Chief Edwin
Kiagbodo Clark, a foremost Ijaw leader, the Convener of the Pan – Niger Delta
Forum (PANDEF) and an elder statesman, in this interview, speaks in the
distortions inherent in the Nigerian system and the restructuring we need.
At what
point did the distortions in the system that have given rise to the calls for
the estructuring of the federation begin?
That was in 1966 when some army
majors struck and most of the big politicians and many senior army officers
were killed in a coup. Up till that time, the constitution in operation
provided for fiscal federalism which implied that whatever you produced in your
region, you take 50% while, out of the remaining 50%, the federal government
that had little responsibility will take 20% and the remaining 30% will be
shared among all the regions.
Aguiyi
Ironsi took over and, advised by some senior Igbo army officers that Nigeria
should run a unitary form of government, he promulgated Decree 34, which we are
now practicing today in the name of federalism. When General Gowon took over
from Ironsi, he decided to find out what Nigerians wanted. Northern Nigeria
proposed regionalism; they no longer wanted a federal system of government.
Western Nigeria was ready to go. It was the Mid – West team, headed by Anthony
Enahoro, that saved the situation and the Gowon administration adopted a
federal system of government. Meanwhile, Gowon did not abrogate Decree No 34.
The war came and he created 12 states. General Murtala succeeded Gowon and
created more states and we had 19 states. Other heads of state came and created
more states until 1998 when the number of states came to 36.
What about
the local governments that were said to have been arbitrarily created?
The same
military governments arbitrarily created local governments each favouring the
areas where their leaders hailed from. That anomaly gave KANO State 57 local
governments whereas Bayelsa State has only 8. Besides, you cannot create local
governments without the federal governments approving it; this is a weakness,
this is not part of a federal system. Local governments should not be part of
the federating units. Local governments should be created by state governments,
pay them, dissolve them if they want to and there should be no administrators
because the constitution provides that local governments should be run by
elected officials. But it is obvious that local governments were created to
take money from the federation account.
Kano State alone collects about six billion naira every month for its
local governments whereas Bayelsa, with eight local governments, even though a
small state but produces oil, how much does its local governments get? That is
one situation people don’t understand. Now some people are in favour of state
police even though Tanko Yakasai argued, in his book that the police in the
hands of unscrupulous governors could be misused just like the native
authorities of the past did. But state police will provide more security. And
the constitution says governors are the chief security officers of their states
whereas they don’t control the states commissioners of police. So when the
governor gives the commissioner of police directives, he has to clear with the
inspector general of police. The National Conference of 2014 where you were a
delegate representing your Ijaw people and the Niger Delta apparently tried to
correct some of this anomalies but the recommendations have unfortunately not
seen the light of day. It is not only in the areas of revenue or the local
governments and state police that we have anomalies and we tried to use the
opportunity of that conference to address. The restructuring that many people
want envisages that the Office of the Attorney General should be separated from
the Office of the Minister of Justice such that the former is professional and
independent while the latter is political. The Office of the Accountant General
should also be split. There should be the Accountant General for the federal
government and the Accountant General for the federation. These are some of the
things the 2014 National Conference recommended. At the moment, the federal
government has about 98 items under its control. All we are saying is that some
of these items should go to states; since there are no regions, states should be
the federating units. In education, why should the federal government be
involved in primary and secondary education? In the 1960 constitution,
University of Ibadan was the only federal university followed by the University
of Lagos in 1962. ABU, University of Ife and University of Nsukka were regional
universities at the time. What we are saying is that some of the items
exclusive to the federal government should be concurrent. And then when you
talk about agriculture, the federal government has no land, it is state
government that owns land. Let agriculture be designated as a state function.
So when you talk about devolution, it is all about rearranging the constitution
so that more functions will go down; and if more functions go to the states,
more revenue will be given to them. Today, the federal government receives
about 58% from the federation account. It should not have more than 42% while
the state and local governments should have the balance. This is what we call
devolution of power and we are recommending. We also said that the National
Assembly should be restructured so that it becomes part-time in order to save
more money and the same thing should operate at the state level. Federalism is
what Nigerians want so that everybody can have a say in government, in order
for people to have a feeling of belonging to government.
Regardless
of the recommendation of the 2014 National Conference and that of the 1999 constitution
review committee of the National Assembly headed by Senator Ike Ekweremadu, the
lawmakers last week threw out the devolution of power bill. What is your take?
It is like
they were not listening to Nigerians. The whole of the South believes in
devolution of power, the whole Benue in the north central believes in
devolution of power, even Taraba, parts of Borno, parts of Kebbi believe in
devolution of power. Then there are some prominent northerners like IBB, Atiku
who also believe in devolution of power. In fact, APC, its manifesto talks
about devolution of power. Recently the party set up a committee headed by the
governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El- Rufai to look at power devolution and
they said they are not opposed to restructuring. And so all we are saying is
that the National Assembly was insensitive to the feeling and wish of Nigeria.
Unlike the Ekweremadu’s committee in the 7th National Assembly which went round
the whole country and the mandate was devolution of power, this 8th National
Assembly did not go anywhere. They just retreated to Lagos where they spent
billions of naira of Nigerians money and came out with a flawed constitution
amendment. Who gave them the mandate? They were elected to represent the
people. Some of them are afraid that some of the benefits they have in the
National Assembly, they won’t have it again, they will no longer enjoy the
power they have today, the number of committees will be reduced; that is why
some of them are narrowing their thinking on devolution of power. But I am
happy to note that both the President and Deputy President of the Senate have
said that this will be revisited when they come back from their recess; so we
pray that they will listen and, during their holiday, they will be able to
communicate with their people and, when they come back, they should do the
right thing. I want to correct one impression that was given wide publicity
yesterday (Tuesday) when I said that ‘no restructuring, no Nigeria’. All I was
saying was that we all believe in the unity of Nigeria, we believe in one
Nigeria. A young lady at the Ijaw Academy, Kaiama, Bayelsa State asked
Professor Wole Soyinka, about two weeks ago, when he visited with Prof J.P.
Clark and others, ‘is the unity of Nigeria negotiable?’, and the answer was
what I gave on Monday. We all believe that we should be one country, but on
what basis? How do we belong to one country? What are the conditions? Are we going
to belong to a country that is lopsided, one side oppressing the other; one
side having all the appointments? This is what our forefathers did not do. They
sat down in 1953 to discuss the basis of our coming together. We should all be
equal. Our regions should develop at their own pace. Fiscal federalism should
be part of it. This was what took them to London and this was what they
negotiated. What I was saying (on Monday) was that it would be impossible to
live in a country that is not restructured. The present constitution is
oppressive, it is unitary and Nigerians rejected it as far back as 1953; not
that we will secede, we are not talking about that. President Muhammadu Buhari
said we must kill corruption otherwise corruption will kill Nigeria. I said we
must restructure otherwise non-restructuring of Nigeria will kill Nigeria. I
didn’t say we should break up or Nigeria will not exist. I believe in Nigeria
Continue at the source vanguardngr.com
0 Comments