It took some months, within a space of three years, for the then leaders of Nigeria to throw away the pledged allegiance to the Queen as enshrined in the Independence Constitution (by coming up with the first republic constitution). But for decades now what the usurpers, the military, wrote in their own constitution is difficult to thrash. One wonders if real people-leaders (such as the country is blessed with in the 50s, 60s, and 90s) can no longer be found in Nigeria. Today’s politicians are full time money-mongers and are so power-craze to an extent that politicking has become a money-spinning industry. The people, over 200 million, seem to be on their own because their representatives are less bothered by their plights.
Whether what the military did in 1966 and their subsequent actions (over years) met the provisions in Section 4 of the 1963 Republic Constitution should be of concern to everyone looking for good governance for Nigeria. It is clear to all right thinking individuals that the socio-political and economic challenges bedevilling the country today is as a result of what happened in 1966. Therefore for the country to experience a fresh breath of good life, we must return to the original document that recognise the poly-ethnic and pluralist country that Nigeria is.
The 1963 constitution was necessary because being an independence state is not the same as being a sovereign republic. Likewise a document that establishes a government of the people for the people and by the people cannot be seen as the same with one written by the military to form a government for the people, no matter the manner of amendments that may take place inasmuch as it refuses to touch the fundamentals and recognises the unique needs of the different nations that were brought together. The 1963 republic constitution clearly, in letters and spirit, stated that Nigeria was no longer under the indirect rulership of the Queen of England (that the 1960 constitution represented). The question today is, when will Nigeria come out of the indirect rulership of the military – that the 1999 constitution represents?
Twenty five years of the fourth republic, the immediate and very urgent task before all Nigerians is how to make governance and political offices unattractive to political jobbers by thoroughly demonetising it. Also, the rush for the centre at the expense of the constituent components needs to be discouraged by making the centre less attractive. The present federal system is not only very expensive but that contestants and their followers could kill and maim in order to occupy political offices, and the people they claim to represent could hardly derive any benefit or get value for self-rule, is a pointer to the fact that all is not well with the current system and structure. The all-powerful president and governors, emperors in real sense, is nothing more but despotic and dictatorial as things are. Why must everybody be waiting on Abuja? Why unitary, top-down command and the remote, far-flung locations are to be controlled from the centre? That we have such tendencies at present allude to the fact that the military style of governance and the document they handed over for civilian rule is very much still in operation.
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The present federal government is currently reforming the economy. But an economic reform that is not thorough, wholesome and sustainable is going to be an exercise or a reform in futility. Without recognising productivity and rewarding it, indolence and reliance on the federal for resource allocation and distribution will continue to be the order. But a working economy isn’t one that gives from the centre or passing it down from the top. A thriving economy that is ready to grow more is one that recognises component’s parts’ comparative advantages and allow the component parts to be in charge. Nigeria’s economy needs thorough rejigging. Resources and production must return to the people. The people must control resources and the centre must be satisfied with what it gets as contributions from the states or regions.
Ola Emmanuel is a business planning consultant
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