The core of Nigeria’s problem is the lumping together of diverse peoples with different cultures, different world views, different ambitions and directions in life. Nothing besides geography links Nigerians, and even that – geography – clearly delineates us – as the river Niger eloquently epitomises. Nigeria is a mere geographical expression as Chief Obafemi Awolowo put it nearly a century ago. Indeed, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa put it more brutally. According to him:”Since 1914 the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one country, but the Nigerian people themselves are historically different in their backgrounds, in their religious beliefs and customs and do not show themselves any signs of willingness to unite. Nigerian unity is a British invention”.
Not a word of that statement has changed since it was made in 1948.
So it has remained an unmistakeable truism, no matter under what manner of rulership; military or civilian. The earlier we appreciate this, and put an end to this endless attempt at making one country out of a multi- ethnic, multi- cultural, multi – religious and multi – lingual amalgam of nations, the better”.
The above was essentially my contribution this past week during an interrogation of the Nigerian conundrum, a conundrum which ensures that every successive attempt to make things better for the country, or her citizenry, turns out worse.
Nigeria is at the crossroads, with multidimensional poverty and multi – sectoral insecurity making life much more hellish than at any time in recent memory.
It is so bad that a week ago in Minna and Kano, in Northern Nigeria, of all places, where there wasn’t as much as a whimper during the humongous #EndSAS# riots, thousands were on the streets protesting the unbearable hardship Nigerians are going through.
In the same manner, the Southwest, generally regarded as the safest part of the country, has lost its innocence, with two Royal Monarchs needlessly killed two weeks ago in Ekiti.
At the personal level today, there’s hardly any love lost amongst the various ethnic groups, just as there’s no longer any mutual understanding or cohesion.
Things are that bad.
Professor Bayo Williams, a well regarded intellectual, who has devoted considerable time to these matters has, severally in his articles, fingered elite dissonance – what he calls lack of elite consensus, as the cause.
But I beg to differ.
I believe instead that, as Sir Tafawa Balewa put it, Nigeria is simply not configured to be one united, peaceful and prosperous country. Not a single hagiographer has ever alluded to that as the reason for the British unification of Nigeria. Rather, trade was the sole purpose and, even religion, was an afterthought.
President Bola Tinubu had hit the ground running, courageously taking on those tough national issues which his predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, had left severely alone. Not a few Nigerians had, in turn, began to think that we had hit it off for once, that a lion heart, the man who courageously faced off the all- knowing former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who he severally bested as Lagos state governor, has arrived to rescue Nigeria. But 8 months down the line, it is obvious that those very demons that have always imperilled Nigeria’s development, are all still alive and kicking, and will most probably do everything to frustrate him, which will be a great pity, because it would not be for lack of trying.
You only have to listen to, not just the loud murmurings, but the heavy guffaws of millions all over the country, to know that there’s far less appreciation than you would ordinarily expect,n for President Tinubu’s yeoman’s efforts.
Obviously, not many now, any longer, remember the ‘Emefielian Plague’ that sunk the country into a N22.7Trillion Ways and Means debt peonage, most of which Emefiele gifted members of the then Villa cabal and others very close to President Buhari in sweetheart, low priced, foreign exchange deals that ended up being round tripped, massively devaluing the Naira.
The CBN governor, Olayemi Cardoso, in a recent Arise Television interview, gave Nigerians the following details of Emefiele’s ‘achievement’ in office:
” $7 Billion in unpaid FX obligations about which a forensic audit by Deloitte revealed the following:
$2.4 Billion had no valid import documents;
Non- existent entities got allocations; Entities which asked for FX got more than they asked for, while those that did not even apply for FX got allocations”.
That is where President Buhari and Emefiele left Nigeria on May 29, 2023.
These are only a few of the challenges President Tinubu must now, willy nilly, find answers to.
To do that, however, he should advisedlt, share with other Nigerian federating units, the responsibility for turning things around in the country.
Here the President must bear in mind Ngozi Okonjo – Iweala’s admonition that:”no matter how strong the credentials, one person alone cannot implement reforms, adding that comprehensive economic reforms are by their nature multifaceted and difficult”.
But I am, indeed, calling on President Tinubu to do far more than economic reforms.
This is why, despite the many problems I have identified as requiring urgent solution – general insecurity, the looming food insecurity, extreme poverty etc, I wish to humbly recommend the suggestions in my referenced article below for the President’s serious consideration even though it would mean that he will have to seriously multi – task, finding solutions to Nigeria’s existential, as well as structural, problems, all at the same time.
Titled:’That June 12 Recognition May Not Be a Hollow Ritual’, and first published 17 June, 2018 but now substantially edited for space, it reads as follows:
“Beyond our wildest imagination President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general and member of the narcissistic military that guillotined June 12, on 6 June, 2018, proclaimed an executive order, recognising the election, and the winner, Chief MKO Abiola, on whom he conferred the GCFR, the highest honour in the land, all in a bold attempt to put a closure to a very pernicious phase of Nigerian history.
Before we get lost in the euphoria of the moment, it is necessary to let the President know that rather than being the closure to June 12, that event is only the very beginning of honestly answering the National question.
The fact today is that Nigeria is no where near a federation, properly so called.
What then is a federation?
To answer this million naira question, I will, respectfully, press into service, my two- time teacher, Professor (Senator) Banji Akintoye.
Writing, mutatis mutandis, on the topic: “What is restructuring?” on 6 January, 2018 the elder statesman opined as follows:
“The basic idea of a federation is that the various distinct parts of a multi – ethnic country should be a federating state.
Each state should have the constitutional power to manage its unique problems and develop its own resources for its people. It should manage its own security and make its own contributions to the well-being of the entire country.
The centre should manage common issues like defence, international relations, currency, and general principles like the defence of human rights.
That, he said, was the federal arrangement Nigeria’s founding fathers agreed upon in the 1950s”.
“But, since independence, our politicians, and military leaders have gradually destroyed this structure and replaced it with one in which the federal government is the controller of virtually everything, meaning that states have no control over their own resources, and have to depend on federal allocations for their sustenance.
The federal government is (therefore) over-burdened, controls too much money, has become egregiously inefficient and corrupt and is, essentially, destroying Nigeria because the states have become impotent. They cannot develop their resources, cannot fight poverty or insecurity in their domains, and cannot contribute to the progress and prosperity of Nigeria. The cumulative effect , he concluded, is that Nigeria, as well as Nigerians, have become extremely poor. Most public facilities – roads, electricity, water installations, public administration, etc – have degraded, and are not working, with the result that most of our youths have become unemployed and hopeless. Inter – ethnic relations has degenerated into enmity and hostility. Crimes have made life very unsafe all over Nigeria. So bad have things become that some sections are asking to secede”.
In view of all these, President Tinubu should not be seen continuing with a status quo which brought about all these negativities that have continuously derailed Nigeria’s progress.
Fortunately, he is here not being called upon to re – invent the wheel since his party, the APC, set up the El Rufai Committee on Power Devolution which did an excellent, but unappreciated work.
As captured by The Guardian of 26 January, 2018, “the committee recommended that states should have considerable control on the solid and oil resources in their domains. It recommended the creation of state police, alongside a federal force with specified areas of jurisdiction. It also proposed more revenue for states and a reduction of the Federal share of national revenue. It further recommends that: “All minerals, including oil, and gas that are onshore, should be vested in the states of the federation. “Minerals, oil, anything in the land, should belong to those that own the land, said the committee, adding the clincher:”We believe that the time has come to take this bold step and move away from over centralisation”.
“The Petroleum Act would need to be amended, so that states can issue oil-mining licences. The Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act would also be amended to give states the power to do this. The Land Use Act will equally be amended to recognise the provisions in the Minerals and Mining Act. The Petroleum Industry Act will need to be amended too”.
These are irreducible parameters for the creation of a new Nigeria where peace will reign and measurable progress will be made unlike the unequalled crisis presently ravaging the country.
President Tinubu should urgently consider unearthing the report of the El Rufai Committee from wherever those experts in reading President Buhari’s body language buried it so that Nigeria can earn a new lease of life.
