The issue of restructuring is a complex political matter and therefore an optimal combination of some of the “Badges of Restructuring” is highly recommended.
To start with, there are two extremities in the restructuring continuum: A retention the current status quo at one extremity and the balkanization of the country as in the former Yugoslavia or USSR, at the other extremity!
In between these two extremities, we have variations and combinations of the restructuring models the badges of political restructuring are as follows:
To maintain the current Central Police organization or to allow the State Police arrangement under the control of each State Governor.
Are we to retain the current Federal system of government or to choose a unitary system or operate a confederation as in Switzerland?
Are we to retain the existing Presidential system of government or to revert to the old, post-colonial Parliamentary Democracy?
Must we decongest the Exclusive Legislative List and if so, how much and what remains in the Exclusive List after the decongestion exercise?
What about the issue of Fiscal Federalism and the Resource Control?
It must be noted that the decongestion of the Exclusive Legislative List and Fiscal Federalism/Resource Control are interrelated.
Must the Federal or Central Authority continue to hand out monthly allocation of funds to the 36 states, FCT and the 774 Local Government Areas or the States and the Local Governments should be autonomous and be wealthy enough to remit adequate periodic fees and royalties to the Federal/Central Authority to enable it perform the limited functions in the restructured Exclusive Legislative List?
Must we have a two-chamber Federal Legislature and must they be run on fulltime basis?
Must the Executive Offices of the President, the State Governor and the Local Government Chairman be for two terms or single tenor and if single term, how many years for each of the 3 offices?
Should the State Independent Electoral Commission continue to manage the electoral activities of the 36 States or the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should take over the elections of the Local Government Chairmen and the Councilors?
Should the Local Government be given the autonomy to operate freely as the third tier level of government and as an independent Federating unit in the Federal structure or be subsumed under the State Government as currently in practice?
Is Nigeria going to be run as a Theocracy or remains a Secular State with the Freedom of Religion and the freedom to change Religion?
Must the country maintain its current multi-party democracy or operate a new 2-party system on ideological divide with Independent Candidacy?
Must Nigerian Democracy continue to be rigidly and ruthlessly defined as a game of numbers? We must note that the number itself is not absolute and can be further qualified!
In an election situation, must we define or qualify the majority of numbers with respect to age qualification, educational qualification; or other qualifications relating to gender, social status, mental health, physical health, financial weight, race, ethnicity, religion or geographical origination?
We should recall that in the Apartheid South Africa, the black race in numerical majority were not given the franchise to vote nor be voted for, because the racist white South Africans considered the blacks as inferior race, referring to the blacks as a stupid majority that must not be allowed to rule over the superior minority whites!
The American blacks were not allowed to vote nor be voted for until after the civil rights struggles.
In Nigeria there are age qualifications for electoral participations! In view of the complexities and the different interpretations in the definition or qualification of the numerical majority, should Nigerian Democracy be guided to be all inclusive to provide consciously for the main factors that cause divisions amongst our people or to leave it unguided to cause the unintended consequence of hatred, disunity, loss of mutual trusts, sabotage and disintegration?
Can we alternate and rotate especially the Executive Offices of the President, the State Governor and the Local Government Chairman, amongst the constituent sections of the political entity, be it the country as a whole, the state or the local government area so as to ensure that the divisive elements of Religion, Region/Geo-Political Zone, and Ethnicity are fully provided for in the strategic political arrangement?
Nigeria is a plural socio-cultural entity with over 250 ethnic nationalities of differing religious beliefs, different languages, customs, traditions and different cultures.
The Presidential form of government with its checks and balances amongst the three Arms of government is considered more suitable for the Nigerian peculiarities, than the volatile and the unstable Parliamentary democracy.
The President as both the Executive and the Ceremonial Head of State in a Presidential democracy is elected for a specified period, currently 4yrs in Nigeria, and not to be changed frequently as in the Parliamentary Democracy for not escaping the “Vote of No Confidence”!
An election in Nigeria is very costly in terms of the social, political and financial costs and must not be carried out so frequently as in the parliamentary system of government. The Nigerian Peculiar Presidential system can be modified to make it less expensive.
The issue of state police or community police is not new in Nigeria. We had the NA Police in the 1960’s that were very ruthless and were used as the instrument of legitimate violence and an apparatus of legitimate coercion against political opponents!
It is believed that the National Security should be Centrally controlled otherwise, things may degenerate into situations whereby the states or the regions/geo-political zones could declare their complete autonomy from the central government and that could lead to disintegration.
My suggested optimal mix in the political restructuring exercise is:
A Presidential, Federal system of government having the Central, the states and the local governments as the federating units, executive political power being alternated/rotated between/amongst the constituent sections; very slim Exclusive Legislative List with only items such as security including policing, diplomacy/foreign affaires, uniform currency, fiscal and monetary policies being managed by the Central government;
Unicameral-PartTime Legislature;
Adjustment in revenue sharing formulae in line with the new responsibilities of the federating units which should properly include the local governments, and a single tenor 6-yr term for the President and the State Governor while the Local Government chairman has only 4-yr single tenor;
And the abolition of the state’s independent electoral commission, leaving only the INEC to conduct all elections!
This is my optimal restructured Nigerian State; how about that?
– Dr. Phillips Salawu, FCA, FCS, FCTI, FFIA, ACIB, CPFA.
Former Deputy Governor, Kogi State.
