The submission of the former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, GCON on the restructuring of the Nigerian Political system is very instructive.
Likewise are the submissions also of Pastor Tunde Bakare, General Alani Ipoola Akinrinade(Rtd.),Mohammed Haruna,Senator Musa Adede, Bishop Mike Okonkwo, Chief Wole Olanipekun, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Senator Femi Okunronmu and others.
I have read the four books by Colonel Tony Nyiam (Rtd.) especially his 169page book on “TRUE FEDERAL DEMOCRACY OR AWAITING IMPLOSION?”. I agree with his suggestion on the need for the creation for a National Institute for the strategic management of Nigeria’s Security. And those who know Nigeria well enough don’t joke with the views of Colonel Tony Nyiam.
During the tenure of General Sanni Abacha, leaders and Obas in Lagos,Oyo,Osun,Ondo and Ogun met on April 6, 1994. Ekiti state was yet to be created as at then. The present Ekiti was still part of Ondo state. The meeting took place in Abeokuta. At the end of the meeting a draft memorandum was prepared by a committee. As a follow up of the Abeokuta meeting, a memorandum was prepared and approved at a meeting held on May 11 1994 in Akure. The memorandum was adopted by acclamation at the Akure meeting. That memorandum represented the soul and authoritative views of all the Obas, Chiefs, Leaders of Thought and the entire People of Lagos,Ogun,Ondo,Osun and Oyo States of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The memorandum was signed by the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Ooni of Ife,Oba Okunade Sijuade, the Owa Obokun of Ijesha land, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran, Oba Adebola Oyedokun of Saaki, Oba Osuolale Adeyemi of Isheri ,the Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba R. A. Adejugbe, the Alaaaye of Efon Alaaye, Oba Adesanya Aladejare, Chief Isiaka Adeleke, Tunji Abolade, Soun of Ogbomosho, Oba Oyeyemi Oladunni Ajagungbade, the Aseyin of Iseyin, Oba Wuraola Adeyeri, the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Emmanuel Adegboyega Operinde, the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Afolabi Oguntade Salau Oyefusi, the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Olatubosun Tadese, the Akran of Badagry D.E. Wheno Menu Toyi, Chief Segun Osoba, Dr. Femi Okunronmu, Dr. Sola Soiele, Dr. Festus Adesanoye,Osemawe of Ondo, the Deji of Akure, Oba Adebobaje Adesida, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, Chief Adebayo Adefarati, Chief George Akosile, Major General Adeyinka Adebayo, Chief Michael Ajasin, Chief Ilemobajo Akinola, Senator Remi Okunriboye, Major General Olufemi Olutoye, Professor Biyi Afonja, Chief Owosina, Chief Olu Falae, Chief Abiola Morakinyo, Mrs. Jumoke Olojede, Chief Bisi Akande, Alaafin Of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, Chief Yusufu Ayinla, Alhaj Umoni Alade, Chief Yesufu Ayinla,the Owa of Idanre, Oba Federick Adegunle Aroloye, Chief Ladoju Ladapo, Chief Pekun Adesokan,Chief Bola Ige, Chief Akin Omojola, Oba Adesanya Aladejare in Efon Alaye, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Professor Adebayo Adedeji, Chief A.O. Anjorin, Chief Adeyiga Ajayi, Alhaji G. O. Dawodu, the Oba of Lagos, Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, Chief TOS Benson, Chief Odeyale, Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya among others.
To me the views represents till today the authentic views of the Yoruba people on the issue of restructuring.
They declared” We are convinced that the cause of Nigeria’s federalism will be well and truly advanced if we return to the pre-1996 evolutionary path: a balanced federal structure which recognizes fully the legitimate claims of all ethnic groups for self-determination and where no single entity among the federating units will be strong or powerful enough to hold the others to ransom, but where each of the federating units is large enough, both in terms of size and population as well as of resources, to be viable, self-reliant and dynamic. Other relevant factors include the homogeneity of each federating unit, geographic contiguity among the units of a region and demonstrable willingness to be together. In pursuance of the principle of self-determination and in the interest of the sustainability, any state or community shall have the opportunity to decide, through the democratic process, the region of its choice in the light of these criteria. In the light of the foregoing criteria, we propose the restructuring of Nigeria into six federating units to be known as Regions. The six regions shall be Western, Eastern, Southern, North-Western, North-Eastern and Middle Belt Regions. The Western Region will group together the following States: Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo and all other Yoruba-speaking communities wherever they may be in the Federation. The States that will constitute the other regions will be decided by their people subject to the observation of the principle of self-determination”. With the restructuring into six viable and potentially dynamic and prosperous regions, individually and collectively serving as a countervailing force to the centralizing tendencies of the centre, Nigeria will be constituted a Federation of six Regions. Each would have the power to prepare its own constitution and determine its political structure, its legislative organs and the structure of its executive, provided that nothing in the constitution of the Regions conflicts with the fundamental tenets of federalism and with principles of the federal constitution.
The function of the federal government must be clearly spelt out. Residual powers must lie with the Regions. The Federal Government shall have no power to interfere in or take over any function of the Regional Government. Similarly, it shall have no power to interfere with the operations of any Regional Government. Each Region shall determine the number functions and power of its constituent institutions.
The National Assembly shall be bi-cameral: House of the People and the Upper House. Members shall be elected or designated for a period of four years with the possibility of re-election. Membership of the House of the People shall be by universal suffrage with constituencies delineated on the basis of population, contiguity, homogeneity and territorial expanse. Each Region shall send an equal number of representatives to the upper House, one-quarter of whom must be traditional ruler from within that Region. Each Region will be free to determine the basis and method of election/selection of its representative to that House.
The Head of Government shall be the Prime Minister who shall be appointed by the President. The Person to be so appointed, shall be the leader of the party or of a coalition of parties which has the support of the majority of the members of the House of the People. Whenever he loses such support he shall resign or be dismissed. The Prime Minister shall be free to form his Government which must receive the immediate endorsement of the House of the people through a vote of confidence. The Prime Minister shall resign or be dismissed whenever the majority of the House of the People withdraws its support.
There shall be provision for power-sharing in the Constitution. Power configuration shall be accorded a zoning status on rotational basis. For this purpose, five key portfolios(such as Internal Affairs and Petroleum) in addition to the office of the Prime Minister, shall be identified in the Constitution and be assigned to five Deputy Prime Ministers drawn from the five Regions, other than Region from which the Prime Minster hails.
For avoidance of doubt, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Ministers and all members of government shall be elected members of the House of the People.”
“The principle of derivation in which each Region will retain an overwhelming share, if not all, of the revenue accruing from the tax imposed on the natural resources within its territory, shall apply.
Revenue from the exploitation and custom duties shall be put in distributable pool account to be shared between the Federal and the Regional Governments in accordance with an agreed formula, but with special consideration being given to the Region(s) where the facilities for their collection are located. Every effort must be made o achieve self-reliance in mobilizing resources by all the Regions and the Federation. In particular, no Region must take proportionally more than what it contributes to the Federation financially. There shall be no direct Federal allocation to State Local governments.
With regard to the power of personal and direct taxation, such as personal income tax, capital-gains tax, sales tax and property tax, governments shall have the right to levy them that provided that, in order to ensure efficiency, a uniform tax base should be applied and tax rate split between the Federal and Regional Governments. The rate of tax can differ from region to region so that regional revenue can be enhanced to respond to the special needs of a particular region and in accordance with the ability and willingness if the citizens to pay higher taxes”.
These were the views expressed twenty-two years ago.
These views are still being re-echoed today because they are important and vital to our co-existence as a nation. The question is no longer whether restructuring is desired or not, we have passed that stage.
The issue is when and how it will be implemented without amending the present presidential constitution that is in use. Will the present legislators and the executives allow for such an amendment knowing fully well that the present system benefits them?
ERIC TENIOLA, A FORMER DIRECTOR AT THE PRESIDENCY, STAYS IN LAGOS.
END
Charles Ogbu wrote
In Defense Of Goodluck Jonathan:
First, let me make one thing very clear here. I did not support GEJ during the last election, not because he was not better than the other bad news from daura but because despite his very good record as a democrat and a gentleman president plus his excellent economic achievements, I still considered him too weak and not competent enough to deserve my vote especially after the insensitive manner he treated the immigration job tragedy. I was at the national stadium. I saw my friend die in the stampede. When Jonathan refused to sack anybody for the job scam and the avoidable deaths that followed, I immediately knew the gods and the spirit of my dead friend would not forgive me if I gave this man my vote as insignificant as it was. I never made any post nor comment in support of GEJ during the electioneering campaign. But in all these, I never lost sight of the fact that mentioning the name GEJ and Buhari in the same sentence with a view to comparing them remained a moral tragedy.
This article is borne out of a sincere desire not to sit back and watch morally bankrupt men twist history and destroy an innocent man with devilish lies. Having said these, let me come to the reason why I’m here.
Undiluted, unadulterated, crude hate for Jonathan as a person and the desire to ensure his name is never associated with anything good is one thing every APC member and Buhari supporter have in common.
This common characteristic is so strong…too strong, even! Matter of fact, it is stronger than the feeling of kinship that bind marijuana smokers together. If you are ‘a ganja man’, you will understand my drift here.
Whether they belong to the Saraki faction, Tinubu faction, Buhari faction or even the latter day wailer-wanna-be faction, this common trait is the power house of all their activities the exact way the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
When you hear the APC tell you that the 16 years of PDP government is the cause of all our woes today, it is not the PDP they want you to blame, it is not even Obasanjo who ruled for 8 solid years and is now the APC navigator-in-chief, it is Jonathan who was in power just for 5 years they want to incite you against.
If you don’t believe me, ask yourself how come over 70% of all those holding public offices under APC today are ex-members of the PDP? Check all the ministers, governors, NASS members etc, over 70% of them left the PDP and were welcomed into the APC with an open arm and a baptism which washed away their sins and turned them to saints.
If the APC strongly believe the PDP destroyed Nigeria, why welcome the same people into their party? Does this make any sense? Or is it just the acronym “PDP” that is the problem? Their target is GEJ.
If not hate, why would anyone claim that Jonathan ran the most corrupt government in Nigeria history?? Do these guys think we all have amnesia?? So if we keep quite so as not to be accused of being paid by Jonathan or the PDP, these children of ‘Liar Muhammed’ will just alter history before our very eyes? So we have suddenly forgotten Abacha so soon?? Have we forgotten that all the monies Dasuki is accused of sharing is not up to half of the very first set of stolen money recovered as Abacha loot, the same Abacha-thieving-government their mini god; Buhari not only served under but vehemently defended and even swore by the seven gods that he didn’t steal a dime. This is even as billions of dollars (not naira) of the loot has continued to be returned to Nigeria.
Have we suddenly forgotten the OBJs, the IBBs, the Abdulsalamis, the Buharis, the Gowons etc who ran under the military system of govt where there is no form of transparency? Or, they just selected only Jonathan’s government for probe and concluded it was the most corrupt? Which one did they compare it with or has it not occurred to them that for a thing to be adjudged the worst, it must have been compared with other things??
These other men including the late Sani Abacha ruled the country with decree and looted as they wanted but it is Jonathan who was in power for just 5 years that is the biggest thief in Nigeria history??? Chai! Little wonder, these lying liars were able to twist history and sell the calamity called Buhari to Nigerians.
First, they lied that Jonathan bought no single weapon for the military to prosecute the war on terror. When this lie could no longer stick, they amended it and claimed he actually bought some weapon but that they were substandard and were all backfiring and killing soldiers who were supposed to use them to fight boko haram. When Nigerians queried which weapon the APC government used to achieve ‘technical victory’ over boko haram since the ones acquired by Jonathan were all fake, the lying minister of information; Lai Muhammed contradicted himself again by admitting the Jonathan govt bought some good military hardware but that the prices were hugely exaggerated. Na one government dey churn out all those wicked puerile lies ooo.
Meanwhile, we all saw the newly acquired military hardwares the GEJ administration secured from Russian after the U.S and her allies refused selling us weapon as a result of petition written to them in which El-rufai, Murtala Nyako (ex-Adamawa state governor) and some Northern/APC leaders accused GEJ of using the military to reduce the population of the North under the guise of fighting Boko haram. And we all witnessed as our soldiers used those weapons to liberate all our territories held by boko haram and sent the terrorists disguising as females to escape their superior firepower. Nigerians were all hash-tagging #NeverAgain as the military were combing the Sambisa forest in search of the boko haram boys.
All these happened a little over a year ago. We could’t have forgotten, could we?
We have also not forgotten that the boko boys were able to regroup immediately Buhari came to power because he (Buhari) dismantled all military roadblocks set up purposely to checkmate their activities. We are not unaware of the fact that the same people hellbent on blaming Jonathan even for the 1914 almagamation hailed that ill-adviced move.
Another lie they’ve come up with is that GEJ caused our current economic woes by allowing those who served under him loot the treasury.
This is a very big lie and here is why: Corruption alone don’t kill an economy. Else, our economy would have died a long time ago because they’ve always been corruption in the system right from the very first post-independence govt of Nnamdi Azikiwe and Tafawa Balewa. Leaders of every military coup have always cited corruption as the reason for their intervention. There was systemic corruption during GEJ’s era just as there has always been systemic corruption but the big question is:
How come the only two times Nigeria has gone into recession was in1984 when Muhammadu Buhari was in power and 2016 when the same Muhammadu Buhari is in power again?? Despite all the looting in Abacha govt, Nigeria didn’t go into recession. Despite all the looting by all the other military rulers, we didn’t go into recession. The only two times was 3 decades ago and now…..all under thesame Buhari. Haba! Even if you are incapable of any sort of intelligent reasoning, you should be able to figure this one out at least
Let’s even look at the two reasons advanced by IMF as the reasons for the recession:
1) Plunging oil revenue as a result of the crises in the Niger Delta which is the location of the oil the economy is heavily depended on
2) Weakened investors confidence in the country/economy.
It is on record that barely two weeks after being sworn in as president, Buhari resurrected the Niger Delta crises by bombing the region, cutting the amnesty budget drastically and terminating the oil pipeline given to the ex-militants. The rush with which those actions were taken tend to suggest that public interest was the last thing on the president’s mind. In addition, Buhari went to America and made it clear he would discriminate against those who didn’t give him 97% of their vote.
Whatever lies we chose to believe, we must not forget that these reckless ill-conceived actions of president Buhari were hugely responsible for the current crises in the Niger Delta which has led to plunging oil revenue blamed as one of the reasons for the recession.
Weakened investors confidence: When Buhari took over from GEJ, rather than hit the ground running, he abandoned not just the economy but the entire country. He left the whole country on autopilot. No government in place, no minister, no economic direction. No nothing! For over 6 months. Six whole months! Now tell me, if you were an investor looking for where to invest your money, would you invest in such an economy?? Would you??
After every election, investors always wait for the new government to reel out her economic policy to enable them consider their chances of getting favourable return should they invest in such an economy. These guys are businessmen, not some bunch of “money miss road”. Buhari single handedly weakened their confidence by leaving the entire country and the economy on autopilot for over six months.
Is this even debatable??
How exactly did Jonathan cause our current economic woes??
Even if we must lie to ourselves, how can we believe our own lies??
He (Buhari) complained he met a treasury that was almost empty which is a lie because a man who met a virtually empty treasury would not start building a helipad in his hometown in daura. Such a man would not start traveling all over the world in company of governors from his APC party.
Jonathan had one of the best economic team. What Buhari have in place of economic team is a bunch of sycophants who are mostly lawyers like the V.P, the national planning minister, the president’s chief of staff who are all lawyers by profession and the trade and investment minister who is a medical doctor. The economists in the so called economic advisory team are not up to 4. Please don’t take my word for it. Do your own research.
The over six months Buhari wasted before forming his govt, the fact that he doesn’t have a competent economic team and his reckless action in bombing the Niger Delta, the reckless manner he terminated the oil pipeline contract which was part of the amnesty deal with the militants and slashing the amnesty budget were the main reasons why our economy went south. Jonathan didn’t cause all these, did he?
Now, let us even assume that Jonathan looted everything, did he loot Buhari’s brain and his economic management abilities?? Did he??
Isn’t it 15 months already? Is 15 months not long enough for citizens to start feeling the impact of a government headed by a man who spent 12 solid years begging for the job and promising that he had studied all our problems and was already to solve them all if only we would elect him president???
Jonathan is human. He is no saint. He has his faults but he was a democrat. As president, he was a perfect gentleman. When he was stoned in Bauchi, he ran and was whisked away by his security details. None of those Bauchi-stone throwing boys were even arrested but under Buhari, an ordinary army chief killed hundreds of people for blocking his convoy.
Jonathan conceded defeat to Buhari in the 2015 election but in 2011 when he ran under a little known newly formed CPC, Buhari rejected the election result and incited his followers into killing hundreds of innocent Nigeria including youth corpers.
Jonathan had plans. He was slow but he did have plans, some of which we are already seeing.
The worst enemy Jonathan had was his media team. They were completely useless. These hopelessly incompetent bunch failed to bring most of GEJ achievements in the open. But those achievements are still there. Person Wey Dey Cry Still Dey See Road.
Let me just end this with this free piece of advice to my APC brethren:
The best way to defend a govt that is 15 months old in office is by reeling out its achievements, not by blaming the government before it. Buhari was not voted in as president just so he could spend the whole tenure telling us who and who caused our problem. We already know those who caused our problems and Buhari is one of them. He was voted in because he promised he had the solutions.
Enough of the blame game and Jonathan bashing. Even if you must blame Jonathan, you don’t have to lie against him. It is morally reprehensible.
Let’s I forget, Jonathan paid me 2billion dollars to write this, so don’t bother accusing me of being paid.