Nigeria, the country bequeathed us by the British colonialists, is beset with problems most of which are attributable to incompetent leadership. In their legitimate quest for positive change, Nigerians voted in large numbers for the All Progressives Congress (APC). I am one of those Nigerians who believe that dredging up a seventy two year old retired soldier, Muhammadu Buhari, to vie for the presidency for an unprecedented fourth time after his brief tenure as military head of state thirty-five years ago is counterproductive and retrogressive.
On several occasions last year, before the presidential elections, I had stated reasons for my position. I argued that Buhari is somewhat too old to lead right now, given the enormous pressure and demands of the office of the President in a fractious, economically and politically backward large country such as ours, which might take their toll on his mental and physical health. Again, I stated that his democratic credentials are very thin because of his background as a military officer for the greater part of his youth and his purist Islamic proclivities.
Buhari seemed to me then, and still does now that he is President, to be primarily concerned with the projection and protection of the interests of the core Fulani Northern establishment that had dominated political leadership in Northern Nigeria since the jihads of Uthman Dan Fodio in the nineteenth century. In otherwords, I believe that as an individual Buhari is more committed to the reaffirmation and consolidation of the hegemonic interests of the ruling elite in Northern Nigeria than to the building of a Nigerian state founded on a just and functional federalism. Sentiment aside, generally the appointments he has made thus far corroborates my belief that President Buhari looks at Nigeria through the lens of a devout Muslim Fulani man: he sees himself as a Northerner and a Muslim first before everything else.
Those who argue that Mr. President has every right to appoint whomsoever he pleases ignore the fact that in a paralytic federation like Nigeria, it is imperative for justice and fairness that appointments to top public offices must be made with a keen eye for spread and equitable representation of the various federating units.
That is why, despite his weaknesses and errors of judgment, former President Goodluck Jonathan was reasonably fair in his key political appointments by ensuring balance between the North and the South. Clearly, the recent appointment of a Northerner as Inspector General of Police to replace Solomon Arase from Edo state who retired recently is in line with the steady northernisation of key federal appointments by President Buhari. Now, it is either the President is pachydermatous to demands for restructuring Nigeria on the architectonic of a functional federation or he is still dancing to the antiquated feudalist tunes played by conservative elements in the north who believe that northerners have a historic mission to, in the words of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, “continue their uninterrupted conquest to the sea.” Of course, the President is clearly wrong for disregarding, completely, report of the 2014 national conference organized by the previous administration – it seems to me that by so doing, he carried his disdain for Jonathan too far.
To worsen matters, Buhari’s spokesperson who claimed that he is too busy to read the report inadvertently confirmed the suspicion in certain quarters that the President does not have the required intellectual dexterity and temperamental flexibility to deal with the complexities of democratic governance. That may indeed be the case, but I am not surprised that President Muhammadu Buhari is still attached to the centralised command-and-obey leadership principles he imbibed both as a high-ranking military officer and as a devout Muslim.
Those who naively swallowed lock, stock and barrel his claim of a converted democrat conveniently forgot the adage that “you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.” Even a neophyte psychologist knows that with advancing age, the probability of dropping old habits and entrenched mode of thought and imbibing new ones decreases. It is against this background that one can understand why Mr. President summarily dismissed renewed calls for restructuring the country using recommendations of the 2014 conference as a foil. Buharimaniacs in government and outside of it who think that the on-going lopsided war against corruption targeted mainly at members of the shambolic Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would somehow silence the calls for political reconstruction of the country are wasting their time. Of course, corruption is a serious problem; but the garrison federalism stipulated by the constitution is the fertiliser that nourishes it.
Let us make certain points clear. It is true, as some people have argued, that Nigeria needs attitudinal and moral revolution especially at the leadership level in order to achieve meaningful development. But even if our political leaders develop the appropriate attitude for good governance in a democratic set up, the present military-style federalism introduced by the then Col. Yakubu Gowon in 1967 would not allow the federating units, specifically the six geopolitical zones, to optimally explore the natural and human resources domiciled in their domains. To buttress my point, consider the exclusive legislative list contained in the 1999 constitution, Second Schedule, Part I. Now, even if we have good leaders, the unitarist provisions in that list would still inhibit rapid development of each federating unit because its capacity for independent and innovative development are severely limited by unnecessary straitjackets contained in the constitution.
If the military officers and their civilian collaborators who formulated the constitution wanted Nigeria to have a functional federation, there is no good reason why the exclusive list, that is, those items exclusively under the power of the federal government, should be so long to the extent of asphyxiating the states. If Nigeria operates a functional federation, why should exploration and exploitation of natural resources such as minerals, including crude oil and natural gas, be the exclusive preserve of the federal government? Why should the constitution stipulate that matters relating to labour, particularly determination of minimum wage, belong exclusively to the centre, considering the fact that the economic potentials and socio-cultural realities in the various federating units are not the same? In a sane society where members of the ruling elite genuinely appreciate the utilitarian character of governance as a tool for enhancing the well being of the greatest number of people, efforts are made towards establishing a political arrangement suitable for meeting the hopes and aspirations of the masses.
Unfortunately, in Nigeria the political class are still immersed in ethnocentrism and the quest for bulimic accumulation to the extent of refusing to learn appropriate lessons from our shambolic political history. A careful look at Nigerian history since independence would establish that, despite the teething post-independence problems of the First Republic, the regional structure inherited from the departing British colonial administrators was congenial to the pluralistic character of the country, which made possible the unprecedented economic development before the civil war almost damaged everything. Therefore, if the President and members of the National Assembly are really interested in a geopolitical paradigm for sustainable development, they should not look elsewhere: they should study both the regional system of government from 1960 to 1966 and recommendations of the 2014 national conference and distil a political arrangement that is better than what we have presently.
This suggestion is realistic, practical and achievable. Unfortunately, President Buhari and his cohorts are not keen to do what is necessary to arrest the gradual but steady weakening of the shaky foundation on which our country is built. In my opinion, the divisive character of the present administration has exacerbated the centrifugal forces that threaten the very basis of Nigeria as a single geopolitical entity.
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