By Jude Opara

Recently, Nigerians were once more jolted when President Muhammadu Buhari was reported to have declared that those calling for Secession and Restructuring are naïve and ignorant of war. The statement is very worrisome given that at the moment the country is going through a turbulent period which has resulted in strident calls by some well meaning Nigerians for the country to be restructured.

President Buhari had reportedly made that statement through the Executive Secretary, Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Alhaji Mohammed Bello Shehu, who represented him at an occasion.

Shehu gave the President’s address as a Special Guest of Honour during the launch of the Kudirat Abiola Sabon Gari, Zaria Peace Foundation which took place at Ahmadu Bello University Hotels, Zaria, Kaduna State.

He also warned secessionists and agitators to cease their agitation, saying Nigeria is a dominant force in West Africa.

According to reports, Buhari said that the nation is not restructuring, adding that most people carrying the subject do not even understand what they are talking about.

“And again, those who are discussing restructuring, my question is what are you going to restructure?” Buhari asked.

“If you ask many Nigerians what are they going to restructure, you will find out that they have nothing to talk about. Some of them have not even studied the 1999 constitution. The 1999 constitution is almost 70 to 80 percent 1979 constitution.”

It is a well known fact that President has over the years spoken to suggest that either he does not understand what it means to restructure Nigeria or he deliberately does not want a change from the status quo.

This concern can also be stretched to suggest that given the disposition of the of 9^th National Assembly that has declared that whatever the President wants, he would get the legislative support to have it, the ongoing Constitutional amendment being undertaken by the legislative arm will be another effort in futility because the statement credited to Buhari has surely set the tone for the National Assembly to rubbish the entire exercise.

It is very disturbing when the Commander- in- Chief of the country speaks in the way he was quoted to have spoken because it appears there was deliberate effort to confuse the demand for secession and restructuring with a call for war. Supposing without conceding that the demand for some people for secession could lead to war, how then do we also muddle restructuring with the same war cry?

It is equally unfair to continue to profile some people by no other person than the President when he keeps talking of who has what asset in which part of the country. The last time I checked, there is no law banning Nigerians from owning property in any part of the country. Also, those Nigerians who have the confidence to go to other places other their own states or tribes to build and live are the true Nigerians who truly love the country. Therefore it is unfortunate when people would be blackmailed with property they worked very hard to own just because they are asking for a equity and fairness.

Certainly, the call for restructuring does not in any way suggest that the country would be divided. Those calling for restructuring are rather great patriots who are genuinely concerned about the state of affairs, hence the need to put in place a system that would effectively douse the tension.

The President said; “The other issue is that those who are calling for restructuring and conference on what they call ethnic nationality, if you go to Southern Kaduna, Taraba, who is to represent them? We have different combinations of ethnicities in many states. Even Kano and Kaduna Igbo have properties. The same goes with Yorubas.

“There are Fulani in Port Harcourt. So those calling for separation or restructuring, some of them I will say are very naive or even mischievously dangerous. Those agitating for restructuring are ignorant of war and its consequences because Nigeria is a dominant force in West Africa.

 “There is no government in the world that will cede their authority to the people that are not elected.

“You are telling us to resolve a system and call for an obscure conference to come and discuss how we can move forward as a nation, that can never be done and no country will agree to that.

“So those who are doing that should go back and meet their representatives in the House of Assembly and ask for whatever amendment of the constitution. Due process should be followed.”

Again, it must be stated that the Nigerian people have the right to call for a meeting or dialogue of the ethnic nationalities to discuss the way forward for the country. It is wrong for the President to declare as obscure a conference that will entail the people of Nigeria coming together to decide the way forward for the country.

Many analysts have wondered why it has sudden become alien for President Buhari to come to terms with restructuring when it was one of the cardinal campaign points of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) prior to the 2015 elections.

In fact, in 2014 when Buhari then as a presidential candidate of the APC went to Chatham House in London and among others declared himself as a born-again-democrat. He promised to enthrone True Federalism, devolve power to the states and local governments as well as institute State Police and Community Policing.

Also, the APC administration set up the Mallam Nasir El-Rufai Committee on Restructuring. But surprisingly, years after that committee submitted its report, the government has continued to pretend it does not know that such a committee ever existed, just as the report which must have cost huge sums of public funds is fast gathering dust in a shelve somewhere.

The government is rather lowering its standard by continuously issuing war threats to any dissenting voice because even if the country plunges into another civil war, at the end of the day the resolution will still be on a round table. Therefore why not do the dialogue now instead of the constant resort to war threats?

Frankly speaking, there is no ambiguity about restructuring because everybody clearly understands what it is all about. It is rather unfair when some people will come out to say that those who are talking or restructuring should first restructure themselves.

Restructuring is a way of making every component unit of the country to strive and do certain things on their own and pay an agreed tax or royalty to the centre. It is a sharp departure to the “feeding bottle federalism” of today where states rush to Abuja every month to share revenue. The system is encouraging laziness and corruption because the state governments know that no matter what happens, there will be money to be shared at the end of the month.  

In the past when the country practiced real federal system of government, there were healthy agitations among the then three regions because each of them had some element of autonomy to do certain things on their own. And that was how Nigeria had three of its foremost universities: the University College Ibadan, University of Nigeria Nsukka and the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.

Successive governments must begin to divest interest in the petroleum deposit in the Niger Delta, because it appears that the real reason for confusing the issue of restructuring is the fear of losing the opportunity of presiding over the revenue there from. But such people have forgotten that there are a lot more the country can get from giving the other units the challenge to dig deep and work out what they have. There is no gainsaying that the spate of insecurity is a direct consequence of the system we are currently running.

One other reason why restructuring or federalism is very apt at the moment is that it will make the government at the centre less attractive. It will engender a lasting peace because people will be as interested in developing their state or region as they want Nigeria to also develop.