At the heart of our existence, is a burning issue that several administrations have battled to suppress. For too long, we have passed on the opportunity to restructure this country. We can continue to live in denial for as long as we like, but the truth is, we are clearly a stretched entity. We seem to be forcing several “round nations”, in a “square country”. The national membrane is being ruptured by wear and tear from the growing cacophony of discordant tunes. The inter-ethnic adhesive forces are becoming dangerously weaker than the intra-ethnic cohesive forces. Every group is struggling to seize the moment; every group is marking time for their turn. That’s because the different entities in this geographic expression, have failed to harmonize their interests. We are a behemoth, collapsing under the burden of her weight. We are like a bridge with the load poorly distributed along the cantilevers. The kinetics of state is clearly unsustainable, with the current structure. We have failed to find a suitable theorem for the geometry of our existence. We have failed to evolve a structure that addresses our diversity. We have failed to restructure Nigeria to engender unity, efficiency and prosperity. We are like a child bride given out in marriage as a minor, only to grow into an adult later, and have her own ideas of romance and marriage; something she can’t find in her current union. Her options are limited: Cheat, sabotage the ”pipeline” of marriage to “Avenge”; become a “separatist”….. or sit with her husband to see how best they can work out or “restructure” the marriage.
The above are serious symptoms of an impending tsunami. Treating the symptoms, without addressing the root cause, is only postponing doom’s day. Nigeria as we have it today is too concentrated at the centre. We operate a system that discourages healthy competition from the respective states and federating units. We breed lazy states. The states are guaranteed revenue by the centre; they go with their plates to Abuja every month to share what was raked in from less than a third of the 36 states. The likes of Lagos would toil and raise their Internally Generated Revenue, only for it to be shared to states that are held down by self-induced inertia. The oil producing states are bleeding, watching helplessly as proceeds from their land are shared in to thirty six places. They bear the brunt of oil pollution and associated corporate recklessness, but are told to stay away from the resources. The people are told the land belongs to the state, and the states are told the mineral resources therein belong to the federal government; no thanks to some ugly legislation.
States are being confronted daily with security challenges, but will have to wait helplessly for the slow response from the federal forces; yet, the Governor is called the Chief Security Officer. Marauding herdsmen are tearing through the belt of the middle belt with their cows, guns, and machetes; they’re on a killing spree, as the Governors watch helplessly. There is no state police to protect the people and ensure law and order, yet the Governor swore an oath to protect and defend the people. He answers the bogus name of the chief security officer of the state; yet, he does not command even a catapult-bearing vigilante. Do you blame Governors who share money around to criminals to keep them under check?
Today, political interests are shaped by ethnic jingoism. For a political party to win an election, a seat has to be zoned to a certain cardinal point. Today, it is the true north; tomorrow, it might be the magnetic north. Next, it might be the grid north. Don’t ask me why the compass needle always points north. Regional interests are becoming too pronounced. Fault lines are becoming wider. At no point in my adult life have I seen this much regional and sectional agitations. Are you not bothered that the theme of an on-going agitation is anchored on “Avenging”? Whether it’s a legitimate vengeance or not, you need to be worried when someone says he’s on a mission to avenge; it means he/she feels hurt or cheated. That’s quite a dangerous situation. The Pro-Biafrans have been agitating as well. They feel the Nigerian state, as presently constituted, is not sensitive to their plight. There are reports that unarmed protesters were brutally murdered. The sect up north still believes they deserve an independent caliphate. For them, anything that challenges this is _haram_. The Shites feel they are being specifically targeted. Religious bigots are becoming even more intolerant. Only weeks back, a Christian martyr was brutally murdered right in the Federal Capital Territory. There’s so much molecular energy; I’m afraid of the impending vibrations.
The people of Niger Delta feel they are carrying the entire nation on their shoulders, at great cost. Their land is badly polluted; they feel like an endangered species. There is a piece of legislation that’s cruel to their interest. The oil that has brought them so much harm is forcefully taken away from them by the Nigerian state. The laws have been brutal to their interest. Let me refresh your mind with some bit of history, excerpted from an article I wrote earlier: “From 1914, the date of the Colonial Mineral Ordinance, the first oil related legislation in the new colonial state of Nigeria, the grant of licenses for oil production was restricted to British companies and individuals. No special consideration was given to the host communities and there were no states then. Thus, Shell (Shell D’Arcy) was given exclusive exploration and production license in 1937, before the monopoly was broken following the granting of license to Mobil. Upon attaining independence, others such as Gulf (Chevron), Elf and Agip joined the fray. The government attempted to nationalize the petroleum sector by increasing her stake through the creation of Nigerian National Oil Company (NNOC) in 1971. This was followed by the creation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) by Decree 33 of 1977. The main onshore exploration and production activities undertaken today by foreign oil companies in Nigeria are in joint ventures with the NNPC, the state oil company (Source: _Human Rights Watch – The Price of Oil, 2011_). In all of these, the host communities were not carried along. The states were also not parties to the joint venture licenses. The implication is that the oil producing States are positioned as beggars, waiting on the federal government to feed it with whatever crumbs theydeem necessary through the miserly 13% derivation. This is clearly a fundamental anomaly!” – R. Tombari Sibe, (2012) [Petroleum Subsidy, Resource Control and the Plight of Host Communities. Published by The Will Nigeria].
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states in Article 26 that “Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired. As such, they have the right to own, use, and develop and control such lands, territories and resources that they possess”. Although Nigeria is a member of the United Nations and a signatory to this, a certain piece of legislation exists, that strips the indigenous people of their rights as outlined above. People sit in the comfort of their Abuja offices and remotely partition our lands and creeks and allocate it to their business associates, surrogates and friends as oil blocs without recourse to the original owners of the land.
According to USLEGAL INC., “The regulation of oil and gas field activities are managed best at the state level where regional and local conditions are understood and where regulations can be tailored to fit the needs of the local environment. Hence, the experience, knowledge, and information necessary to regulate effectively most commonly rests with state regulatory agencies”. Here in Nigeria, the centre wields absolute power. Little wonder they expect to be thanked, for a ceremonial flag-off of a clean-up of an environment that has been consistently polluted by them for over half of a century.
Whichever way you look at it, we cannot continue to shy away from addressing the fundamental issue of restructuring. In the last elections, the APC took advantage of the burning desire of the people to restructure, to make sweeping promises in this regard. At campaign rallies, and in campaign materials, they promised to everyone that cared that they would restructure this country, should they be voted in. Let me share some of their specific promises in this regard:
_1. __“Initiate action to amend our Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to states and local governments in order to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit” – The APC Manifesto (Available at www.allprogressivescongress.org/manifesto)_
2. _“Make sure people at a local level benefit from mining and mineral wealth by vesting all mineral rights in land to states…Enable states to have their own local police forces that address the special needs of each community, including community policing initiatives that restore trust among local citizens.” – _APC’S Roadmap to a New Nigeria (Page 17 and 18 – available for download at www.apc.com.ng/apcroadmap.pdf [1])
It is with such clarity that the promise was made. Without any ambiguity, they promised true federalism and resource control. It was therefore very surprising to read a news report where the Vice President was alleged to have questioned calls for restructuring of the country. He won an election, arguably on the basis of that promise, so why the change in tone? I don’t know if he truly said this or not, but what I know is that the party has clearly not made any move to fulfill her campaign promises in this regard. As we speak, no bill has been sent either by the executive or his party to the national assembly to enable states set up state police, especially with the growing security challenges facing the state. As at the time of writing this, states still go with their begging trays to go collect from FAAC every month. As I write this, oil producing states are still being brutally exploited by the Nigerian state; with the party that promised a redress, now the chief beneficiary. Not that I believed the promises would be fulfilled, but I prayed to be proved wrong. Even the PIB that was reported to have been submitted by this administration, rather than vests oil rights to the people as promised by them, concentrates it even further at the center. In fact, the Petroleum Host Communities Fund that was in the previous PIB, is reported to have been removed completely.
President Buhari is the substantive Minister of Petroleum. He is the chief-beneficiary of our current petroleum laws. His Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi was the Director of Research and Strategy Directorate of the APC Presidential Campaign. His office most likely authored the document that had the above promises. Both cannot claim ignorance of that promise by the campaign they both ran. The promised to “_Initiate action to amend our Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to states and local governments in order to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit”. _Is the that “federal spirit” no longer important?
I believe the Nigerian project can work, if we all sit down and engage in a no-holds-barred discussion. Nigerians need to evolve a working structure, and time is fast running out. President Buhari has this golden opportunity to catalyze that. Will he take advantage of the moment, or continue to look the other way. History is taking minutes for posterity.
Written by Tombari Sibe, an Engineer and Development Strategist.
@rsibe _
