Opinion: Why Nigerians must agree to disagree on the ‘Nigerian question’

By Ayodele Adio

Just recently, former vice president Atiku Abubakar made bold proclamations on restructuring the Nigeria’s socio-political land scape. This time he wasn’t a lone wolf, other prominent Nigerians like Balarabe Musa and Dr Junaid Mohammed, just to mention but a few all seconded this fine line of thought.

Let’s be frank, there is not a single Nigerian today, home or abroad that would disagree with the notion that this nation can only accelerate its development by undergoing certain reforms whether it is political, structural or even systemic. This phenomenon is usually described as the Nigerian question.

Recent evidence, occasioned by various disgruntled elements in the North East, the Middle Belt, the South East and more recently the South-South, suggests an urgent need to expand our minimalist view of the Nigeria question and allow a holistic and robust conceptualization of the issues.

Perhaps, underestimating the tremendous effort required for initiating political and systemic reforms and most probably overrating its intended success might prove to be the biggest gaffe of the 21st century. Nevertheless we must engage the satus-quo and breed news ideas that could conceive a more harmonious and prosperous nation.

The 2014 national conference, one that witnessed a series of intellectual judo from the finest Nigerian minds recommended a true federal system with states as its federating units. It also argued in favour of fiscal federalism by placing more resources in the hands of states and local governments.

One major question that needs to be asked, however, is how well states have fared in this current design with regards to management of resources, creation of economic opportunities and respect for rights and privileges of citizens.

21 of the 35 states are currently insolvent, only very few states have allowed local governments function effectively, many have hijacked the house of assemble and strangled the judiciary. Wouldn’t it be suicidal to give such governors more resources and control over their states?

The key problem with the argument for federalism, where structural or fiscal, however noble, is that the proponents of such ideas see it as the magic bullet rather than an element in a series of reforms that need to move in congruence to deliver meaningful results. Sadly a majority of the campaigners still see Nigeria as a big fruity cake and federalism will help increase their chance of getting a slice. The real tragedy is that everyone wants a slice but no one wants to bake the cake.

If we have learnt anything from the various agitation, civil unrests and in many cases a violent expression of marginalization is that we need farm more than a structural reform to move this nation forward.

This writer believes strongly that systems are designed by humans, structures are also managed by humans and government is a collection of individuals elected by humans, therefore no political, structural or systemic reform can thrive at the expense or the personal reformation and transformation of the average Nigerian.

Except we change, the system will never work. It starts and ends with us. We must do away with our chauvinistic tendencies and see ourselves as humans first.

Until a northerner understands the destruction of the Niger delta terrain, its effects on life expectancy and the economic exclusion while we all looked the other way, we hardly would make any progress. Until the south understand the effect of climate change on animal husbandry, their struggle with rustlers and their ancestral ties to nomads try, we will be guilty of criminalizing the Fulani race.

Except we weep collectively when the people of Agatu weeps or rise up collectively to demand justice for innocent Nigerians shot at by soldiers in the south east, we all will have bold in our hand and not even the holy federal system of government would save us.

The constitution of this country read “we the people…..”, whereas there was no WE. We must sit together to debate, engage, disagree and agree on how we want to be governed but most importantly how we want to live with each other. Whether we choose to stay together or not let it be the exclusive resolve of the people. The British may have been short sighted, greedy or even mischievous when they chose this marriage for us, but were are on our own today and the future of this nation and particularly its people will be hinged on the decisions we make.


Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Ayodele Adio can be reached via @iamayolawal

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