Nigeria: Away With Bastardised Federalism

BY WOLE OLAOYE
 
When a person does the same thing the same way repeatedly with the same results and insists that the only way out is to continue doing what he has been doing before with the hope that somehow a deus ex machina device would transform his circumstances to arrive at the desired goal, I'm sorry nothing new would happen.
That is the summary of my reaction to the well publicized communiqué issued at the end of the meeting of the Northern Governors' Forum. I would be the first person to concede that the governors are perfectly entitled to their opinion on any issue. It is however the duty of the public analyst to take contending issues apart and examine them closely to enable the society forge some kind of consensus on a way forward.
I find it curious that the governors desire a federalist arrangement and at the same time don't want a federalist arrangement. For example, the governors don't want states to have their own police service but they want to have power to control the commissioner of police who is a staff of the federal government. "The Forum is not in support of creation of State Police. It however resolved to prevail on the Federal Government to embark on Police Reform that will assist the states in control and management of police affairs, and sound philosophy of modern policing by amending the provision of Section 215."
This suggestion makes one feel like laughing in vernacular. The claim that the states are not ripe for the responsibility of running their own police service is false. What makes the federal government more responsible than the states? I won't be tired of reminding us that we had regional police forces in this country before. It was the military that 'unitarised' everything in sight. 
That military mindset is all too evident in some of our democratically elected politicians today to the extent that they can't imagine an arrangement where federating states have their full complement of powers to enable them function properly while the federal level coordinates affairs without assuming any kind of coup-leader-style supremacy.
The governors see the current zonal arrangement as an essential tool to address political exigencies but insist that the six geo-political zones must not be enshrined in the Constitution. Interpretation: let's continue running our country on ad-hoc basis without any constitutional backing so that we can blunder our way to progress. I find the thinking behind that quite strange.
The governors' recommendation that states be allowed to generate and distribute power is in line with true federalism. But you can't have your cake and eat it. You either want federalism or you want something else. You can't accept some federal elements and reject the rest. 
There is nothing wrong with preferring parliamentary system of government or, for that matter, unitary system. There are arguments in favour for and against each system. But one must have the courage of one's convictions.
To cobble and graft various elements for the sake of expediency is not the way to run a country. We have reached a state as a nation where we ought to decide whether we are with the rats or with the rodents, but this game of bats and vampires will lead nowhere except to the initial starting point of confusion and under-achievement.
One other recommendation of the northern governors that caught my attention was the four-year tenure of elected officials. I agree with their recommendation that the status quo be maintained, but I must quickly add that the issue is not really the number of years an elected official spends but what he does with the mandate. Many governors have spent eight years in office but can't point to one solid achievement. I can't be bothered about the tenure; I'm more interested in deliverables and performance. 
I was not surprised that the governors want the immunity clause retained. They want to be protected from jail. The jury is still out on whether that is not where some of them belong.
Tomorrow it will be the turn of South-South governors, South-East governors, South-West governors, North-West senators, South West Assemblymen and women, Ohaneze, Arewa Consultative Forum, Afenifere, Ijaw National Congress, Idoma Union, Tiv Congress, etc.
While the rest of the world is making giant strides in various directions and fashioning brighter futures for their children, my country is still broiled in a debate on whether what we call Nigeria is indeed one country or two ... or six-and-a-half. We hardly agree on anything. 
It is a disease of the elite. The common people of this country are agreed on their needs - potable water, electricity, good infrastructure, affordable education and health services, security of lives and property and a level playing field that allows every individual to realize his best potentials.
The elite operate on a different wavelength. All they ever care about is the acquisition of power. When they congregate, they don't address the issues making life a nightmare for the people. They skirt around the problem and zero in on their main goal: power. 
But what is the use of power if not used for the greatest good for the greatest number of people? What have our leaders done with the power they currently wield in their various fiefdoms?
On a lighter note, now that the governors have served notice that they have set up an advisory committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill, let me serve them a dose of Igodomigodo's intellectual masturbation on the issue of derivation: 
"It's with maniacal bewilderment that I received the renewed onslaught by most Northern governors against the 13 per cent derivation revenue funds accruable to the south-south states, which in and by itself has constitutional imprimatur, I must say, however, that the debate is quite salubrious coming at a time when some of us are saying that this country must peregrinate the trajectory of a national conference to resolve once and for all our unsettled issues in this country."
Talking seriously, in order to achieve a brighter future, to reinvent our fatherland, to chart a new path to the realization of our national goals, we have to do things differently from what we had been doing before. We all ought to have outgrown expediencies as the basis of governance. 
To survive in today's world, we all have to think outside the box. Frequently, we get too comfortable on traditionally familiar grounds and settle in. We simply stay there. But these days, it's imperative that we act against our programming to truly succeed and find our own greatness.
It is time to step outside our various comfort zones.








source:Daily Trust