A
abujagirl
Guest
The apparent unwillingness of successive leadership of government at the centre to heed the clarion call by concern Nigerians for an immediate devolution of powers to the Federating States or Regions as the case maybe; is indeed and will continue to remain the bane of development of the Nigerian State.
Each time I find the media washed with politically laced comments like:“I will fix power in 6 month”, “My party will make PMS sale at #40 per liter”, “We need $20 billion to fix power problem”, I laugh! I laugh because these are very unrealistic and hackneyed statements purveyed solely to score cheap political points. However, I am impress with the current level of awareness Nigerians have risen to. Thanks to the new wave of technology which has made communication quite easy and information more accessible particularly via the social media.
It is an open truth that Nigeria in her current state - as a Unitary Federation cannot chance upon any form of meaningful development that would see her grow as she ought to in leaps and bounds - simply because Unitary system of government the world over, is known to be an aberration to development. It was largely practiced before the 19th century as a means of conquering and administering small territories or colonies. It is practically anachronistic, it is awkwardly despotic, and it is utterly retrogressive.
Now the big question; Why are we still holding forth to this primitive practice of governance? Why is Nigeria still a unitary Federation after 56 years of independence? Of course the answer is not far-fetched. It is quite pertinent to note that the very reason why Lord Lugard amalgamated the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914 was as much in focus in 1967 when General Yakubu Gowon abolished regionalism in favor of a centrally controlled 12-States of the psuedo-Federation. Both leaders sought to exercise their authorities without undue interferences from their subjects. In common parlance, such decisions were taken to ensure administrative convenience. But then, the question arises; At whose expense? Who bears the brunt of wielding too many diverse entities together without the consent of each respective entity and without defining the terms of such critical union?
I also find it curious to note that such decisions were reached at very remarkable times and occasions. First it was taken at a time when the enlightened southerners were beginning to aggregate resources and men to artfully prosecute the war against the British colonial masters,in quest for an independent state in 1914.
Again in 1967 General Yakubu Gowon chanced upon a similar decision to cruelly prosecute the war against the South - Eastern region which had sought for an Independent State of Biafra. In essence, the 12 States were created primarily to further consolidate on power and not to engender any form of growth or development.So if after 56 years, those States and their offsprings still remain beggarly entities, then you know why and who caused it.As a matter of fact, the 12 States created by Gowon were mere appendages of the central authority and had no distinct or independent powers to evolve on its own.Not withstanding the oil boom of the early 70’s, Nigeria instead of waxing stronger became a cesspool of corruption. It was at this glorious moment of our Nationhood that the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon made the infamous and most ridiculous statement in history, “money is not our problem, but how to spend it”.
And ever since that ignominious decision of General Gowon in 1967 to wield Nigeria together as a Unitary State, the country has not looked back.Instead, Nigeria has steadily and slowly traversed the dark path of perdition with all successive administrations failing abysmally on their parts to abort this suicide mission of our State; maybe out of ignorance or the sheer lack of political will to do so. Even when former President Goodluck Jonathan had inched quite close to achieving this feat with the successful convocation of the National confab - which emphatically recommended the devolution of powers from the centre to the 6 geo-political zones; he eventually lost it – out of the sheer lack of political will to see through the implementation of the lofty reforms proposed at the 2014 confab.
For the benefit of our lay readers and those who may not fully grasp the content of my message. I wish to reiterate that so long as Nigeria remains a unitary State, we can only achieve little compared to how we would have fared if we were to be practicing true and fiscal Federalism. Nigeria is too big and diverse to be centrally administered as a conquered territory. What we need is a central authority that is dependent on its Federating units and not vice versa.
Presently, there are more than 15 States of the Federation which can boast of functional power plants,some built by the States and others by the Federal Government. If these States were to be allowed the independence to generate,distribute and transmit electricity, most States of the Federation would have since enjoyed power sufficiency and probably have surplus to sell and attract revenue. But the sheer unwillingness of the central government to relinquish some of its powers to the States is what has bred this culture of indolence and impunity in governance. Our Governors have been turned into perpetual beggars, always tripping to Abuja with their beggarly plates to scramble for crumbs falling-off the Federal Government's banquet table in the name of monthly allocation. Government has lost its essence. Nobody is thinking anymore about the concept of creativity, wealth creation and problem solving which are the hallmark of good governance. Ours is a government that is solely concerned with the sharing of oil revenue and turning around to loot same by the privileged class who have perennially constituted themselves into our political leaders. So many resources in most State of the Federation have been left idle and untapped because of the present system which does not encourage resourcefulness and economic self- reliance.
Given the body language of the present administration, I think the only sterling success it may achieve would be in the area of ridding the country of corruption which is a positive step no doubt. But in terms of growing the economy and developing critical infrastructure, it may achieve some remarkable gains but I doubt if such gains will ever be sustainable given our long, amorphous and derelict chain of bureaucracy which shall ever remain a clog on the wheels of our progress as a the nation.
If you like, invest #1trillion in the power sector like the previous administrations of Obasanjo, Yaradua and Goodluck did, it won’t yield any meaningful result so long as the nation hold forth to the resource conduit called the “National Grid.”This is simply a bureaucratic contraption designed by the centripetal authority to constantly hold down the States and make development practically unattainable - knowing too well that the growth of our Federating entities is predicated on this essential infrastructure. Therefore, the independence and economic self-reliance of the component units of our Federation cannot be over-emphasised.But sadly, this appears to be the very point of action every successive central administration dreads to address once it assumes power. And like it is often said," if you hold someone down, you too will remain aground until you decide otherwise”. By implication, Nigeria cannot experience any significant growth so long as she does not guarantee the independence of her Federating States. If the centre would not let go of all critical portfolios of administration that would have best been handled by the States to adequately jump-start the economy, then we shall continue to remain where we are.
On the other hand, it is quite regrettable that pro-democratic forces like Bola Tinubu of the defunct NADECO fame and his ilks who were the first to drum it into my ears as a child in the early nineties that true and fiscal Federalism is the only panacea to the Nigerian problem; have now taken the back-seat when all well-meaning Nigerians would have expected him to sieze this golden opportunity before him to drive the process for the smooth actualisation of his long-awaited dream for Nigeria. With the way things are going, I doubt if Senator Tinubu is sincere to his democratic pontification back then. If at all, it remains to be seen.Quite interestingly too, I find it amusing that those who courted former President Goodluck Jonathan and had the rare opportunity to steer him on this noble course of nation building utterly neglected to do so.But now the same people having lost out in the power equation, have suddenly woken up to the reality that we need true Federalism in order to make progress as a nation. This shows you the level of hypocrisy of our leaders. There is no sincerity of purpose among them. So Who will bell the cat? Shall we continue like this until Nigeria breaks into pieces?
Take for instance the Power problem I mentioned earlier. We all know that this sector needs total unbundling. Not the type we saw under the previous administration where they claimed they unbundled NEPA but the centre still held onto the exclusive right of distribution. Everything must be deregulated including generation, transmition and distribution. Every State that has the capacity to generate power, must be encouraged to transmit and distribute as obtained in other developed climes.At present, there is no State in Nigeria that does not have comparative advantage. Let our leaders be put on their toes to think and create wealth for our people. The ideal thing is for States to be paying an agreed percentage of the revenue they generate to the centre and not the other way round as obtained today.
This is what has given room to indolence in governance. Government in this part of the world has become a platform for sharing spoils from the seemingly conquered people of the Niger Delta to the rest of us, with the privileged class taking the jumbo share while we the common people beg for crumbs. This is the saddest part of our history.
It might interest you to know that the U.S.A is a Federation of 50 States. And each State generates, transmits and distributes its power. A State like Califonia owns and operate 26 refineries. Texas has 16 refineries. Each State runs it own police though in relation with Federal policing agencies like the FBI and the CIA. The United States central government has only concerned itself with key portfolios relating to the military, immigration, custom and a few other important items on their exclusive legislative list which serves to promote unity in diversity.One would have expected the Federal Government of Nigeria to borrow a leaf from this sterling example provided by the U.S.A but not our leaders. They prefer to structure their salaries and allowances like their US and UK counterparts but would dutifully fail to act in ways and manner those counterparts of theirs would have acted given our own situation.
The fuel crisis is yet another recurring decimal. For many, the problem appears quite insurmountable like the Petroleum Minister inadvertently admitted. I think most Nigerians and our leaders prefer the difficult approach to problem solving than the simple approach. As we speak, there are over a thousand local refineries in the Niger Delta that can be upgraded to the status of cottage refineries as proposed by the “Common Sense Senator”- Mr. Ben Murray Bruce. And our market will be flooded with all kinds of petroleum products. So what stops the government from issuing licences to these purported illegal refineries and giving them the legal status to operate.Of course this would create massive employment and generate huge revenue to government. So why is government not thinking along this line? Why adopt the herculean approach of importing fuel with its attendant economic implication while at the same time, hounding operators and burning down the local refineries that could have been repositioned to better serve the economy. Does it make common sense at all?
In a nutshell, while it is imperative to completely unbundle most critical sectors of our economy like Power, Petroleum, Health, Education and Security among others; it is also incumbent on government to as a matter of urgency take the bold step to devolve powers from the centre to the states. Our nation must be anchored on the pillars of true Federalism. Our States must be given a favorable ambience to thrive.
Nigeria for now still remains a powerful but failed centre- State until and when a leader with the political will emerges to situate her on the right course or like the doomsday prophets had foretold we continue in our self- deluding odyssey to perdition and disintegration. Only time will tell!
Written by Jude Inyang -Etoh
Each time I find the media washed with politically laced comments like:“I will fix power in 6 month”, “My party will make PMS sale at #40 per liter”, “We need $20 billion to fix power problem”, I laugh! I laugh because these are very unrealistic and hackneyed statements purveyed solely to score cheap political points. However, I am impress with the current level of awareness Nigerians have risen to. Thanks to the new wave of technology which has made communication quite easy and information more accessible particularly via the social media.
It is an open truth that Nigeria in her current state - as a Unitary Federation cannot chance upon any form of meaningful development that would see her grow as she ought to in leaps and bounds - simply because Unitary system of government the world over, is known to be an aberration to development. It was largely practiced before the 19th century as a means of conquering and administering small territories or colonies. It is practically anachronistic, it is awkwardly despotic, and it is utterly retrogressive.
Now the big question; Why are we still holding forth to this primitive practice of governance? Why is Nigeria still a unitary Federation after 56 years of independence? Of course the answer is not far-fetched. It is quite pertinent to note that the very reason why Lord Lugard amalgamated the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914 was as much in focus in 1967 when General Yakubu Gowon abolished regionalism in favor of a centrally controlled 12-States of the psuedo-Federation. Both leaders sought to exercise their authorities without undue interferences from their subjects. In common parlance, such decisions were taken to ensure administrative convenience. But then, the question arises; At whose expense? Who bears the brunt of wielding too many diverse entities together without the consent of each respective entity and without defining the terms of such critical union?
I also find it curious to note that such decisions were reached at very remarkable times and occasions. First it was taken at a time when the enlightened southerners were beginning to aggregate resources and men to artfully prosecute the war against the British colonial masters,in quest for an independent state in 1914.
Again in 1967 General Yakubu Gowon chanced upon a similar decision to cruelly prosecute the war against the South - Eastern region which had sought for an Independent State of Biafra. In essence, the 12 States were created primarily to further consolidate on power and not to engender any form of growth or development.So if after 56 years, those States and their offsprings still remain beggarly entities, then you know why and who caused it.As a matter of fact, the 12 States created by Gowon were mere appendages of the central authority and had no distinct or independent powers to evolve on its own.Not withstanding the oil boom of the early 70’s, Nigeria instead of waxing stronger became a cesspool of corruption. It was at this glorious moment of our Nationhood that the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon made the infamous and most ridiculous statement in history, “money is not our problem, but how to spend it”.
And ever since that ignominious decision of General Gowon in 1967 to wield Nigeria together as a Unitary State, the country has not looked back.Instead, Nigeria has steadily and slowly traversed the dark path of perdition with all successive administrations failing abysmally on their parts to abort this suicide mission of our State; maybe out of ignorance or the sheer lack of political will to do so. Even when former President Goodluck Jonathan had inched quite close to achieving this feat with the successful convocation of the National confab - which emphatically recommended the devolution of powers from the centre to the 6 geo-political zones; he eventually lost it – out of the sheer lack of political will to see through the implementation of the lofty reforms proposed at the 2014 confab.
For the benefit of our lay readers and those who may not fully grasp the content of my message. I wish to reiterate that so long as Nigeria remains a unitary State, we can only achieve little compared to how we would have fared if we were to be practicing true and fiscal Federalism. Nigeria is too big and diverse to be centrally administered as a conquered territory. What we need is a central authority that is dependent on its Federating units and not vice versa.
Presently, there are more than 15 States of the Federation which can boast of functional power plants,some built by the States and others by the Federal Government. If these States were to be allowed the independence to generate,distribute and transmit electricity, most States of the Federation would have since enjoyed power sufficiency and probably have surplus to sell and attract revenue. But the sheer unwillingness of the central government to relinquish some of its powers to the States is what has bred this culture of indolence and impunity in governance. Our Governors have been turned into perpetual beggars, always tripping to Abuja with their beggarly plates to scramble for crumbs falling-off the Federal Government's banquet table in the name of monthly allocation. Government has lost its essence. Nobody is thinking anymore about the concept of creativity, wealth creation and problem solving which are the hallmark of good governance. Ours is a government that is solely concerned with the sharing of oil revenue and turning around to loot same by the privileged class who have perennially constituted themselves into our political leaders. So many resources in most State of the Federation have been left idle and untapped because of the present system which does not encourage resourcefulness and economic self- reliance.
Given the body language of the present administration, I think the only sterling success it may achieve would be in the area of ridding the country of corruption which is a positive step no doubt. But in terms of growing the economy and developing critical infrastructure, it may achieve some remarkable gains but I doubt if such gains will ever be sustainable given our long, amorphous and derelict chain of bureaucracy which shall ever remain a clog on the wheels of our progress as a the nation.
If you like, invest #1trillion in the power sector like the previous administrations of Obasanjo, Yaradua and Goodluck did, it won’t yield any meaningful result so long as the nation hold forth to the resource conduit called the “National Grid.”This is simply a bureaucratic contraption designed by the centripetal authority to constantly hold down the States and make development practically unattainable - knowing too well that the growth of our Federating entities is predicated on this essential infrastructure. Therefore, the independence and economic self-reliance of the component units of our Federation cannot be over-emphasised.But sadly, this appears to be the very point of action every successive central administration dreads to address once it assumes power. And like it is often said," if you hold someone down, you too will remain aground until you decide otherwise”. By implication, Nigeria cannot experience any significant growth so long as she does not guarantee the independence of her Federating States. If the centre would not let go of all critical portfolios of administration that would have best been handled by the States to adequately jump-start the economy, then we shall continue to remain where we are.
On the other hand, it is quite regrettable that pro-democratic forces like Bola Tinubu of the defunct NADECO fame and his ilks who were the first to drum it into my ears as a child in the early nineties that true and fiscal Federalism is the only panacea to the Nigerian problem; have now taken the back-seat when all well-meaning Nigerians would have expected him to sieze this golden opportunity before him to drive the process for the smooth actualisation of his long-awaited dream for Nigeria. With the way things are going, I doubt if Senator Tinubu is sincere to his democratic pontification back then. If at all, it remains to be seen.Quite interestingly too, I find it amusing that those who courted former President Goodluck Jonathan and had the rare opportunity to steer him on this noble course of nation building utterly neglected to do so.But now the same people having lost out in the power equation, have suddenly woken up to the reality that we need true Federalism in order to make progress as a nation. This shows you the level of hypocrisy of our leaders. There is no sincerity of purpose among them. So Who will bell the cat? Shall we continue like this until Nigeria breaks into pieces?
Take for instance the Power problem I mentioned earlier. We all know that this sector needs total unbundling. Not the type we saw under the previous administration where they claimed they unbundled NEPA but the centre still held onto the exclusive right of distribution. Everything must be deregulated including generation, transmition and distribution. Every State that has the capacity to generate power, must be encouraged to transmit and distribute as obtained in other developed climes.At present, there is no State in Nigeria that does not have comparative advantage. Let our leaders be put on their toes to think and create wealth for our people. The ideal thing is for States to be paying an agreed percentage of the revenue they generate to the centre and not the other way round as obtained today.
This is what has given room to indolence in governance. Government in this part of the world has become a platform for sharing spoils from the seemingly conquered people of the Niger Delta to the rest of us, with the privileged class taking the jumbo share while we the common people beg for crumbs. This is the saddest part of our history.
It might interest you to know that the U.S.A is a Federation of 50 States. And each State generates, transmits and distributes its power. A State like Califonia owns and operate 26 refineries. Texas has 16 refineries. Each State runs it own police though in relation with Federal policing agencies like the FBI and the CIA. The United States central government has only concerned itself with key portfolios relating to the military, immigration, custom and a few other important items on their exclusive legislative list which serves to promote unity in diversity.One would have expected the Federal Government of Nigeria to borrow a leaf from this sterling example provided by the U.S.A but not our leaders. They prefer to structure their salaries and allowances like their US and UK counterparts but would dutifully fail to act in ways and manner those counterparts of theirs would have acted given our own situation.
The fuel crisis is yet another recurring decimal. For many, the problem appears quite insurmountable like the Petroleum Minister inadvertently admitted. I think most Nigerians and our leaders prefer the difficult approach to problem solving than the simple approach. As we speak, there are over a thousand local refineries in the Niger Delta that can be upgraded to the status of cottage refineries as proposed by the “Common Sense Senator”- Mr. Ben Murray Bruce. And our market will be flooded with all kinds of petroleum products. So what stops the government from issuing licences to these purported illegal refineries and giving them the legal status to operate.Of course this would create massive employment and generate huge revenue to government. So why is government not thinking along this line? Why adopt the herculean approach of importing fuel with its attendant economic implication while at the same time, hounding operators and burning down the local refineries that could have been repositioned to better serve the economy. Does it make common sense at all?
In a nutshell, while it is imperative to completely unbundle most critical sectors of our economy like Power, Petroleum, Health, Education and Security among others; it is also incumbent on government to as a matter of urgency take the bold step to devolve powers from the centre to the states. Our nation must be anchored on the pillars of true Federalism. Our States must be given a favorable ambience to thrive.
Nigeria for now still remains a powerful but failed centre- State until and when a leader with the political will emerges to situate her on the right course or like the doomsday prophets had foretold we continue in our self- deluding odyssey to perdition and disintegration. Only time will tell!
Written by Jude Inyang -Etoh