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At last, it seems that the clarion calls to restructure Nigeria have found favour with the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, which has hitherto refused to consider its desirability but now wants to forward the recommendations of its committee on the matter to President Muhammadu Buhari and then National Assembly. But there is suspicion that the party merely wants to use the report as a political gimmick to win election next elections
By Olu Ojewale
ALTHOUGH it has not been formally declared, Nigerians know that the campaign for the 2019 general elections has started in earnest. As part of its strategies to win votes, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, which had repeatedly shunned the issue bordering on restructuring now appears to be a latter-day convert. Amidst unrelenting agitation by Nigerians, the party in August, last year, formed a committee to formulate the position of the party on true federalism and submit its report.
Its committee on restructuring headed by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State submitted its recommendations to John Odie-Oyegun, national chairman of the party, on Thursday, January 25. Apparently succumbing to demands of Nigerians, the committee recommended some far-reaching reforms based on restructuring of the polity. Its recommendations include the devolution of power to states; scrapping of local government as a tier of government; resource control; state police, independent candidacy and merger of states, among others.
El-Rufai, who made the disclosure while submitting the report to the national chairman of the APC, in Abuja, on Thursday, January 25, said the recommendations were based on views of Nigerians, especially party members.
Odigie-Oyegun said with the report the APC’s stance on true federalism and restructuring had become clear to Nigerians, saying: this is the totality of our views, but it is still going to go through the mill. He said: “The first item that we felt needed legislative action is the merger of states. It is pertinent to note that only 36 percent of Nigerians wants more states created while majority of Nigerians don’t want more states. For us, since the creation of states is already in the constitution, there is no action needed than to implement that.
“So, the first recommendation for which we have proposed a draft bill for constitutional amendment is the merger of states. Though there was no consensus from stakeholders on the merger of states, we felt that we should propose a bill that allows states to merge and it is left for the National Assembly, the party and the people of Nigeria to decide on that.”
In the same vein, he said on issue of derivation principle, “it is recommended that the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission Act be amended to vest it with the power to periodically review the derivation formula and make recommendations to the president who shall table the same before the National Assembly for necessary action.
“On fiscal federalism and revenue allocation, we propose an amendment to sub-section two of the constitution to give more revenue to the states and reduce the federal government’s share.
“There was overwhelming popular demand that there should be devolution of power to the states and the committee recommended same. We have recommended that the first schedule, part one and two be amended to transfer some powers to the states.”
Besides, the committee also recommended that states be allowed to have their own police.
Oil and other mineral resources, the committee said this should be left to the control of the states where they are located, while offshore resources should be owned by the federal government.
In the same breath, the committee proposed the amendment of the first schedule to the constitution to ensure that names of local government councils are removed from the constitution. This would allow states to create and fund their own local governments.
El-Rufai said the recommendation was based the committee’s finding that the country was operating a federal system and that it would be an aberration having more than two tiers of government as federating units in a federal system.
The governor said: “We recommend that the current system of local government administration provided for by the constitution should be amended and that states should be allowed to develop and enact laws to have local government administration system that is peculiar to each of them.
“What we heard from Nigerians is that as far as local government is concerned, there is no one size fits for all. We all come from different histories, different cultures, different administrative systems and we believe that the constitution should ensure that there is a democratic local government system in every state. But the details of, and the nature of that local government system, the number of local governments should be left to the states and states houses of assembly.
“We propose amendment to Sections 7, 8, 162, the first schedule, part one and the first schedule of the constitution to give effect to our recommendations. The section that lists the local governments and their headquarters should be removed so that local governments are no longer named in the constitution.”
In essence, he said: “States can create their local governments and determine the structure of their local governments. We are, by this, recognising that in a federal system, you cannot have more than two tiers of government. Having three tiers of government is an aberration. There is nowhere in the world where our research has shown us that you have more than two federating units.”
On resources control, the governor said: “We have proposed that mining, minerals, oil should go to the states. Then there will be certain constitutional amendments.
“The Petroleum Act will be amended to show that states can now issue oil mining licences; the Land Use Act, Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act, the Petroleum Profit Tax Act 2007 would all need to be amended. So, we have proposed amendment that will ensure that minerals, mining and oil are vested in the states except offshore minerals.”
The committee further recommended a constitutional amendment to allow for a referendum to be conducted on burning national or state issues before decisions are taken. Now, the constitution has no room for referendum, but only in the creation of states.
On independence candidacy, the committee recommended that anybody who wants to contest an election as an independent candidate should not have to be a member of any registered political party six months prior to the election the person wants to contest as a candidate.
“We have included in the bill to allow for independent candidacy that no one who wants to run as an independent candidate should be a member of a political party six months to the election. What it meant is that you cannot be a member of a political party, lose primaries and then go ahead to run as an independent candidate. You have to make up your mind six months to the elections that none of the parties is good enough and you want to run as an independent candidate.
“We have put this safeguard to ensure that independent candidacy is not a platform for opportunism, but a deliberate, passionate decision, not an emotional one. We have put four safeguards.
“One, any person who desires to stand as an independent candidate must not be a registered member of any political party at least six months before the election in which he intends to contest. Two, his nominators must also not be members of any registered political party. Three, the said candidate must pay a deposit to INEC in the same range as the non-refundable deposit payable by candidates sponsored by political parties through their parties.
“So instead of paying to the parties, you now pay to INEC. If a governorship candidate pays one million to his party, you must pay one million to INEC to stand as an independent candidate.
He said further: “On citizenship, the issue of local government or state of origin is discriminatory and should be replaced with state of residence. It is around this that we have proposed an amendment to the Federal Character Commission Act to allow people domiciled in a place to be considered as indigenes.
Besides, he said they proposed an amendment to create the State Judicial Council that would appoint and discipline judges within a state, while the National Judicial Council would exercise control over the appointment, discipline of judges of the federal government only.
“We have proposed the creation of the state court of appeal so that from the High Court, you can first appeal to the state court of appeal before it goes to the Supreme Court of the federation. Again, this is consistent with federal practice all over the world,” he said.
Oyegun said: “I‘m going to promise that before the middle of February, it would have been considered and decided upon by the major structures of this party, the NEC, the Caucus of the party. And whatever is thereafter agreed will be presented to the authorities as the considered views and decisions of the APC for appropriate implementation.”
The recommendations appear to be laudable for the discernible mind. But that has not removed schism in the polity and the question about the sincerity of the APC to actually give vent to the restructuring of the country.
In fact, some politicians even in the ruling party are not convinced about the good intention of the party. Some other persons would want to view the recommendations as an afterthought or at best a political scheme to get votes for the APC at the next elections.
Indeed, the strident voice of Shehu Sani, a senator of the APC from Kaduna State and human rights activist, could be heard miles away as he dismissed the party’s recommendations for restructuring as nothing but a ruse.
Sani said there would be no restructuring in Nigeria before or after 2019 elections. Speaking in an interview, he described the El-Rufai committee report as a ‘political gimmick,’ and diversion. He alleged that it was aimed at diverting people’s attention from a letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Muhammadu Buhari on the worrisome state of the nation.
In the same breath, the senator called the report a campaign document for 2019. “It is not a report worthy of the paper it was written,” Sani said.
Besides, the senator pointed out that: “El-Rufai is anti-restructuring. There will be no restructuring before and after 2019.The President had repeatedly made it clear that the problem is process so what are we talking about.
“El-Rufai simply want to eat his cake and have it; orally calling supporters of restructuring as opportunists and on the other hand submitting a report in support of it.”
In any case, the human rights activist said the document would not be considered by the Senate.
He argued: “When eventually the El-Rufai restructuring committee reaches the Senate, it will be photocopied to 109 pieces and shared to the senators to use as toilet paper. If there are extra copies, it will be shared to Suya and Akara hawkers outside the National Assembly to use it to wrap their products.
“El-Rufai restructuring report will be shredded and modify to serve as a good toilet paper for senators. If there’s seriousness in restructuring it could have started in 2015.”
Expressing a similar view as Sani, Raphael Eze, an associate professor of Political Science, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, said the recommendations of the APC committee on restructuring Nigeria was a strategy to divert the attention of the citizens from the most fundamental issues threatening the development and unity of the country. According to him, what Nigerians need is a referendum where they will decide whether to continue to exist as one indivisible entity or a system of government that will be suitable to all.
Besides, Eze expressed concern that the sincerity of the APC to implement the recommendations, claiming that such recommendations had been made in the past but were not implemented.
Not surprising, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, similarly dismissed the report of the APC on restructuring as a ruse and fresh calculated ploy by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to divert public attention from the endless litany of afflictions caused by its about three years of dysfunctional governance.
Kola Ologbodiyan, national publicity secretary of the PDP, in a statement on Wednesday, January 31, said the report amounted to outright depravity that the same APC leaders who at assumption of office, rejected restructuring would now suddenly turn around to pose as fathers of a restructured Nigeria simply because the 2019 general elections beckon.
The PDP alleged that the fact that the APC had no littlest intention of implementing any form of restructuring was completely manifest in the attitude and body language of the party leaders including Buhari, who in his 2018 new year address, rejected the idea of restructuring, by saying that: “When all the aggregates of nationwide opinions are considered, my firm view is that our problems are more to do with process than structure.”
It similarly reminded the nation that even El-Rufai, who eventually became the chairman of the APC panel on restructuring, had also on June 29, 2017, during an interview on Channels TV, denied that the APC promised restructuring. He then described Nigerians, who were taking the APC to task on the issue, as “political opportunists and irresponsible” people.
As if that was not bad enough, he pointed out that Lai Mohammed, the minister of Information and Culture, had also in a Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, interview programme on June 9, 2017, stated that restructuring was not Buhari’s priority.
That notwithstanding, the PDP alleged that Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State was once quoted in the press to have said “to hell with restructuring.” Hence, the PDP said: “to the totality of APC leaders, none believes in either true federalism or restructuring by any name called.”
In addition, it alleged that the APC had so far refused to “rally its members in the National Assembly to support or vote for any amendment that dwelt on restructuring when the federal legislature voted on sections of the constitution where amendments have been proposed in the direction of restructuring.
“If anything, APC leaders have consistently criticised any amendment that spoke or have a semblance of restructuring or true federalism.”
Hence, it described as deceptive that the APC had suddenly woken up to parade itself as champions of a restructured Nigeria. “This is a callous and wicked attempt to once again take Nigerians on a trip to the land of fantasy. We, therefore, urge Nigerians to reject the new ploy by the APC to deceive them for their votes in 2019,” the PDP said.
Indeed, the Eastern Consultative Assembly, a coalition of Igbo groups, on Saturday, January 27, expressed similar reservations about the good intention of the report submitted by El-Rufai-led committee on true federalism, saying it was deceitful.
Consequently, the forum called for a boycott of future elections in Nigeria pending when a new constitution anchored on the principles of true federalism would put in place.
In a communiqué signed by Maria Okwor, the deputy leader of the ECA and leader, Igbo Women Assembly, IWA, and Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko, secretary, ECA, the group accused the APC-led government of deceiving Nigerians.
They stated that: “it is clear, even to the naive and the gullible, that the so-called APC report on restructuring is a red herring, a smoke screen and an ungodly deception designed solely to buy time, to deceive and to mislead the masses of the country” into voting for the party for a second term.
The ECA, therefore, warned that: “For the avoidance of doubt, the people of eastern Nigeria will not participate in any election whatsoever, until a new people’s constitution is evolved through a referendum.
“We will not join in the madness of voting in any elections whatsoever, until Nigeria is consensually returned to true fiscal federalism, anchored on regional autonomy.”
But that was not the take of the South-East chapter of the APC. The party on Saturday, January 27, described the report submitted by the Nasir El-Rufai-led committee on true federalism as one stop solution to the problems facing Nigeria.
In a statement signed by Hycienth Ngwu, the party’s publicity secretary, the state chapter of the APC said the implementation of the report would address issues of agitations across the country.
Ngwu, therefore, appealed to Nigerians not to politicise the report by engaging in unnecessary debate but to partner with the government towards its full implementation.
“We believe that if the issues raised in the report are not politicised by the vocal few Nigerians, thereby subjecting the report to unnecessary debate with the intent to cause delay in its implementation, Nigerians would experience harmonious co-existence in atmosphere of peace and robust economic prosperity.
“We hereby appeal to the entire members of the other political parties and civil society groups to be nationalistic in their comments and views on this report. This shouldn’t be seen as APC affair, but Nigerian’s affair. We all must be committed to end these agitations,” the statement said.
Ironically, even though his party described the APC restructuring proposals as a ruse, nevertheless, the report found a supporter in Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State.
On Friday, January 26, in Abuja, Dickson commended the ruling APC for finally acknowledging the need for Nigeria to undergo fundamental changes to its political and economic system. He argued that the fundamental alterations could be incorporated into the Nigerian Constitution before 2019 elections – even as he agreed that outright restructuring of the country could be cumbersome and time-consuming.
“Nigeria must be restructured before 2019 elections,” Dickson told reporters at the Bayelsa State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja. “Where there’s a will there’s a way,” he said.
The Bayelsa governor said Nigerian politicians could no longer afford to punt the ball on restructuring for much longer. “Even though we have a long way to go to fine-tune this, I commend and appreciate their commitment to building a stable, equitable and, therefore, prosperous Nigeria,” Dickson said of APC’s latest approach to restructuring, which is expected to be a major issue in the 2019 elections.
Towing a similar pathway, the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, on Tuesday, January 30, expressed delight over the el-Rufai report, especially the portion that recommends state ownership of onshore mineral resources, including oil.
“This is clearly not the whole of what we want because we desire total control of our resources onshore and offshore, but it is certainly a giant leap towards what we have always agitated for as Ijaw people,” IYC said.
But it also feared that this could rather be a political gimmick and not backed by sincere motive. It said: “We worry that this may be political and not backed by sincerity. Recently, the federal government promised the clean-up of Ogoni land and till date we have not seen the funding of that programme and for unacceptable reasons.
“If the APC-led federal government is sincere, let them show sincerity by immediately setting up various committees and put to work all stakeholders to ensure the recommendation is achieved in the shortest possible time before the 2019 elections.
“If not we would see this as one of its numerous strategic scams. We are also calling on all southern members of the National assembly to take this up as a project”, a statement by Alfred Kemepado, secretary general of the IYC, said.
That notwithstanding, some Ijaw leaders have declared that they would not support any party that does not support restructuring.
After a meeting, which lasted more than four hours at Kiagbodo, Delta State, country home of Edwin Clark, an elder statesman and former minister of Information, prominent Ijaw leaders, on Tuesday, January 30, vowed that they would only vote for candidates with genuine and demonstrable support for restructuring irrespective of political party
The Ijaw leaders at the meeting included Governor Dickson; Kingsley Otuaro, deputy governor of Delta State and Clark.
Other leaders of thought, who converged on Kiagbodo, were Alabo Graham-Douglas, a former minister of Aviation: Broderick Bozimo, ex-minister of Police Affairs, as well as National Assembly members and traditional rulers.
After the meeting, Dickson said the leaders took a critical look at the issue of restructuring and took further steps to reaffirm their position that restructuring was a matter of survival to the Ijaw people. He said the next election would be a referendum “on restructuring because it affects the well being and survival of our people. We will support the candidates who are genuinely committed to the issue of restructuring.”
Consequently, the leaders set up a committee on the issue comprising five representatives each from the three zones – the West, the Central and the East, which has three weeks to submit its work. The leaders expressed hope that the APC would live up to its promises.
In his comments, Clark stated that restructuring was beyond politicking, insisting that any presidential candidate who was opposed to restructuring would face rejection in Ijaw land during the election.
El-Rufai assured Nigerians that Buhari is ready to carry out necessary action for peace, progress and well-being of Nigerians. According to him, the president was excited about the committee recommendations. “He was very pleased, and he said he fully supports what we have done and that he is looking forward to the party officially transmitting it to him for his necessary action.
“President Buhari is not concerned about his personal power; he is concerned about Nigeria making progress.
“If giving up power will make Nigeria progress, he will give all of it up. Not just part of it, but all of it. This is the real Buhari that many people don’t know. It is the most comprehensive review of this subject matter ever in Nigeria’s history,” he said.
Even then, some political analysts feared that the president might not be totally in support of the committee report because of his support for local government autonomy. And way back in 2016, Buhari did not mince words in advising local administrators to free themselves from “the stranglehold of state governments.”
Nevertheless, Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the APC, said the president would be more than willing to get the work on restructuring rolling.
Indeed, an amendment to the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority at the two chambers of the National Assembly. Equally, lawmakers at the state level will also need to support such amendment by two-thirds majority in two-thirds of all the 36 states.
That, perhaps, has prompted Dickson’s to believe if there is a sincerity of purpose on the part of politicians, especially the APC which controls the centre and the parliament the restructuring could be carried out before the next election in February 2019. The governor advocated that a “multi-party” alliance “needs to come on stream” to set the restructuring process in motion with the aim of passing a sweeping reform before February 2019.
“It’s time to intensify consultations and meetings across all party lines… When nations face challenges, leaders come together. This is not about party affiliation,” Dickson said.
Yinka Odumakin, a human rights activist and national publicity secretary of Afenifere, a Yoruba cultural group, agreed with Dickson’s submission. “The key resolutions on restructuring can be entered into the Constitution before the 2019 elections,” he said. But he doubted sincerity of the ruling government.
Odumakin, who participated at the 2014 national conference, said after the APC “wasted” crucial time forming a panel, it has decided to take its recommendations through the party’s hierarchical structure before reaching a conclusion.
That notwithstanding, it is feared that the likes of Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and 2019 presidential hopeful, who has remained arguably the biggest voice for restructuring of the nation’s polity might be a big winner should the APC abandon the recommendations on restructuring.
Abubakar canvasses a weakened federal government for a stronger and genuinely autonomous states to pave way for a renewed economic growth and social development, a push that was at the centre of the 2014 national conference. The APC did not participate at the conference, rejecting it as a charade put together by former President Goodluck Jonathan to settle his political allies and bolster his campaign war chest ahead of the 2015 polls.
Nevertheless, Governor Dickson said citizens and politicians would have to step up pressure on the National Assembly to fast-track the restructuring process once the body receives a bill.
On his part, Odigie-Oyegun, while receiving the report, said that the party would ultimately forward it to the president by the middle of February, after it might have been reviewed by the party hierarchy. It is, therefore, behoved on the Buhari administration on what it would do with the report and whether it would have the political will to effect the necessary reforms that would put it in good stead with electorate or a Greek gift intended to achieve another aim? Time will tell.
– Feb. 2, 2018 @ 17:25 GMT |
Tags: Restructuring Nigeria: A Greek Gift from APC?
