Nigeria can’t be stampeded into restructuring – AGF

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has said reforms and modifications of institutional arrangements, systems and processes are normal in federations, but but added that these cannot be achieved in single swoop as being advocated in Nigeria.
During his remarks to declare open a Think-Tank Conference on ‘Federalism and the Challenges of Dynamic Equilibrium in Nigeria: Towards a National Strategy, organized by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos, Plateau State, the AGF emphasized, that change is a gradual process that must be democratic and subjected to legislative and administrative processes as provided by law and indeed the constitution.
Malami said: “We must use democratic means to reform our federal system. We need to recognize that both Federalism and democracy are mechanisms for managing diversity. Indeed , while federalism provides the institutional framework for managing diversity, democracy makes possible the negotiation of diverse identity claims by providing them with representation, voice and political mechanisms by which their competing claims are balanced and reconciled.”
Malami also pointed out that there is no true or false federalism but each federation reflects essentially the particular conditions and circumstances that produced it.
“We cannot wish away the particular conditions and circumstances that had produced the challenges in our federal system. We must use democratic means to find solutions to these numerous challenges,” he cautioned.
The AGF said democracy as the best way to go articulates citizen preferences and place limits on arbitrariness, adding that it is not out of place to state that as far as constitutional democracy is concerned, the idea of restructuring is not a function of advocacy or agitation but about constitutional accommodation.
He said: “As things stands, restricting requires amending the constitution to accommodate referendum or in the alternative an amendment to the 1999 constitution which must be supported by majority of legislators, 24 states of the federation as enshrined in section 9 of the constitution.
“Whether that process is going to be an easy sell is a conjecture that should be left for deliberation of this forum, but one thing that is certain is the inevitable implication that abolishing states through restructuring process will certainly translate to the eventual multiplier effect of abolishing the states House of Assembly and perhaps downsizing the National Assembly.”
Malami urged the think-tank conference to make usable recommendations with clear implementation strategies to enable the country move forward.