polity along the model of federalism. It was not surprising; therefore, that one of the highlights of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s contribution to political thought in response to the amalgamation of Nigeria by Frederick Lugard as well as during the struggle for independence was the importance of federalism to national unity and development in a multinational state like Nigeria.

    Contemporary development

    In more contemporary times, those of us in this hall that grew up in the ’50s and ’60s would have no problem remembering that the quality of life of the average Yoruba was much better than what it is today. When the United Nations says that the quality of life in present day Nigeria is much lower than what it was in the 1970s, we all know that there is no exaggeration whatever in such an assessment. The tragedy is that most children growing up in Yoruba land as from the ’80s have come to see life as an experience to endure, rather than enjoy.

    Most of them would readily take the Andrew option, migrate legally or illegally, to other countries of the world, including even some of our neighbouring countries like Ghana, which became independent about the same time Western Nigeria obtained self-government. You have to visit important establishments abroad to experience the magnitude of the brain drain from Yorubaland.

    Those who have no means of escaping from the country have become frustrated and would do just about anything to survive. Between 1952 and 1966 Nigeria operated a federal system that allowed each of the three regions then to develop in consonance with the dominant values of its culture and at its own pace. Western region, home to the Yoruba, obtained self-government in 1957; started the first free primary education in West Africa in 1955, built the sub-region’s first modern stadium within the same period, established the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1962, created the Western Nigeria Television Service and a corporation devoted solely to economic development (WNDC), both first in Africa. Long before Nigeria became independent in 1960; our region developed the most professional civil service under the leadership of Chief Simeon Adebo of blessed memory.

    The Yoruba were the first to officially recognize opposition in governance and provided official accommodation for leaders of opposition in the region, a clear sign of our philosophical commitment to the plurality of perspectives as a necessary aspect of democratic governance. All of these achievements and others too many to itemise were made possible, not with petro dollars but with resources from agriculture.

    It is the period 1952-62 that historians now nostalgically refer to as the Golden Age of Yoruba land thereby acknowledging the unmistakable decline in the region in the decades after the ’60s. The cruel irony of all these is that the region is now almost fully dependent on revenue from oil and hand outs from Abuja. At independence in 1960, the federal government was taking loans of substantial amounts from the government of Western Nigeria.

    Unfortunately today, the truth is that, apart from Lagos State, our region has become a mendicant region that waits for limited droppings from the table of the federal government in Abuja. A distant Federal government has become an overlord that has unnecessarily attracted to itself the charges of marginalization from the constituent nationalities.

    Despite its oil resources, Nigeria today remains one of the poorest countries in the world; it ranks almost highest, world-wide, in corruption being only a shade better than Bangladesh and Togo! Nigeria has the least developed transportation system for any country of its size that possesses her quantum of natural resources throughout the entire world. Its railway system is in a state of complete disrepair while its roads are abysmally decrepit. No wonder it is completely unable to sustain any meaningful industrial activity!

    Particularly on account of crippling lack of electric power, factories have turned to worship places just as many multinational companies have migrated to other countries like Ghana. Thousands of jobs have thus left the country in search of more stable economies. Insecurity has nose-dived beyond even the Biafran war time years since the emergence and upsurge in the activities of Boko Haram, -a rampaging urban terrorist group that has completely enveloped the North-Eastern part and making menacing incursions into other parts of the North of the country. Boko Haram may not have struck in Yoruba land, but our people, like many other Nigerians, in their teens, are daily being slaughtered, or incinerated, in the North.

    Given the feckless way the federal authorities are handling Boko Haram, it is only a short time away from when the marauders will be emboldened enough to attempt attacking other parts of the country. Indeed, not too long ago, the University of Ibadan like the University of Benin had to postpone end of semester examinations for no other reason than an alleged Boko Haram infiltration of the two campuses.

    Leadership and
    structural problems

    Political theorists have argued that the problem with Nigeria is a problem of leadership just as some have attributed it to a warped geo-political and governance structure. The choice of a country’s leadership is determined by political partisanship in a democracy. But the structure of government is one matter that can be addressed by all, regardless of party affiliation. Knowing where we are coming from, it is crystal clear that the absence of functional federalism in the country has exacerbated the decline of Yorubaland.

    It is the structural problems thrown up against our security, general wellbeing and the future of our children that motivated me to convene this family meeting. If some parts of Nigeria or even the rest of Nigeria have no problem with the current constitution and political structure, and I am sure they do, that should not stop us from raising issues with a system that daily traumatizes, impoverishes and completely degrades our people.

    We must not continue to look askance, at a political structure, and Constitution which continue to deny us our place in the sun as it completely rubbishes our freedom to develop at our own usual pace as eloquently demonstrated in the days of Awolowo and his team when each region had the authority and the freedom to grow as it wished. We believe this should not be a matter that divides the country or even the region into warring groups. It is, ordinarily, a contestation that should be civil and peaceful, being basically constitutional and which can therefore be approached in the most respectful manner amongst the various people making up Nigeria.

    Without a doubt, Yoruba land is not the only part of the country suffering from our national rudderlessness. The truth is that Yoruba should really have no stock with the all-pervading misery that has enveloped the nation; not with our education, exposure, location, industriousness and cultural richness. While analysts are still battling with the cause of Nigeria’s underdevelopment close to sixty years after independence, we are duty bound as a people, to come together in a non-partisan manner, such as we are doing today, to interrogate the various issues militating against our well-being and, together look for solutions.

    The dialogue option

    May I suggest that in place of brick-batting and hard-line mudslinging pervading the Nigerian atmosphere, giving the impression that it is impossible for the nationalities to sit together and dialogue peacefully, we turn to civility. We should come to terms sooner than later, that science and technology is drifting to the realm of negotiation with death and it may remain only taxation that is not negotiable. All matters including the unity of Nigeria are negotiable. Perhaps we should remember that all the apostles of non negotiability in defunct Yugoslavia, Rwanda etc have either died in jail or are serving long terms of imprisonment or still facing criminal trials. Never mind the avalanche of destruction that they wrought on their countries. When some states decided to install Sharia and organized hisbah to police and enforce it, the others saw no reason why they should go up in arms even though it was not sanctioned by the constitution.

    Today’s family assembly is therefore convened, to think together on how to ensure that our children do not remain unfed; that our roads are safe for our people to move around and for business, that our streets are safe for citizens and residents, and that generally our region does not remain underdeveloped. In other words, we need to examine the structure of the polity together and make recommendations on how to facilitate the overall economic development of the country and the South-West geo-political zone, in particular.

    We need to brainstorm about how to make sure that “the architecture of governance”, to borrow a phrase from Chief Emeka Anyaoku, is designed to strengthen the unity of the country through a constitutional system that favours restoration of regional autonomy that made it possible for our region to create the largest pool of manpower in sub-Sahara Africa half a century ago. At the rate at which we are going, being constantly pulled back by a dead weight federal structure our children may not even be able to obtain good education and knowledge which is the only competition left in the globalized world.

    This Assembly has also been called to allow us to help Nigeria optimize the potentials of its cultural diversity and to enhance its unity through a clear headed re-engineering of its observable structural imbalances. We can provide leadership for other regions in the search for the proper structure that can sustain democracy, development, and unity in our diversity. May I suggest that we discount the noise of the war mongers who believe that a conference will necessarily end up in the battle field. They have carried decadence too far. They are steeped in reaping unfairly where they didn’t sow.

    They believe in the unity of purpose of the donkey and its owner. Or how do we explain a Federal government that collected punitive duty on imported alcohol and returns to collect heavy value added tax from the consumers and repair to Abuja to distribute the proceeds to all states including those that banned alcohol, using some dubious calculus.

    While we are at it, can our present leadership find ways and means of not just preserving our language and culture, but employ it for fast-tracking knowledge. I have been hinted by a psychologist that we do not dream in foreign language. I, and myself have not found a good example of any nation that made salutary contribution to science and technology using someone else’s language.

    It sounds like share violence expecting a five year old to think in someone else’s language. I was assured by late Baba Fafunwa and Chief Cornelius Adebayo that it is easy and rewarding to teach in our language. They successfully did so. Can we possibly start a revolution? Please forgive me, I digress.

    One more matter. Can we refuse as an article of faith, to allow anyone rampage our land in the name of partisan politics and elections? I mean, can we remove the brigandage that accompanies elections. The stigma, the unnecessary destruction of lives and property is avoidable. By all means, let us enjoy vigorous rivalries of ideas, principles and healthy canvassing, but leave the rampage out of it. That is the Yoruba way.

    In the last twenty years, the Yoruba have gotten together under various auspices to examine the structure of the polity. The exercise leading to the production of the Yoruba Agenda is the most memorable of such efforts. The Yoruba Agenda contains ideas that can be reviewed and improved upon. There may be some things that are no longer applicable and need to be taken out at this Assembly. There may be other issues that need to be considered and added to the position taken by our traditional rulers, elders, professionals, and other patriots when the Yoruba Agenda was put together during the pro- democracy struggle of the 1990s.

    Kabiyesis, Your Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, before I take my seat, I would like to bring some of the salient points of the Yoruba Agenda to your attention. This is to help us arrive at decisions on what we need to do to enhance the unity and overall development of the country, Nigeria, in general and Yoruba land, in particular. The Yoruba people fully subscribe to certain universal values which influence and govern the behaviour of peoples throughout the modern world. The values which may be termed Fundamental Principles leading to peace, stability and progress of a people like the recognition of the Sovereign will of the people, equal political, economic and social opportunity for all, and respect for human rights, equity, justice and fair play are all extensively dealt with in the Agenda.

    Kabiyesi, Your Excellencies, Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, our region can be much better than it is. It can and should be much better to live and work than in the 1960s if we put our heads together to work for a more conducive structure that can nurture our civilization and that of others that co-habit the country with us. Only a proper constitutional and political agreement, enhanced by a consensus among the Yoruba to press for re-structuring and creation of a truly federal constitution, can help resolve the current constitutional and structural logjam in the country.

    This Assembly is convened to start the process of restoring true federalism with its cornerstone of regional autonomy in our country. This, as I said earlier, should be without acrimony as it could be achieved the same way Scotland has, through a peaceful constitutional process, demanded home rule within the framework of the United Kingdom. Today’s Assembly is a family meeting aimed at starting the formal process of demanding a restructuring of the Nigerian federation.

    Finally, we know that lions eat lambs, but when fire starts raging in the valley, all animals become equal. E ma jeki o di igbati aja ba nle ikoko ki a to mo pe ogun ti de bode. The Yoruba need to rise, in the wise saying of our fore fathers that Agbajo owo ni a fi so aya.

     

  • ‘Why true federalism is necessary’

    The Association of Public Policy Scientists of Nigeria (APPSON) yesterday advised the Federal Government to review the current revenue mobilisation and sharing system to grant states and local governments more powers since they are closer to the grassroots people.

    This, the association said, would guarantee true federalism in the country.

    APPSON President, Aluu Vincent, spoke in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, while interacting with newsmen shortly after the inauguration of the association.

    He frowned at the renewed agitations for re-introduction of the onshore/offshore dichotomy by some sections of the Northern elite, saying the call is an affront on the collective wellbeing of littoral states.

    Vincent urged the federal government to create one more state in the South East for equity so that it would be at par with other regions with six states each.

    The President observed that the call for introduction of state police is not ripe for the country’s political development at the moment.

    He said: “APPSON supports the review of the Constitution, especially in the area of true federalism.

    More political and fiscal powers should be given to states since the states are closer to the grassroots people.

    “One more state should be created in the South East for equity sake.

    Traditional rulers should be constitutional assigned roles and also Nigeria is not ripe for state police at the moment.

    “APPSON also frowns at the call by some elements in the North for the stoppage payment of 13 per cent oil derivation to oil producing states.

    This to us is an affront on the collective wellbeing of littoral states.

    “It will lead to more under development of the area that lays the golden egg that feeds the nation. Atleast, the 13 per cent oil derivation should be increased to 20 per cent.”

  • Lagos ‘lcdas’: Constitutional federalism on trial

    Tritely, the Courts have long settled the implication of the use of the word “shall” in any Statute. It is a word that confers obligation on the person or institution to which it is addressed. It connotes a mandatory performance of an act. It is a word that imposes a duty on the person to which it is addressed and it is not a word that permits of discretion. (See Bamaiyi V A.G Federation (2001) 12 NWLR Pt.727 @468, A.T. Ltd V A.D. H. Ltd (2007) 15 NWLR Pt.1056 @118, Sokoto State Govt. V Kamdex Nig. Ltd (2007) 7NWLR Pt.1034 @466).

    Consequently, the word ‘shall’ is what the 1999 Constitution employed, to mandate the National Assembly to make consequential provisions, with respect to the names and headquarters of States or Local Government Areas, after the States and people concerned have created them- in accordance with the Law.

    Under Section 8(6), the Constitution clearly establishes that a new LGA becomes instantly formed once the procedure outlined in Section 8(3) is fulfilled. That explains the usage of the following words; “…after the creation of more Local Government Areas pursuant to subsection (3)…” under the said Section 8 (6) earlier quoted.

    Therefore, by rational inference, a new LGA is already constitutionally alive from the day a Law to that effect is validly passed by a State’s House of Assembly. The relevant State House of Assembly is thereafter duty bound to inform the National Assembly of the concluded creation. Such ‘information’ is not to be given before or during a new LGA creation- it is to come after a conclusive creation. It is thus grossly unconstitutional for the National Assembly to continue to act as though it has discretion to either approve or disapprove the decision to create new LGAs, already lawfully executed by Lagosians through their representatives.

    The Supreme Court in Bamaiyi V A.G. Federation (Supra) held that;
    “The word “shall”, in the ordinary meaning of the word, connote a command and that which must be given a compulsory meaning. It has a preemptory meaning which is generally imperative and mandatory. It has the significance of excluding the idea of discretion, to impose a duty. Thus, where a provision provides that a thing shall be done, the natural meaning is that a preemptory mandate is enjoined (See also Achineku V Isagba (1988) 4 NWLR Pt.89 @ 411)”.

    From their Lordships’ quoted pronouncement above, it is clear the National Assembly has been treading an unconstitutional and visionless path, having neglected to pass the necessary consequential amendments, to list the already lawfully created additional 37 LGAs of Lagos State, since over half a decade that Lagosians democratically took their valid decision.

    A necessary conclusion to be drawn is that there is no point appealing to the National Assembly as if they can exercise any discretion against the passing of the Consequential Amendment Act. It is a constitutional duty imposed on them by the Constitution and they must do it or risk the continuous unprovoked endangering of the prospects of the attainment of true and constitutional federalism in Nigeria.

    To preempt further needless argumentations in possible support of the National Assembly’s contemptuous unconstitutional path, we contend that the use of the phrase “power conferred on it”, under Section 8(6) of the Constitution, cannot be construed as permitting the National Assembly to exploit same for mischievous ends. Looking at the overall context in which the phrase was used and the preceding Sections, the phrase means nothing other than reference to the authority or mandate to give effect to the intendment of the Constitution. In effect, the said ‘power conferred on it’ merely articulates the authority to compulsorily acknowledge an already validly taken decision of any people for more autonomous units to lawfully govern themselves. Clearly therefore, no power for discretion is conferred on the National Assembly here.

    Even if argued conversely, as exemplified in another decision of the Supreme Court; A.T. Ltd V A.D.H. Ltd (Supra), that;
    “…there is no laid down rule as to whether the word “shall”, when used in a statute, carries mandatory or merely directory connotation. Its real purport depends by and large on the particular context in which it is used”…, one would easily observe the Court still further held, in the same case, that;
    “Where in statute, the legislature has expressed no clear intention as to whether a particular provision is mandatory or merely permissive; the Court has a duty to impute into the legislation that intention which is most probable and most consistent with reason”.

    Juxtaposing the two decisions (i.e Bamaiyi V A.G. Federation (Supra) and A.T. Ltd V A.D.H. Ltd (Supra), one may rationally ask whether it is probable and consistent with reason that the Constitution can permit the National Assembly to prevent the coming into operation of new LGAs when already lawfully decided and constitutionally created by the people concerned- the same Constitution having clearly left the creation procedure exclusively with the people concerned to initiate and conclude? It does not at all seem so.

    It can even be further distilled that the Constitution did not involve the National Assembly in the substance of a new LGA creation. The National Assembly is constitutionally mandated to do a mere clerical duty of listing a new LGA under the appropriate Schedule of the Constitution. The clerical duty does not permit the lawmakers to magisterially sit in false judgment as if they are empowered to approve or disapprove such a people-based decision. The clerical listing is itself not so much of an Act of Parliament which is often delayed by all sorts of legislative bureaucracies. The listing is simply to serve as a sort of constructive notice and advertisement of the coming into being of an autonomous decision of a Section of the Federation. Perhaps, for other entities within and outside the Federation to take formal note of; in the event of a future need for formal engagements with the newly created autonomous entities.

    The National Assembly therefore, by the provisions and spirit of the Constitution, is not empowered to sit in a judicial, regulatory or supervisory capacity regarding such a crucial decision of people forming smaller and more compact autonomous units to respond to their peculiar challenges within a Federal Structure. Appearing to do so, for over half a decade, betrays a continous affront on the most elementary notions and visions for true and constitutional federalism in Nigeria.

    The incumbent President is advised to reflect and thereafter display a deeper grasp of the principles of true constitutional federalism embedded in the quest of Lagosians to create more compact autonomous units to govern themselves. Mr. President should challenge the narrow partisans within the National Assembly, who appear intent on a continuous subversion of the will of Lagosians to have more LGAs.

    In the circumstance, another Presidential letter may be written; this time to the National Assembly, to nudge the lawmakers off the stagnant unconstitutional course they have stayed on the Lagos LCDAs for over half a decade.

    While awaiting a more reflective Presidential intervention, Lagos State is advised to return to the judicial trenches- enroute the Supreme Court. While there, the full imports of the jurisprudential insights offered in Hon. Justice Uwaifo JSC’s judgment in A.G. Lagos State V A.G. Federation (Supra) can be submitted for reconsideration and definitive re-pronouncement by the Supreme Court. The Learned Judge posited that…
    “I strongly hold the view that the only purpose of the consequential provisions is to update the Local Government Areas as provided in Section 3 of this Constitution and in Parts I and II of the First Schedule to this Constitution. It is like birth registration under the provision of an Act. The delay in the formality of registration of any particular birth cannot ignore the fact that there has been a child born who is living. To my mind, it does not confer any supervisory authority on the National Assembly which it must use to delay, direct, control or frustrate the effect of a Law duly enacted by a State. It is a simple process of a simple formal consequence different from that of passing an Act for the alteration or amendment of a provision of the Constitution as laid down in Section 9 of the Constitution……….It is a duty imposed on the National Assembly and a corresponding right conferred on the House of Assembly to have the New Local Government Areas recorded”.

    Drawing from the Learned Justice’s insight, it will be pointless for Lagos State to continue to engage the unyielding National Assembly partisans with worn-out partisan gambits. Rather, an order of Mandamus should be sought by Lagos State against the National Assembly, to compel it to do its constitutionally imposed duty of immediately listing the already validly created additional 37LGAs in the appropriate Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). If the National Assembly fails to immediately comply with the Mandamus order, Lagos State should seek an alternative equitable order which will subsequently deem as done what ought to have been long done.

    It is also wished that the noble Lords of the Supreme Court will be jurisprudentially disposed to modifying and enlarging the scope of the Court’s earlier but subsisting judgment on the status of the 37 Lagos LCDAs. This is more so since other States, such as OSUN, seeking to lawfully create new LGAs, will eventually have to contend with the lingering implications of the Constitutional stalemate still resonating around the 37 Lagos LCDAs.

    In the minimum, there ought to be a definitive Constitutional pronouncement; on what the legal status of properly created LGAs would be when a National Assembly needlessly refuses to do its largely clerical duty of listing same in the appropriate Schedule of the Federation’s Constitution. I reckon it would be a justified acquittal for true constitutional federalism in Nigeria if the Supreme Court unequivocally affirms that; ‘listing new Local Government Areas, after valid creation by a State’s House of Assembly, is a mandatory constitutional duty imposed on the National Assembly and not one which permits of any treacherous exercise of pointless discretion’.

    Such affirmation will appease the much abused spirit of Section 2(2) of the 1999 Constitution which has long declared that; “Nigeria shall be a Federation…”
    •IWILADE Akintayo- Lagos-based Legal Practitioner
    Email: iwilord@yahoo.co.uk