Sun pg 17b

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 1, 2017, PAGE 17

We are laying the moral and economic foundation for a new Nigeria — Odigie-Oyegun, APC Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, recalls, with nostalgia, fond memories of Nigeria’s independence, and promises that his party will put the country on the path of progress.

By Omeize Ajayi

W

HAT was it like on October 1, 1960?

How did you feel?

Well, I was an undergraduate. I was there for the festivities. I was there in the midnight when the Union Jack, the British flag, was lowered and the Nigerian flag hoisted.

It was a most exhilarating experience. There was that building of nationalism in you. We were like ‘thank God we are free at last’, using the famous Martin Luther King’s expression. It was great. The nation was full of promise and we were confident that we were going to go places and it was a wonderful moment.

A lot has been said about Nigeria’s past glory. Going forward, what can we do to restore the nation’s lost primacy?

We should be upbeat and not remember negative things. Of course, at independence, we were just taking over from our colonial masters. I came into the system in 1963 and we still had a lot of them around, even the Secretary to the Federal Public Service Commission was a white lady. We had many expatriates in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies. There were standards and things went very well.

I think our problem started with the military coup. I was a youth then, very young, hot-headed, energetic and adventurous. There were coups all over the place. I cannot say that when the coups happened, we did not say “hurray”, you know? We cheered them on, but looking back now, I think that was the beginning of the Nigerian problem. We have not been able to truly put things together since then.

Military rule messed up our federalism, and we have not gotten out of that today because there is still that centralised approach to everything. Of course, there is this outcry about true federalism or restructuring as some seem to call it, but, at the end of the day, you would find out that they mean almost the same thing. So, with the military coups, we had young officers taking over and everything became ‘ with immediate effect’; rules were being bypassed and, you know, that is the nature of the military. Then we had the civil war with the attendant problems. The issue of short-cut to wealth started permeating the system, then the purge in the civil service which saw people introducing a totally different dimension to the civil service but, by and large, I think, as a nation, we have come quite far but definitely far short of what we should be because, as of the time I came into the service, through the Planning Ministry, I was able to compare the nation of Nigeria to countries like Brazil, South Korea, Malaysia and it was clear that, with our resource potential, with our oil and other resources, we could take care of most of our essential needs. Even by World Bank standards, one of the best places to come out of the Third World status was Nigeria. We were rated higher than Brazil and other countries but that was then. We, somewhere along the line, took the wrong step; standards collapsed and real long-term planning collapsed. Visionary leadership also collapsed and we are where we are today with all the corruption, all the lack of business standards, all the lack of ethics and what I will like to call the blurring of the difference between right and wrong. Those were the problems plaguing us and holding us back, but hope was, of course, restored with the ‘Change’ agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari and work is underway to turn the Nigerian Titanic into a very purposeful direction before it hits the rock.

That is the work that the Buhari administration is doing: Salvaging the system through visionary leadership and creating a new economy for the nation based on the totality of our resources. That is serious work in progress today.

Are you saying that the APC has all the answers to the problems that we have encountered since independence?

Well, I do not know about having all the

C M Y K

answers but, yes, we know the problem and we have solutions to the problems. The system needs drastic change in a lot of directions. We had a collapsed economy principally due to economic mismanagement and, of course, the impact of the collapse of the oil market which has not helped in the speedy climbing of the economy. That has slowed things down. Secondly, of course, there is the push back; the fight back by the forces that want business as usual which this country cannot sustain. So, yes we are upbeat, but the resources are very thin now and we are in the reconstruction period of a new and sustainable economy. We are trying to move away from a consuming economy to a producing economy. Like I said, we have to diversify our revenue source of oil, with emphasis on agriculture, solid minerals, infrastructural development and permanently solving the power problem which is a very serious one that we cannot solve in a minute. However, the

If the APC agenda is sustained, Nigeria is going to make progress in the next few years. There is no question about that because we have the natural resources foundation for long-term incremental progress in the power sector has been laid and it is now a function of increasing power generation and the ability to transmit and distribute. All of it is work in progress. So, yes, we do have solutions but they are not solutions that you can buy and just install and hope the problems would be solved, no.

It involves ethical rebirth in the economy. It involves new sources of revenue. It involves our ability to feed ourselves and it also involves major infrastructural development

•Chief Odigie-Oyegun which is currently underway, particularly in the area of rail and road transportation subject, of course, to reactions, particularly on roads, from the National Assembly. So, the turnaround of the Nigerian Titanic is very much underway but it is still work in progress.

While some people say restructuring is the way forward, there are others who say the country needs to return to the 1963 Constitution. Where do you stand?

There are so many facets to this cry that I cannot just stand up now and tell you where I stand. As of today, I stand where the manifesto of the APC stands; and that is true federalism which involves some degree of devolution of powers and resources to the states so that they will be better able to provide infrastructure, services and development for their people.

Of course, like everybody, I heard about the ideas that have been generated by the South-West, which is advocating a return to regionalism. Currently in the APC, we have a body which we set up to look at and define true federalism. They are going round the country to enrich what is in our manifesto with the actual views of the people. What do the people really want? What is in our manifesto that can be enriched by contact with stakeholders?

What have we missed out? I have no doubt at this stage that some degree of return to true federalism would happen at the end of the day. When it would be, I cannot tell you, but it will happen.

Will it be under the APC? I sincerely hope so because it was a major plank of our being elected.

You earlier mentioned how we held so much promise than Brazil, Malaysia among others. Do you see Nigeria overtaking these countries again in the next 57 years?

If the APC agenda is sustained, Nigeria is going to make progress in the next few years. There is no question about that because we have the natural resources. We have a very vibrant and innovative population and the ingredient that has been brought in by President Buhari is the visionary and incorruptible leadership and, when you put these ingredients together, it adds up to progress.

This your manifesto, if you were to place a timeline, how many years do you think it would take your party to actualize the lofty objectives as contained therein?

It is difficult to say because first, I do not want to be misinterpreted to say that the APC will be in power for the next 10, 20 or 50 years. We will be in power for as long as the will of the people so decide but the trajectory that the President has set is one that has to be sustained for this nation to come out of the rot that we inherited. There is no viable alternative to reform or to change, change in the way we do business; change in our attitude to public assets or resources, change in our ethics and fundamental change in our economy. There is no end to development. It will be a continuing process. So, if you ask me how long it would take the APC, I would say development is endless but we are determined to create the economic and moral foundation for a new Nigeria; for Nigeria to make the progress and attain the destiny which God has given her. We are determined to be successful.

With the APC Constitution already reviewed and awaiting ratification by the convention, there are concerns that the National Working Committee, NWC, would be granted too much powers if this document sails through. How do you allay these concerns?

I cannot remember any such thing. The highest organ of the party is the convention. In the absence of the convention, the highest decision-making body is the National Executive Committee, NEC, and not the NWC whose members are just managers of the party. And that is the way it is going to be. I do not think anybody can change that. So, it is not true.

When exactly is the convention?

We hope the convention will hold in November.

There is no tentative date yet but we are certain. The NEC and Caucus will meet next month, that is, October.

PAGE 18— SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 1, 2017

Absolute positions unhelpful to nation’s growth — Prof. Auwalu Yadudu

Prof. Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional lawyer of repute and former legal adviser to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, bares his mind on Nigeria @57

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ssessment of Nigeria at 57 It is not easy assessing a period in which one is growing; a period in which one is old and grown up. My view on Nigeria, as it is with most nations, is that it is work in progress; it is never finished. At inception, you may have clear ideas of what it is, but you keep trying to actualise the dream.

According to our defunct national anthem,’ though tribes and tongues may differ, in brotherhood we stand’.

Those who conceived Nigeria in these terms recognised that tongues and tribes of Nigeria are diverse, but in brotherhood we stand. As work in progress, therefore, one will recognise the fact that geography, circumstance of history has put together this nation as it is, and it was not a mistake. I happen to disagree with those saying Nigeria was a creation of the British in 1914, and that it was not something that we had input, that it was an imposition. No. No state or nation starts out exactly as different communities at different times. We think of it, but if you recognise one fact about the nation, we are diverse and in our diversity lies our strength. What we need to do, therefore, is to see how we can harness and recognise the diversity as a source of strength to harness it and, overtime, build a nation through what I refer to as work in progress, make it better than it was, but not to look at it as something that is a mistake and regrettable. So, trying to reinvent nation-building at this moment, we have a distinct identity as Nigerians for good or bad and, as part of the nation-building process, we need to sincerely make those good things about us as a people work, and deal with those that are not so good. This is how I want to look at our journey so far.

Anything to celebrate?

There are plenty things to celebrate.

We have several times reached the edge of the precipice but we have been able to pull back and move on as a nation. Are we better off than we were 57 years ago? In some ways yes, but in some others we are not. What one will, therefore, argue will be, what are those areas of our nationhood that we can be proud of and sustain; and what are those areas that, clearly, we have not done so well as a nation and we need to work on to perfect? Yes, there are things to celebrate, and there are others that we are not so eager to celebrate, and it is not surprising for any nation.

Do you think where we are today is where our founding fathers wanted us to be?

To the extent that we have held together, and that we have retained our unique identities, but to the extent that we have not progressed and actually we have regressed, that cannot be the dream of our founding fathers. If we are to collate the level of Nigeria’s progress, especially in the first five years after independence, or you want C M Y K

•Prof. Auwalu Yadudu

to start from the era of selfgovernance by the regions in 1957, to 1966, those ten years, or from the time of regionalism, when we took off in 1954, to 1966, the rate of our growth, economically, socially and even politically, is far greater than it has been from 1966 to date, and there are many reasons for that.

Therefore, we should identify what those reasons are and deal with them. Our founding fathers will find fault with so many things that we do today, and will also take pride in the fact that they did not make a mistake in agreeing to live together and to found a nation called Nigeria with its uniqueness in the way we know it today.

What do you identify as the major challenges confronting us as a nation?

The major challenges are, one, and very regrettably, we have the tendency of being confronted with problems and we gloss over them; we don’t deal with them and no nation will progress doing that. If you ask Nigerians, they have a clear idea of what they consider as the problems, but i will give you one: The oil curse, that is, our dependence on oil as source of our revenue which has made us lazy and made

those in the position of authority not to work, and the followers not to be too eager to hold their leaders to account solely because we don’t seem to work hard for the revenue which we are eager to share when indeed there are far important sources of strength and production in us that we can pursue. For example, the kind of education system that we had before and after independence was the envy of other nations. We went to public schools that were maintained by the native authorities, well-funded, well managed. This was a system that was not even run by the regional government, though part of it was run by it but, largely, the basic education, up to secondary school, was run by the native authorities and the provinces. How can we not remember this?, How can we ignore what our forefathers were able to do on education which has made us great and produced individuals that can compete anywhere in the world on account of the educational system that we went through? Today, what we have as education is a joke; if we are unable to deal with the provision of education to every child up to a certain age and to impart skills, we are wasting our time; we will

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The major challenges are, one, and very regrettably, we have the tendency of being confronted with problems and we gloss over them; we don’t deal with them and no nation will progress doing that

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 1, 2017, PAGE 19

Absolute positions unhelpful to nation’s growth Continued from page 18 not compete as a nation and the oil we rely on is going to become less important. So, we have two crucial challenges. How do we generate revenue and account for it, and what you do with your educational system? I know that on the scale of priority, there will be many others things, but if you take these two and you are able to do something about them, you will see wonders in this country. Of course, you can take health care, you can take community relations and some other things, but these two are very important. The third issue is political accountability. The way we run our democracy, we have been at it for close to 17 years now, but it does seem that the most lucrative business in town is to be in politics because you are in the position to deploy resources, allocate them, do as you wish with them and no one will hold you accountable. Holding our leaders accountable politically and financially is very important. This has nothing to do with the North or South. I come from a local government in Dala or Dawakin Kudu. I have an idea of what the leaders get by way of allocation from the federation account but the people have nothing to show for it. We should not quarrel with a man in Bayelsa over his own allocation. If we are unable to deal with the local person to whom we have entrusted our resources but who abuses that position, our problems will not be limited to the person from the North or from the South; it is a unique local problem that you have to deal with.

What is the role of the military in our myriad of problems?

The incursion of the military into governance from 1966 to 1999 when they eventually left has been a double edged sword. In 1966, we encountered a political problem that, if given time, the political leaders could have solved, and if they had solved it politically, we will not have gotten into the civil war and we would have avoided stunting our political growth. Nations grow politically by trial and error, by encountering challenges and dealing with them according to the instruments of governance. Suddenly, in 1966, this was thrown away.

Our problems could essentially be traceable to them. Having said that, one must also recognise that, the political class created a problem which the military leaders also put their lives to deal with. Now, the military, whether you like it or not, have held this country together, and they have done it at the expense of their lives

•Prof. Auwalu Yadudu

and spilled their blood. The problems were not entirely theirs. Over the years, anytime we had political problems, our political leaders will avoid dealing with them politically and invite the military, and when they come, they also mess things up. My view is that the military incursion into politics was a double edged sword.

57 years on, Nigeria is yet to achieve political stability.

Don’t you think restructuring is the way out?

The problem with restructuring depends on who is mouthing it. We do have agitations everywhere and the thinking in some quarters is that every community in this country is marginalised. So, if everybody says he is marginalised, that means nobody is marginalised. This takes me back to an idea that this nation is work in progress where there are bound to be legitimate agitations. Now, how to deal with them is where individuals differ. That is why to the Afenifere group, if you don’t go back to regionalism, this country is doomed to fail.

To some groups in the South -East, even though the elites are not publicly mouthing it, if you don’t concede to the Biafran secessionist agitation, you are not dealing with the Nigerian problem. If you go the Niger Delta, if you don’t give them hundred per cent of their mineral resources, you are not going to have peace. While it is legitimate for any group to

I am not opposed to individuals or groups sitting to discuss their problems to seek to find solutions to them, but, as you can see, the antagonism, the agitation, the absolutist position that some individual blocs take are obviously unattainable

agitate, my view about restructuring is that if you cannot have your way according to the terms of the existing order; that is chaos; that is anarchy. I am not opposed to individuals or groups sitting to discuss their problems to seek to find solutions to them, but, as you can see, the antagonism, the agitation, the absolutist position that some individual blocs take are obviously unattainable if there is no give and take, if there is no understanding like our forefathers did. What it means, therefore, is that the 1999 Constitution and the existing laws under which we operate are not perfect and need to be addressed. But I demand that to overhaul it will have to be done according to the constitutional stipulation because that is the only legal and orderly way of doing it, otherwise you are talking about a revolution. And the days of the military are over but maybe there will be a civilian revolution that will displace the existing legal order and impose on the nation an entirely new thing. But to be more direct to your answer, I understand where those who are clamouring for restructuring are coming from. I am willing to listen to them because the Constitution recognises their freedom of expression, but I will only remind them that we don’t have a perfect system, it is work in progress, and the system can be overhauled but nothing prevents us from engaging in give and take. Many people make the mistake that the North has not come out to say ‘this is our idea of restructuring’. If I will speak for some, I will say we understand where you are coming from but we don’t take absolutist position that ‘there will be no peace if you don’t do this for us’.

Whatever it is that we can talk over, whatever it is that we can adjust, let us do according to the existing legal order and not outside of it.

How do we get Nigeria out of the woods?

Nigeria in my view is not in the woods. Nigeria is grappling with problems and I have outlined three key areas that if we are able to attend to will make a huge difference in the way we live. And of course concerning inter-ethnic, inter-religious relations, there is greater need for more understanding, more respect and greater need to be restrained about what you say about others especially when it is derogatory.

That way, whatever problems you have, if you have mutual respect, you will be able to talk it over; you will be able to come to an understanding on how to solve it.

What do we do to make Nigeria great again?

Well, what we do to build on the existing structure is to sincerely and dispassionately look at where and in what way it does not work, and to dispassionately and with patriotism at heart deal with those problems across the nation. There has to be an understanding, a meeting point, a greater accommodation; if we have those things, we can make this work in progress a little better than we found it.

PAGE 20— SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 1, 2017

Under current structure, good leader on’t mak e leaderss w won’t make an anyy dif diffference — E.K. Clark Chief Edwin Kiagbodo, elder statesman and leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), bares his mind on Nigeria 57 years after independence

BY HENRY UMORU

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he story of Nigeria 57 years after independence is one of mixed feelings. What is your take?

It is quite correct. There is no doubt that we have made some progress, but Nigeria at 57 should have developed more than it is now. At independence in 1960, we had very progressive regions, the Western Region, the Northern Region and the Eastern Region. Even before independence, from 1953, the regions had been very active, very competitive and very progressive. On the attainment of independence in 1960, the pace of progress continued. We had the Western Nigerian government being run by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, we had the Northern Nigerian government being run by Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Eastern Nigerian government being run by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Dr Michael Okpara at a later date when Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe became the President of Nigeria.

So when you look back, what were the achievements of these people?

In 1962, Awolowo built the University of Ife; Ahmadu Bello built the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU; and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe built the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. And because the Western Region under Awolowo had more money than the other two, he was able to introduce free primary education which was the basis of development in Western Nigeria today. Today the Western Nigerian people are very sophisticated and very well educated, more advanced in education than any other part of this country and it was the free primary education that made it happen. In the West also, you had the first television being introduced the south of Sahara, then you had Cocoa House being built in Ibadan and industrial estates in Ikeja and Apapa, and there were Israeli companies building roads across the West. Then you go to the North where you had the stadium built just as Awolowo built the Liberty Stadium in Ibadan. There was an industrial estate in Kano, there was the Kaduna Capital Territory. Similar things happened in the East like the Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt and Enugu; so development went on and the reason was because there was true federalism being practiced. Whatever resources you derived in your area, you spend half of the money and the other half would be sent to the federal government to meet its responsibilities and also spend on the regions again. In 1963 when Mid-West was created, there was the Republican Constitution and each region also had its own Constitution and agents general in London. But immediately after the army took over in 1966, they changed the Constitution because, in the hierarchy, whoever was the head of government controlled everything downward. In the process, federalism was destroyed and a unitary form of government was introduced. In fact, this was done by Ironsi when he issued Decree No 34 to impose unitary form of government; northerners opposed it and that was part of the reason they overthrew Ironsi’s government. Gowon came in and carried C M Y K

•Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark on with Decree No 34. Then the war broke out in 1967 and here we are still operating unitary government in the guise of true federalism. That was why former President Obasanjo, in 2005, set up the political reform conference. I was the leader of the SouthSouth region at the conference and we demanded for a return to true federalism. Northerners opposed us, they believed that once true federalism was reintroduced, the North will lose money and position in national affairs but they were wrong. The reason Nigeria is not progressing the way it should is because of the unitary form of government we operate in the name of federalism. I think that is the problem. We need to restructure the country in line with the 2014 National Conference recommendations, 600 recommendations to move forward.

Leadership People talk about leadership being the nation’s problem, but leadership can only work under a good environment; leadership under the present system cannot work. I strongly believe that a return to a federal system of government like we had it under the 1960 and 1953 constitutions will make Nigeria progress.

Northern committee I am happy that the 19 northern governors have set up a committee with the traditional rulers to look into restructuring and I believe that with Tambuwal, the governor of Sokoto State, as Chairman, we can have a progressive report. In essence, if all of us agree that there is need for restructuring, we would then make up here and there, have a good constitution and

a good environment where good leaders can perform.

Restructuring of the mind I do not agree with Obasanjo who talked about restructuring of the mind.

What mind? Is it because his mind was not restructured when he was in power that his government did not make any progress? There is something structurally defective in the country and that is why we are calling for restructuring.

As a father who has seen it all in this country, what message do you have for Nigerians as we mark 57th anniversary, especially against the backdrop of what we are seeing, agitations in the East, quit notice from the North?

Since 1999, there have been problems, and they have been mounting. When people have no job, then they cause problems. It would be difficult to have people working in a factory coming out to demonstrate. But when the factory has nothing to offer, then the people who are not employed would demonstrate. The agitations in Nigeria are as a result of, I won’t call it bad government alone or bad leadership, it is because the Constitution under which we are working is not good enough. You cannot be working under a federal system of government and call it a unitary form of government; until we straighten out these things, you will continue to have pockets of problems all over the country.

On what is happening in the East, there was Biafra war 50 years ago at the end of which Gen. Gowon declared reconciliation, reconstruction and reintegration. And the Igbo were integrated under successive governments. An

I do not agree with Obasanjo who talked about restructuring of the mind. What mind?

Is it because his mind was not restructured when he was in power that his government did not make any progress?

Igbo man was the Vice President of this country. But the Buhari government decided to marginalise them now, to treat them as if they are second class citizens, as if they are not Nigerians. But like I said, this is temporary; in another four years, it will be over. And that is not enough for anybody to say ‘I am no longer a Nigerian’, or ‘I want to secede from Nigeria’. Nnnamdi Kanu (IPOB leader calling Igbo to secede) has not given us the reason for the demand for secession other than saying that they want Biafra,

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We can dismantle the dysfunctional unitary structure within three months — Guy Ikoku

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 1, 2017, PAGE 21

Mr Guy Ikokwu played prominent roles in the politics of the First and Second Republics. In his piece, he says the unitary structure, which many have identified as the main problem militating against Nigeria’s progress, can be dismantled before 2018 if the nation’s leadership has the will.

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IGERIA is in a state of dilapidation such that we find it difficult to grapple with some of the most elementary aspects of governance.

President Muhammadu Buhari, on his return from medical check-up in London, made a broadcast to the nation and was candid enough to acknowledge that the country’s foundation is now very fragile and recommended that it should be made good or reconstructed constitutionally through the National Assembly and the Council of State.

The Southern Leaders Forum, comprising the leaders of the South-West, the South- East and the South-South, in a reaction, emphasized that “only restructuring will ensure the unity, peace and development of Nigeria”. Chief Edwin Clark and Chief Herbert Horsfall for the South-South, Chief Nnia Nwodo and Prof. Joe Irukwu for the South-East, and Chief Reuben Fasoranti and Chief Ayo Adebanjo for the South-West concluded that “the country was in a very bad shape and requires statesmanship in its leadership”.

Very many eminent personalities in the past 20 years have spoken vehemently on the need to urgently re-engineer or restructure our system of governance so as to move the nation forward.

On Nigeria’s Independence Day, October 1, 1960, the first Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, in his inaugural broadcast, said, “But now, we have acquired our rightful states and I feel sure that history will show that the building of our nation proceeded at the wisest pace. It has been thorough and Nigeria now stands well built upon firm foundation…. At the time when our constitutional development entered upon its final phase, the emphasis was largely upon self-governance”.

But history before our independence clearly told us that in 1953, while negotiations were on to construct the methodology of the amalgamated units living together, it was the northern delegates who resolutely threatened secession (Araba) unless the colonial masters gave them a majority of the census figures and also a majority of the parliamentary seats in the House of Representatives in Lagos as against the other regions of the West and the East.

From our historical notebooks we recall that Hon. Nnamdi Azikiwe in response to the 1953 secession threat responded at a party (NCNC) caucus meeting in Yaba, Lagos on May 12 1953 where he stated as follows: “In my opinion, the northerners are perfectly entitled to consider whether or not they should secede from the indissoluble union which nature has formed between it and the South but it would be calamitous to the corporate existence of the North should the clamour for secession prevail. I C M Y K

therefore counsel northern leaders to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of secession before embarking upon these dangerous calls…. It would be a capital political blonder if the North should break away from the South…. Secession by the North may lead to internal political convulsion there when it is realized that militant nationalists and their organizations, like the NEPU, the Eskianist Movement and the Middle Zone League, have aspirations for selfgovernment in 1956 identical with those of their southern compatriots. This may lead to justifiable demands for the rights of self-determination by non-Muslims who form the majority of the population Pagan Provinces like Benue, Ilorin, Kebbi, Niger and Plateau not to mention the claims of the non-Muslims who are domiciled in Adamawa and Bauchi Provinces”.

Present day Nigerians cannot dispute historical facts.

It is therefore worthwhile to recall that in the very recent past the subject of history was being taken out of our educational curriculum. It is said in our cultural anecdote that a person who does not know where he is coming from, most certainly will not know where he is going.

That is why we must subdue our emotional inclinations and listen to the words of our heroes past and the examples of our fore-fathers with particular reference to historical constitutional development of Nigeria.

Another of our fore-fathers, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in his book, “Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution”, advocated a rational restructuring of the Nigerian political system.

First, in a country where there are diverse people like ours, a unitary constitution is always a source of bitterness and hostility. On the other hand, as soon as a federal constitution is introduced in which each linguistic or national group is recognised and accorded regional autonomy, bitterness and hostility against the

•Guy Ikokwu

arrangement disappears.

Chief Awolowo was undoubtedly a philosopher and a legal ICON as well as an administrator and a technocrat. He had very strong convictions and vision which he translated for the betterment and prosperity of the Western Region. There is no doubt that if he were alive today to witness the retardation of Nigeria and the inglorious path we have trodden in the last 50 years, he would continue to be at the forefront of the restructuring campaign.

It is evident that such a glorious pattern of development was emulated by the people of Eastern Nigeria.

They travelled and emulated the Yoruba who had about one century advantage of colonial invasion. This valuable message was posed to our northern brothers with pains and resistance.

With the perspective of today’s participatory democracy, it is very clear that the former southern protectorate were militarily compelled to allow the northern zones to develop more educationally than they had done before independence in 1960. It is therefore very clear that the elites in the three zones of Northern Nigeria today in government or culture and in traditional monarchy are certainly more enlightened in many aspects of governance.

Many of the present governors of the 19 states in the North are lawyers, accountants, experienced public servants, medical personnel, corporate managers, former lecturers, legislators and military personnel, a situation that put

Chief E. K. Clark, in his response to President Buhari’s statement in 2015 that if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria”, retorted, “If Nigeria is not restructured urgently, the nation will disintegrate”

them in a better stance to understand the realities of today’s governance and the issues of the day than their forefathers.

As human beings and with the experience we have had in the past 20 years within our various ethnic nationalities,

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PAGE 22— SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 1, 2017 Continued from page 21 we have to admit that there are some very good individuals and also very bad individuals. Therefore no particular ethnic nationality should be marked down for marginalisation, victimisation, economic deprivation, military subjugation and cultural/ religious alienation.

Azikiwe, in 1950, told his Igbo brothers and other Nigerians that reputation is the most precious possession which must not be allowed to be tarnished. He warned that people should not allow others to dominate them and they should obey the laws of those with whom they share the blessings of life. He urged the Igbo to respect the traditions of those in whose home land they sojourn.

The majority of Igbos over the last century have imbibed these traditions as well as other ethnic groups like the Yoruba, the Ijaw, the Tiv, the Nupe, the Hausa and, of course, the Fulani who are the most recent migrants into Nigeria in the last 150 years.

The Fulani have integrated with the Hausa in language and culture, hence they are known as Hausa/Fulani.

The NYSC programme which the Federal Government launched in Nigeria decades ago and the unity schools that we established in various regions of Nigeria have advanced the process of integration of our ethnic nationalities and enabled our diverse children to understand themselves better and engage in relationships which have been very much nurtured over time.

There are in Nigeria today prominent personalities who are detribalised and certainly helping the momentum of moving Nigeria forward.

Corruption, terrorism, absence of the rule of law, militancy of herdsmen, hate speeches, uncontrolled militancy and criminal activities, massive unemployment, lack of basic healthcare, poverty, poor quality of governance and emulation of invidious foreign cultures and negative ethos had led Nigeria’s economy into recession from which she cannot recover unless our system of governance is reengineered or restructured or deliberately configured with a better foundation as our forefathers had wanted from 1950 to 1963 when we transmuted from selfgoverning and autonomous regions to a republican status.

The military intervention from 1966 to 1999 bastardized our system from a federal to a unitary system.

“Unitary Federalism” is definitely a constitutional aberration. It is the equivalent of a constitutional and historic APOPLEXY. This is why today we have some politicians who are fanning the embers of the destruction of the Nigerian polity with their being ignorant of the word RESTRUCTURING. The extent of this can be C M Y K

We can dismantle the dysfunctional unitary structure within three months found in the abrasive lie written in our 1999 Constitution which ignored the fact that sovereignty lies with the people and not with a class or segment of the people when the preamble says “we the people…….”.

In any true federation there are three participatory levels.

The grassroots level which is superseded by the regional tier. It is the regional tier of government that aggregate into the decision making process of the apex national centre.

This is why modern constitutions are written to enable the several tiers to understand the essence of constitutionalism and the distribution and separation of powers, checks and balances, limited governance, rule of law, multi-cultural, political pluralism, etc.

Therefore a federal structure cannot succeed where there is a strong and irrational leader appropriating the authorities of the tiers of governance and destroying the judicial authority established and also where there is absence of sufficient common interests or objectives among the diverse nationalities or citizens of a federal system.

Where there is no common goal of economic development and reduction of ethnic acrimony and immoral behavior, the federalist experiment will certainly fail.

The clarion call today for the restructuring of the Nigerian polity is at a stage where the modalities for the implementation require clarification. Former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan had attempted in 2005 and 2014 to get a cross section of Nigerians to make changes in our Constitution.

The resolutions of the 2014 conference emerged on consensual basis and certainly

•Guy Ikokwu

have the potentials to move Nigeria back from a unitary to a federal structure and closer to what we had in 1960 and 1963.

Constitutional lawyer, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, SAN, has variously posited that his preferred methodology is the convocation of sovereign national conference of ethnic nationalities. The argument in favour of a sovereign national conference is that it would have the mandate of the generality of the people through ELECTION of delegates rather than SELECTION by government.

Obviously the discussion and resolutions could be done in less than two months at the most and referendum conducted within a

month. It therefore shows that Nigeria could re-engineer our system of governance before the end of December 2017. And 2018 can be the year of Nigeria’s national reformation to avoid the current anarchic system which is rapidly developing to engulf our country.

It is glaring that the system of government in Nigeria aids corruption and the looting of our common patrimony as Chief E. K. Clark, in his response to President Buhari’s statement in 2015 that if Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria”, retorted, “If Nigeria is not restructured urgently, the nation will disintegrate”.

The Southern Leaders Forum echoed similar sentiment when it said, “It is obvious to any discerning observer that Nigeria is inching close to the precipice as a result of country-wide disaffection brought about by dysfunctional unitary structure of governance in a multi-ethnic country, a structure of governance that has taken much powers and most resource control to the centre - as codified in the military dictated 1999 Constitution. We have moved from an economy which was geared towards production and increasing enterprise and productivity of our people to an economy based on indolent allocation, sharing and consumption of rent from foreigner’s enterprise in fossil oil in our land…. If we fail to restructure, the alternative for Nigeria is DISSOLUTION of the country – which is what advocates of restructuring are trying to prevent”.

Nigeria must therefore embark on a process to achieve autonomy and direct control of the resources within the regions or states of the country and Nigeria must resuscitate and intensify the infusion of national core values of integrity, social inclusion, equity and good governance as cardinal directives and principles of state policy which must be justifiable.

Ev en good leader Even leaderss canno cannott mo movve Nigeria for ward under the present structure orw Continued from page 20 they want referendum.

Meanwhile, I want the federal government to call the Igbo to a round table and discuss their problems. We all know that they have been marginalised under this government and President Buhari said in New York that some people voted for him while others did not vote for him and that those who did not vote for him were being penalised. So I think if this country is restructured, there will be job for everybody, there will better understanding, everybody will be equal in his own country, and there would be nobody who would say ‘I

am being marginalised’. I think Nigeria at 57 should be a period for Nigerian leaders to sit down and look into what is wrong and see how things could be improved. One cannot blame Buhari because he has been in government for less than three years and the problems of Nigeria have been mounting. And when people like us see former President Obasanjo parading himself as Mr Clean, as a man who knows government very well, who did very well, we laugh.

Nigeria’s problems started with him, corruption started under him, corruption in the National Assembly got a boost under him; he sold everything Nigeria had.

And when people like us see former President Obasanjo parading himself as Mr Clean, as a man who knows government very well, who did very well, we laugh.

Nigeria’s problems started with him, corruption started under him, corruption in the National Assembly got a boost under him