Briggs ‘minority report’ on devolution of powers

She backs her presentations with figures and comparative analysis of revenue allocation in similarly federated states across the world. Unfortunately she is almost always unable to keep rank prejudice out of the way in making her case. Such emotional state was clearly evident in the minority report she presented as a member of the National […]

She backs her presentations with figures and comparative analysis of revenue allocation in similarly federated states across the world. Unfortunately she is almost always unable to keep rank prejudice out of the way in making her case. Such emotional state was clearly evident in the minority report she presented as a member of the National Conference committee on power devolution. Arguing that the current political structure of Nigeria “is not working for any group in Nigeria, Briggs proceeded to declare: “clearly it is not working for the North Eastern Nigeria or the Yoruba, neither it is working for the peoples of the Niger Delta, nor the Middle Belt, and it is also not working for Ndigbo.” Drawing inference from their exclusion from the enumeration of the various parts and peoples of the country “the only people it is working for (the beneficiaries) are those looting the treasury -” must be the Hausa/Fulani, that mongrel ethnic group created by their traducers. Now, the understanding of unprejudiced observers is that treasury -looting and corruption have been democratised and domesticated in Nigeria such that the level of each of these infractions is determined by what is available to loot rather than by greater moral constraint. And the current in-group at the centre has not been less rapacious than its much-maligned predecessors.
A new science “anthropography” must have led to the assertion that geographical diversity can “inform the diversity in cultures and aspirations of different nationalities.  “If it were so the wetlands of the south would be inhabited by people speaking a common language and sharing one culture. Ditto the Sahel region. So, in defiance of the new insight offered by anthropography the two geographical areas are veritable Towers of Babel. But the aspirations of the various peoples in the Sahel and in the wetlands are the same: security of life and property, employment opportunities, education and health care. It is difficult to see how geography could vary these natural human aspirations.
State dependence on the Federation Account is not responsible for the collapse of industrial undertakings in the Nigeria, certainly not with respect to the textile industry itself or the textile companies in Kaduna and Kano or in the rest of the country for that matter. Production of traditional agricultural commodities – cocoa, cotton, groundnuts and palm oil – were negatively affected by the massive surge in oil revenues since the early 1970s, as people left rural areas for the cities, but the textile industry was destroyed by the influx of Chinese textile products occasioned by Nigeria’s accession to the World Trade Organisation treaty in 1995 and the inability to police our borders against organised smuggling. The WTO treaty has provisions enabling states to keep out foreign products for a period of time, to enable domestic producers adjust to foreign competition. Nigeria did not avail itself of these provisions, hence the collapse of the textile and other industries. Political elites would not engineer the collapse of the textile companies in the North because they were major shareholders in these undertakings.
It is a national shame that effective measures have not been undertaken to minimise oil pollution in the Niger Delta and to repair actual damage. No description can adequately capture the damage done to the environment and the means of livelihood of the inhabitants of the area. There are many studies outlining both the damage and the solution. There are also the resources to pay for the clean -up. The revenue allocation formula provided for the setting up of a fund for the amelioration of ecological problems; it is targeted mainly at oil pollution. Though domiciled in the presidency one would expect governors to demand its use to fund remedial projects recommended by the UNEP studies in the oil-producing states, beginning with Ogoniland. Unfortunately that has not been the case: presidents, from Obasanjo to date, have used Ecological Funds as slush funds with governors acquiescing in the abuse. They routinely visit Abuja seeking release from the funds for purposes unrelated ecological problems. Remediation works in the affected areas must be undertaken holistically in the knowledge that it is a long-term engagement. Funding cannot be an issue, nor should the time frame. Development is achieved through accretion rather than quantum leap, that is why developing countries with a focus practice national economic planning.
The link between the Niger Delta militants and the region’s political leadership has long been known. Their part in partially curbing militancy is not a point in favour of state police, it’s equally likely a state Police will support militancy should it rear its head again in the future. As it stands now there is every indication that majority of personnel in any Police Command are indigenes of that state. The fear of abuse of local police as experienced in the First Republic has not abated, because in truth experience in the current dispensation where the Police are federally-controlled has not been much different or more satisfactory.
Actually, Nigeria’s unity is constantly under re-negotiation, what with five constitutions in as many decades. This is because there are those who will not be satisfied until it becomes a confederation or even a customs union. The outcome of the current conference will only serve as another starting point for fresh agitations in the very near future. Good governance that could cure most of the country’s problems is nowhere advanced as an option or a solution.

Usman wrote from Kaduna <[email protected]>;