In 50 Shades of Federalism, Dele Babalola of the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy, Baze University, Abuja, in his piece titled ‘Nigeria: A Federation In Search Of Federalism’, depicts Nigeria as a federation without federalism. He writes that “Nigerian federation epitomises an incomplete federal arrangement. The feelings of marginalisation, which had been suppressed during the military era are fully expressed by ethno-regional groups in the post-military era and these feelings find expression in the potent agitation for a more functional federal system. Nigeria is a federation operating a federal constitution but in practice the country works as a unitary state, a fallout of the centralising tendencies that have come to characterise the governmental system”.
If a nation expects different and beautiful results, yet doing the same ugly thing; the leaders must be mentally unstable. They have got to be suffering from a combination of delirium, psychosis, and Alzheimer’s. These are words of Fola Ojo, a columnist with Punch Newspaper, in his piece titled True Federalism: Nigeria’s Only Hope For Survival. “Nigeria’s central government is an obnoxiously obese and sleazy suzerain that chews more than it can swallow”, he submits. Despite calls and cries from various corners on the need for the Nigeria to jettison the offensively unbearable unitary system of governance, the body language from Abuja doesn’t show that the centre is ready to let go, not minding if it is able to offer productive and progressive governance or not.
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Despite the apparent lack of capacity and will to address the insecurity ravaging different parts of the country, alleged culpability of the security agencies in checking the menace of bandits, systemic corruption permeating all levels, a so-called Mines Marshals, 2,200 in number, were unveiled few days back by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development. The mining marshals approach is another move by the federal government to secure solid mineral sites. Years of military campaigns have not ended the banditry majority believe is fueled by the quest for solid mineral prospecting and the need for the people to control their resources. Rather, it is like the guys in charge of restoring law and order are already swallowed by the rot.
This situation elicits the question: who really owns the land and who should control the resources in the land? Answering this questions will raise other questions. Is Abuja trying to hold unto what it cannot control or handle? Is it possible for the centre to effectively superintend and administer all resources in remote locations from the centre without the cooperation of the people living on the land? If Nigeria’s federal government is finding it tough to give Nigeria a productive and very effective governance, and job creation as well as wealth creation has proved to be an arduous mission to accomplish, is it not an indication that for the country to be worth living in, the present top-down unitary system can never work – and should be dismantled without further delay?
The agitations in the Niger Delta coupled with the banditry activities permeating the northern regions as well as the illegal mining activities all over are clear indications that for Nigeria to fully maximize its potential, governance must be bottom-up and the people must control their resources. The centre should understand that it will pay all stakeholders if they take interests or contributions from the federating units instead of holding unto the idea of bringing realized funds to the centre to now distribute to the federating units. What gets to the resource-extraction centres becomes so minute and insignificant to the extent that rewards cannot match the extracted resource. In this instance, people will revolt, economic development will not be possible, crimes will increase, there will be sustained agitations and unrests, peace and progress will become a mirage.
According to Dr. Dons Eze, in his piece titled Banditry As Resource Control, “borrowing a leaf from the Niger Delta experience, youths from the northern part of the country began to press for their own resource control. For more than ten years now, the North has been holding the country to ransom through one form of violent activity or the other, and the government has been responding by funneling the nation’s common wealth to them through various means. Every year, a huge chunk of the country’s budget is dedicated to fighting insurgency”. So the problems currently bedeviling Nigeria, the insecurity throughout the nooks and crannies of the country, is resource control war. Wouldn’t it be more effective if Nigeria immediate go for fiscal federalism and the federating units, the states, take charge of resources in their domains?
According to Steemit, in every political relationship, the state (that is a federating unit in a country) is the convention point. The state hosts a relationship between itself, groups and individuals in the system; therefore, as stated by Dele Babalola, as a way out of the over-centralisation of the system, which is causing untold hardship, poverty, insecurity, mismanagement of assets, corruption in gargantuan proportion, “the country’s fiscal federalism should emphasise revenue generation rather than revenue distribution”. It is what will return wealth creation, employment generation and fiscal viability to the federating units. Abuja must let go and let the states generate their own revenues by fully tapping available resources, whether material or human, in their domains. The people must be made to less reliant and less dependent on the federal.
Ola Emmanuel is a business planning consultant
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