That the confab may succeed

I am not in the business of cursing the darkness. In lighting the candle, I want to draw our attention to the fact that we could all take advantage of this opportunity to resolve the many differences of perception between the various parts of the country and then re-fashion the structure of Nigeria in such […]

I am not in the business of cursing the darkness. In lighting the candle, I want to draw our attention to the fact that we could all take advantage of this opportunity to resolve the many differences of perception between the various parts of the country and then re-fashion the structure of Nigeria in such a way that everyone would have breathing space and the constituent parts would no longer be treated as the boys’ quarters of the main mansion which is the federal government.
What we are practicing at the moment is not federalism but a bizarre form of unitarism in which the federal government meddles in matters that are best left to local governments and leaves undone those things that federal governments in other climes take as priority. Pray, what business does the federal government have running primary and secondary schools? Why should roads inside a state capital be constitutionally assigned to the federal government as federal roads when the state government would have been in the best position to fix them. One would have thought that only the major inter-state and inter-regional roads ought to be the concern of the federal government.
One of the reasons why the federal government itself is not complaining is that it is awash with undeserved cash. That has to be redressed urgently. If the preference is for a continuation of the present system of revenue allocation from a central pool, then the states and local governments ought to control at least 70 percent of the national revenue.
In re-inventing Nigeria, I suggest that we retain the present six zones as regions. The regions should have powers to create more states in their area and the states should have the power to determine the number of local governments their circumstances demand. Let each area determine and pursue what it identifies as its priority. Focus should be on cooperation between regions, not competition. This is not to say there will be no competition but attention should be paid to cooperation.
The federal government must be stripped of its monopoly of crucial areas of our national life. It will be the duty of the national confab to place items such as power, rail transport, agriculture, education and police on the concurrent legislative list. Indeed, apart from grants and aids to state players in the agricultural sector, the federal government has no business micro-managing the sector as obtains now.
The Federal government should be concerned mainly with foreign affairs, defence, national security, broad policy formulation and ser-ving as rallying point for the constituent parts of Nigeria. In this connection, as I have argued before, the federal police as presently constituted ought to be disbanded. Poli-cing is a community affair. In spite of all the grandstanding of all past Inspectors-General and the bluff of the incumbent one, the present police force is outgunned, outnumbered and outfoxed by a wide array of criminal elements.
What the federal government should control is a Nigerian Bureau of Investigations which should be the ultimate fed anti-crime agency. States can have recourse to the NBI when necessary, but day to day policing ought to be in the exclusive domain of the regions and their states. Recent events have shown that the federal government is not necessarily more responsible than the states in the use to which policemen are put.
Under military rule, regional assets were seized, federalised and laid to waste. I am all for a return of regional universities, stadia, cultural edifices etc. to their original regional owners. Since the federal takeover, both Ahmadu Bello and Liberty stadia have deteriorated. So have the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; and the University of Ife, ile-Ife. But the federal government is establishing new universities when it cannot properly cater for the old ones!
I understand that the Okunrounmu-led Committee is but a John the Baptist preparing a way for the national confab and making its path straight. It is not the real McCoy. But it can at least distil the major resolutions of the earlier conferences held during the Babangida regime, the Abacha regime and the Obasanjo administration to save us from our predilection with reinventing the wheel. Let the harmonisation of earlier resolutions be a starting point for the forthcoming confab. Determining the parameters for representation will be one of their major tests but if they set their minds to it they can fashion out something that will be acceptable to the generality of the Nigerian people.
Having said all these, I cannot fail to note that some veteran noisemakers and agents of discord have started throwing sectional mud and stereotype-laced insults around – all in the name of showcasing the agenda of their people. It is about time we all told them that they have had their day. Even as we acknowledge that this is the season of political contractors and expired opportunists seeking relevance, we must castigate them openly for they belong to our collective past and have nothing to offer the future of our dreams.

Shoot first, identify later
See if the following story reminds you of the Apo 10: A group of doctors were out duck-hunting, when a large bird flew overhead. The family doctor raised his gun to shoot, but then lowered his gun saying “I am not sure that is a duck.” The Psychiatrist raised his gun, but then lowered it again saying “I know it’s a duck, but I’m not sure that it knows it’s a duck.” The surgeon raises his gun and blasts the bird out of the sky. He turns to the pathologist and says “Go see if that was a duck.”