Tunde
Bakare, a vocal Nigerian preacher based in Lagos, on Sunday suggested key
solutions to resolving the lingering stalemate over how to restructure Nigeria
to
accommodate its diverse cultural, ethnic and religious entities.
During his
Independence Day speech at the headquarters of his Latter Rain Assembly Church
in Lagos, Mr. Bakare highlighted 10 fundamental components of restructuring and
cited examples of those championing each of them.
Mr. Bakare
said the divergent views about what constitutes restructuring or how to bring
about such structural changes have made the situation seems like a puzzle that
needs to be assembled for equitable outcome.
“Like a
jigsaw puzzle, the bits must be put together to achieve a desired objective,”
Mr. Bakare said.
Agitations
for a restructured Nigeria have remained at the front burner of national
conversation, amidst cry of marginalisation amongst some of the estimated 250
ethnic groups in the country.
The
controversy often pits vocal voices in the south against their compatriots in
the northern part of the country, with southerners seeing the current structure
as highly problematic and, therefore, unworkable.
The deadlock
has been blamed for recent re-emergence of secessionist campaigns in some parts
of the country, especially in the Igbo-dominated South-east.
President
Muhammadu Buhari passed the buck to the National Assembly to form the
modalities for restructuring debate, but rejected any break-up of the country.
In his
speech Sunday, Mr. Bakare, a politician who stood as Mr. Buhari’s running mate
in his failed presidential bid in 2011, said the president is also keen about
restructuring Nigeria.
He also
implored the president to create a new commission on restructuring with an
executive fiat.
The full
speech, titled: Pragmatic Steps Towards Restructuring Nigeria, is reproduced in
full below
Introduction
Fellow
citizens of Nigeria, Happy Independence Day to you all.
At crucial
moments such as this, I have, by the grace of God, stood on this platform to
bring timely admonitions to our beloved nation. I stand here once again at this
defining period in the evolution of our nationhood to bring the mind of God to
a nation in the valley of decision. I stand here today as a patriotic citizen
of Nigeria, as an ardent believer in her great future, and as an unrepentant
optimist in the God-given potential of the Nigerian people to surmount the
present challenges and build a great nation.
Let me begin
this address with gratitude to God for the recovery and return of our dear
President Muhammadu Buhari. As I have done privately, I once again congratulate
Mr. President on this pleasant climax to a trying period in his personal life
and that of the nation. Together with all well-meaning Nigerians, I pray for a
continuous supply of health, vitality and wisdom as he resumes his duties. Let
me also use this opportunity to commend the vice president, Prof. Yemi
Osinbajo, who, as Acting President, courageously held the fort and steered the
ship of state with grace and skill on behalf of his principal.
Furthermore,
I congratulate the nation on the victory of constitutionalism over
conspiracies. The correspondence between the president and the National
Assembly in line with section 145 of the constitution each time the president left
to attend to his health indicates some progress in our democratic experience,
compared with almost eight years ago when a cabal hijacked power in
circumstances bordering on the health of a sitting president. In this regard,
credit must be given to President Muhammadu Buhari for his compliance with due
process, and to the leadership of the National Assembly, including the Senate
President, Senator Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, for making the most of the
constitution despite its flaws. This evident growth is a shimmer of hope at a
very sensitive period in which the destiny of the nation is at stake.
The State of
the Nation and the Quest for Leadership
Undoubtedly,
Mr. President has returned to a nation hanging in a precarious balance. Indeed,
our nation is enmeshed in a prolonged war against the retrogressive effects of
a structure that was created by the fear of the past, has become
institutionalized by the fear of the present, and is being perpetuated by the
fear of the unknown. These fears have morphed into a horde of agitations which,
in an address upon his return in August, Mr. President charged aggrieved
persons to channel to the National Assembly and the Council of State.
However, due
to the reputation that members of the hallowed chambers have created in the
minds of Nigerians, many have expressed doubts as to the ability and
willingness of the National Assembly to midwife the structural, institutional
and constitutional solutions demanded by Nigeria’s historical and present
circumstances. As a result, Nigerians from all walks of life are questioning
Mr. President’s recommendations as to proper channels for agitations, even
though the National Assembly and by extension the State Houses of Assembly are
the only available constitutional avenues for making peaceful change possible
and violent change inconceivable.
We can only
keep hope alive by reminding ourselves that the National Assembly has, in the
past, risen to the occasion and intervened at crucial moments such as this.
From the decisive death blow dealt the third term agenda of the then president,
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, by the 5th National Assembly, to the doctrine of
necessity invoked by the 6th National Assembly, the 8th National Assembly has
sufficient precedents on how to act in the best interest of Nigeria. We believe
that the distinguished and honourable lawmakers will rise to the occasion and
work closely with the president to pilot Nigeria into stable and prosperous
nationhood.
Having laid
the foundation of the need for legislative responsibility, I must state that,
as far as championing the far-reaching structural, institutional and
constitutional changes necessary to salvage the soul of our nation is
concerned, the words on the desk of the 33rd president of the United States,
Harry Truman: “THE BUCK STOPS HERE!”, are relevant to President Buhari whose
legacy is at stake. Mr. President, the buck stops at your desk and, as always,
my earnest prayer is that you find the courage and political will to do what is
right at this momentous period in the history of our nation.
Against this
backdrop, we shall now examine the latest buzzword in Nigeria’s political
lexicon with a view to distinguishing the noise from the voice, separating the
wheat from the chaff, and presenting practical steps towards building a strong
and stable nation.
The Clamour
for Restructuring
Some years
ago, the word “restructuring” was the exclusive lingo of pro-democracy groups
like the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the Pro-National Conference
Organisation (PRONACO), and The Patriots. The leading individual voices in this
call emerged mainly from the southern part of the country, including the likes
of Chief Rotimi Williams, Chief Gani Fawehinmi and Chief Anthony Enahoro, all
of blessed memory. Others included the likes of Prof. Ben Nwabueze, Prof. Wole
Soyinka and Chief Emeka Anyaoku. However, in more recent times, leaders from
the northern part of the country have increasingly lent their voices to this
call. From former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who has aired this
opinion since around 2012[1], to a former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji
Balarabe Musa, and, most surprisingly, former Head of State, General Ibrahim
Babanginda, the call for restructuring appears to be reaching a tipping point.
Nevertheless,
in spite of the fact that the restructuring of the polity is implied in the
manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the government has, for a
long time, been silent on the matter and has, very often, drawn the attention
of Nigerians back to the tripodal policy agenda of President Buhari, namely,
anti-corruption, security, and job creation through diversification. However,
after much evasion, the APC, two months ago, eventually constituted a
ten-member committee headed by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the current Governor of
Kaduna State, to address the increased agitations for restructuring.
As we await
the submission of that committee, I acknowledge that some opponents to the call
for restructuring, including serving officials, have ascribed ulterior selfish
motives to those calling for it.
Whether or
not this is the case, not only must we not allow the counterfeit overshadow the
genuine, we must also not allow the voice of cynicism drown the voice of
reason. Thus, the words of David, the shepherd boy, when he was confronted by
his brothers as he was about to take on Goliath, should be the response of
every genuine advocate of restructuring to the criticisms. David said, and I
quote: “Is there not a cause?” (I Samuel 17:29; NKJV)
Moreover,
the hue and cry over President Buhari’s address to the nation on August 21,
2017 suggests Mr. President is perceived by some stakeholders as opposed to
restructuring[2]. But, from my interactions with the president in the past
seven years as an advocate of a properly structured polity, I am convinced that
this is not the case. Not only does the president want agitations managed
through appropriate constitutional channels, he also wants a clarification of
demands in concise terms, as well as propositions on practical pathways towards
achieving those demands. That is the essence of this address and I believe that
Mr. President’s expectations are valid.
However,
before I proceed to elucidate on the practicalities of restructuring, permit me
at this juncture to cast our minds back to our consistent calls for the
restructuring of the polity, long before the current bandwagon effect.
Our Calls
for Restructuring
In 2010, the
Save Nigeria Group (SNG) presented a “Contract to Save and Transform Nigeria”
to President Goodluck Jonathan which, among other demands, made a case for
devolution of powers, called for a review of the revenue formula, and advocated
the convocation of a national conference towards the creation of a draft
constitution that would be adopted through a referendum. Following the inaction
of the government, we subsequently convened a Dialogue of the Nobles attended
by Donald Duke, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Mallam Nuhu
Ribadu, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, and Fola Adeola, among others. As part of a series
of dialogues, in a bid to seek the best of the North and the best of the South
as an alternative to the then incumbent administration, we also engaged the
major candidates ahead of the 2011 elections in search of commitment to the
restructuring of the nation, among other desirables.
General
Muhammadu Buhari stood out among the available contenders and, on October 10,
2010, we expressed our conviction that he was best suited to lead. On January
15, 2011, I was invited by General Buhari to be his running mate and I
initially declined because I had engaged the polity not with the intention to
contest elections but to midwife genuine national rebirth. My eventual
acceptance was contingent on the mutual understanding that the restructuring of
Nigeria would be top on the agenda. This was reflected prominently in the
manifesto of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in which we promised the
initiation of “action to amend our Constitution with a view to devolving
powers, duties and responsibilities to states and local governments in order to
entrench Federalism and the Federal spirit[3]”. This provision subsequently
made its way into the APC manifesto.
In 2014, we
took our demands for restructuring to the National Conference, where a case was
made for a unicameral parliamentary system of government to reduce the cost of
governance, and for a federal structure comprised of a strong central
government with six geopolitical zones as federating units. In addition, we
sponsored a Nigerian Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration as the
basis of our union as a nation, as against Decree 24 of 1999 by which the
current constitution was promulgated.
Following
heated debates, in the spirit of trustful give and take, the conference adopted
a modified presidential system that would harness the separation of powers
inherent in the presidential system, while guaranteeing the needed cooperation
between both arms of government as intended in the parliamentary system of
government. We recommended the selection of the Vice President from the
legislature and advocated the institutionalization of the principle of zoning
in the Electoral Act. Furthermore, the Nigerian Charter for National
Reconciliation and Integration was unanimously adopted. This address will use
the propositions at the National Conference as a springboard but will
necessarily include bolder and more far-reaching recommendations given the
current state of the nation.
On January
4, 2015, in a message titled “The Gathering Storm and Avoidable Shipwreck – How
to Avoid Catastrophic Euroclydon,” I sounded a note of warning at the height of
the electioneering campaign. I charged the nation not to place the cart of
elections before the horse of restructuring, proposing “true federalism under
Zonal Commissions as well as fiscal federalism…”[4]
Rather than
pay heed to the warnings, many of our politicians kept on with their “business
as usual” attitude that brought the nation very close to the brink of disaster.
Fortunately, by divine intervention through the efforts of distinguished
Nigerians, the international community, and through a demonstration of
statesmanship unprecedented in Nigeria’s history, we scaled through the 2015
elections by a hair’s breadth. Mindful of our narrow escape and the festering
socio-political and economic challenges, soon after the inauguration of this
administration in 2015, we submitted to Mr. President an extensive document that
called for a Presidential Commission for National Reconciliation, Reintegration
and Restructuring comprised of eminent Nigerians, and guided by the Nigerian
Charter for National Reconciliation and Integration which was adopted by the
2014 National Conference.
Our
submission anticipated the need to reconcile contentious interest groups,
foster the integration of the diverse sectional groups into true nationhood,
and facilitate the evolution of an acceptable functional governmental structure
for Nigeria. We proposed that the new structure would be contained in a new
constitutional framework which would come into effect by way of an executive
bill to be submitted to the National Assembly by Mr. President and decided upon
by the Nigerian people through a referendum.
All our
efforts have been inspired by our belief that, as a nation, we are better off
together and should find acceptable ways to stay together. We are driven by an
urgent responsibility to find, within the constitution, pathways to a more
perfect union. Having laid this background we shall proceed to further simplify
the seemingly complicated but, indeed, simple concept of restructuring.
Understanding
Restructuring: The Basis
Restructuring
simply means to change the way an entity is organized or arranged. In the
corporate context, restructuring is a management term “for the act of
reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a
company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for
its present needs”[5]. In the context of a nation, restructuring requires
redefining the relationship between the people and the government, including
taking another look at the structures and systems of governance as encapsulated
in the constitution. The diverse positions on the restructuring debate are
being championed by at least ten categories of advocates, give or take a few
overlaps, namely:
The
Conservatives
The Economic
Structure Reformists
The
Non-Structural Constitutional Reformists
The
Political System Reformists
The
Devolutionists
The State
Creation Advocates
The Resource
Control Activists
The Regional
Federalists
The Regional
Confederalists
The
Secessionists
We shall now
examine these positions and then proceed to present our prescription on the way
forward for Nigeria.
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