The Nigerian political atmosphere would very soon be saturated with “big grammar”, on the need for a new constitution, for Nigeria , which the Convenners would regard as a ” people’s constitution”, which would be a sort of an open- sesame, that will make all the problems, in Nigeria, to dissappear, instantly .
This will also be an opportunity for the many ” Apostles” of the restructuring of the Nigerian State, to once again, air their sermons,or homelies.
Nigeria lost an opportunity to begin the restructuring of the State, after the 2014 Constitutional Conference, and its report, due to,(we beg to say ) the political naivety of the then President, who allowed the situation to slip out of his hands.
We now have President Tinubu, who has a pedigree of coming from the trenches for the restructuring of Nigeria.
Some of us are filled with a lot of expectations for the restructuring of this “sleeping giant “, and the ushering-in , of a new Nigeria, that would meet the expectations of its founding independence fathers, and the whole of Nigerians .
There seems to be some usual conservative forces, who do not want any change of the status quo because they ,wrongly, believe it serves them best. But it will seem they are grossly ignorant, of the good that will come with a proper restructuring of the Nigerian State. When this is done, everybody would stand to benefit immensely, and beyond every imagination, because it would be the manifest destiny of Nigeria, to be among the top four, or five, powerful countries in the world that would dictate the pace of developments,in the world.
But this ignorant conservatism is not surprising, because this has been the pattern of politics since Nigeria was formed.
We have a foundational problem. It is the need to correct this that calls for the Restructuring, of the Nigerian State.
The best way to correct the structural, and invariably, the functional faults, would have been properly through the functional approach only, without tampering with the structures .However, in Nigeria’s case this has been impossible, and try as we may, Nigeria may not be able to achieve any appreciable change. This difficulty in achieving the desired change, has informed the past many Constitutional reforms efforts and enactment of several constitutions. A discerning mind would notice that President Tinubu, seems to be towing the same line, of piecemeal Constitutional alterations .
This may not work, due mainly, to several reasons, which include the fact that no President, or government ,has had enough time, within its tenure to impliment the desired changes. Nigeria needs to take very fundamental paradigmic changes, both in attitudes and structural changes, in a wholesale manner.
We need a proper understanding of what has been happening in Nigeria. The more we do not take this need into consideration, the more we will continue to make mistakes, and the more the problems will fester.
The fact is that Nigeria is a country of many nations, with those nations behaving as if they were countries.
In all our past and present efforts,we have not taken this fact into consideration, and this explains why we always fail. Try as we may, there is no nationhood in the idea of Nigeria. It seems Nigeria has been operating as a country with many different countries, yet, all of these “countries” having a “single treasury”, that should be serving one country, and one nation. This is where the problem lies ! Nigeria ought to be one country and a common nationhood. But it is not. We have one treasury, serving a multitude of nations, with some kind of “tripodal arrangement” , wherein, the three giant ethnic groups are in constant competition and rivalry, with each other, for the control of that single treasury. While this is happening, the multitude of other nations seem to stand-bye, albeit reluctantly, either clapping, jeering, or envying, the tripodal political players.
In that situation, the attention of everyone is fixed on the “sharing of the cake ” , and nobody seems to bother about the baking of the cake . Therein lies the developmental problem. Unless, and until we are able to, and we shift away from, this “cake-sharing” mentality,and its reality , and we begin to focus on Nigeria’s diverse nations, and their ” cake-baking” capability, Nigeria may, keep on retrogressing, irretrieveably, and at the end, atrophy.
For now, it seems we are on a perilous high-way . We are aware of this fact, yet we are ,or seem to be, incapable of turning the “cake” issue to that of a blessing, rather than a curse.
The desired change can only be achieved through the splitting of this “cake-sharing treasury”, to that of “cake-baking treasuries”– ( not one ) wherein, both the Nigerian so-called “tripods” , and the other multitude of “nations” , turn ” back home” , from the center, and become engaged in “cake-baking” , and
“CAKE-CONTRIBUTING ” to a new, unattractive but “one national treasury” , that would be solely, for central services.
This is part of the
“TRUE FEDERALISM” some of us have been preaching about.
In this situation, when Nigeria achieves a ” true- federalist ” position, even the ultra- conservative Nigerians, would be surprised how far they can go, as everybody would be happy.
The debate begins.
Chief/Barr. J.D.EPHRAIM