President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, DIAL 811: A DEFT OR DAFT Call?

 

On this 29^th day of May 2023, I welcome our new President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to the reality that without a courageous remodel of Nigeria’s governance structure, renewed hope may be a renamed hype. The recent constitutional devolution of rail and power matters to the subnational governments notwithstanding, the road to attainment of federalism by an acclaimed Federating entity called Nigeria is still far ahead. Going by Asiwaju’s experience in public governance at the subnational level, he is not likely to disprove this reminder to DIAL 811 - an acronym I coined to signify that Decentralization Is A Lifeline for 811 federating units of Nigeria. Without moves to earnestly devolve appropriate legal, geographical. administrative, political and economic paraphernalia to the 36 States, Federal Capital Territory and 774 Local Government Areas (811 Federating units), this new democratic cycle may not yield as much as the fervent prayers and faith of patriots have expected from the occupiers of the Presidential seat since 1963.

Come to think of it, is devolution a deft or daft call? Now that Nigeria’s chronic ill-health and resultant frail state is on the brink, who do we call for help? In some climes, 911 is that emergency telephone number structured as a responsive center for critical moments and needs. In the United States and the North American continent, the 911 code is as old and famous as Nigeria’s present and sluggish governance framework. It’s a global consensus that the 911 dial has been and still is a life-saver for hundreds of millions of Northern Americans requiring urgent medical and security aid. Nigeria’s outstanding seniors on the democratic turf are also in the know of her current malicious governance structure, cruelly powered by a military hegemony dating back to the year 1999 and mischievously and erroneously referred to as the people’s constitution.

Therefore, it’s a national consensus that our current governance configuration authorized by ‘their’ 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) is invariably a life-rustler for two hundred and six million Nigerians in areas of unity, security and development. It has overwhelmingly clogged national progress by obstructing universal participation in the pragmatic agenda of building this country. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) consistently advances a dysfunctional structure of governance with disastrous results in the triad areas of unity, security and development. The obvious is that one humongous executive power-wielding Presidential office at the expense of several other toothless sub-national executive positions can no longer produce the urgent and effective security across Nigeria’s land mass of 923,768 km². The dire call to secure the interior and fringes of this nation cannot be a routine one to be merely placed from the number one seat in Abuja to the offices of National security Chiefs also within Abuja with expectations of miraculous workings through military kinetics. The multifarious determinants of national peace, which is not just the absence of war, are socioeconomic variables whose control towers ought to be largely vested in the Sub-national Governments that lay close to where the estimated 87 million poor Nigerians live. The inability to satisfy the rightful needs of these numbers is perhaps the greatest fuel of the large-scale banditry, kidnapping and other forms of insecurity that pervade this land.

Similar logical analysis exposes the gross deficiency in meeting the gigantic developmental lacuna in this country. It is true that the likes of the Federal Ministry of Transport, then under the command & control of Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, commendably stimulated initiatives that ‘tried’ to bridge the transportation gap in Nigeria by revitalizing the trans-geopolitical zones’ railway system. However, this doesn’t mean that such Federal approach can be applied to all development sectors within Nigeria. One Federal Government, working through her numerous agents, cannot produce the desired developmental results for 206 million Nigerians. How do I know this? Mathematics and Logic! The mathematical sense in my argument is that 811 is greater than 1, while the logical flow resonates with the primary definition of the economic phrase – division of labour. That’s all!

If over 3 million estimated residents of Ekiti State want water, shouldn’t they think of the closest LGA Chairmen’s offices and not the very distant Federal Ministry of Water Resources? Should the number of Nigerians living in Benue State, estimated to be above 5 million, want more metric tons of fertilizers to complement their status as the food basket of the nation, a number of Nigerians are of the view that the Benue State Ministry of Agriculture will be in a better position to create and sustain a budget line, release funds, administer, monitor & evaluate the process. For all it’s worth, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN, Minister of Works & Housing, once reminded us that most of the things we demand of the Federal Government are the responsibilities of 36 State Governments, 1 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration and 774 Local Government Area (LGA) Councils. The former Lagos State Governor already alluded to the impossibility of his Ministry providing affordable houses to 206 million Nigerians and the rationality behind the drive to break the constitutional chokehold of the Federal Government on the other members of the Federation under the current abysmal and unitary system of Government.

Sadly, all efforts by National Governments at leading the revival of the ailing Nigeria have been to clandestinely and legally safeguard the military document of 1999, in order to perpetuate the domineering Federal powers in a supposed Federal system. Like those of an emperor, the Federal Government enjoys its continued subjugation of the federating units. Instead of being innovative about lawful means of discarding the provocative 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), Federal agents within the legislative arm of Government are comfortable reiterating the deficiency of the legal document that forbids its repeal. Not until recently, all Nigerians who have taken turns to occupy the combined 469 seats in the bi-cameral National Assembly since 1999 were conservative in patriotism. We have had to wait for Senator Ovie Omo-Agege in year 2021 to ‘remind or reveal’ to Nigerians that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) must first be amended to include the powers of the National Assembly to repeal same and that inventive problem-solving approach requires a memorandum from the Nigerian public to the Senate and House of Representatives. Till that is done, the repackaging series conducted for the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) shall continue to maintain national mediocrity.

That’s why the call has been to kick start Nigeria’s destiny-recovery process by jettisoning the 1999 military charter, clad as a constitution, for a fresh & people-borne constitution, as canvassed by illustrious legal luminaries in the ilk of Aare Afe Babalola, CON, OFR, SAN, Chief Wole Olanipekun, OFR, SAN and Prof. Itse Sagay, SAN. In its stead, the country has opted since 1999, for jamboree revisions that have ignored sensitive, progressive, Federalism-promoting and important conversations such as fiscal autonomy, resource control, Local Government autonomy, unbundling of the asphyxiating exclusive & concurrent legislative lists etc. in line with what I term ‘vertical restructuring’. The series of amendment has also jettisoned the need to ‘horizontally’ restructure the three arms of Government at each of the three levels of Government. The 9^th National Assembly recorded year 2021 as another window of amendment of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), rather than move to help secure a new document.

Friends, what we’ve had within this federation structure is a case of giving somebody a goat and still holding on tightly to the rope around its neck. The call to constitutionally devolve powers from 1 Federal entity to 811 federating units comprising 36 States, 1 FCT, 774 LGAs is a deft move that would brazenly begin the liberation journey of this country and her astronomically expanding population of inhabitants since independence: 45 million in 1960, 71 million in 1979, 120 million in 1999 and 206 million in 2020. Federalism by a self-acclaimed Federal Republic of Nigeria is an experiential governance structure that can gradually and sustainably enhance her unity, security and development. To call for the continued running of the current dysfunctional unitary system and its disastrous results is wicked and daft. Devolution will create State & Community Policing, minerals’ exploitation etc. Inclusive of the ability to directly woo Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to States and LGAs that are in demand of such in their local areas, restructuring will place the powers to determine the course of these investments in the hands of the federating units, because they are the immediate hosts and beneficiaries. We are tired of the Federal Government’s illogical and obstinate-minded resolve to continue to over-indulge and override States and LGAs for reasons that include the baffling desire of its multitudinous agents to be seeing to be doing something with its stifling fangs that burrow deeply into our recurrent expenditure. Yet, the comprehensive Steve Oronsaye’s Report that dispassionately recommended their pruning several years ago is yet to be implemented.

Although the calls for regional administrative structures and push for secessions are far from my restructuring propositions, my book titled DIAL 81: DEFT OR DAFT? dispassionately examined these two critical suggestions. Friends, DIAL 811 is a bookish call to restructure or restart crucial parts of our national engine with 37 President-like State Governors and 774 Governor-like LGA Chairmen. Nigerians’ collective desire is that the occupiers of these 811 executive seats have requisite capacities to live up to the power-lean titles such as Chief Security Officers, development generals and resource managers, which they currently bear. The paranoid, parasitic and pretentious ill-receivers misinterpreting this noble, logical and overdue call should please take note.

“Arise, O Compatriots, Nigeria’s call obey”; Arise, O members of the executive & legislative arm at the Federal level; Obey the deft calls for restructuring, federalism or devolution of powers to 811 sub-national units and disobey the daft calls for continuity of a unitary system of Government. Consequently, I urge President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, and his team to critically and dispassionately examine DIAL 811: DEFT OR DAFT? - a book that strives to elucidate the Federalism model proposed by genuinely concerned patriots and democrats and stimulate workable actions to achieve this patriotic objective through restructuring, without jeopardizing the unity of Nigeria.

Dr. Adetolu Ademujimi, a Medical Doctor, Author, Reformer, Coach, Public Policy expert and Social entrepreneur, culled and adapted this write-up from the introductory page of his latest book title - “DIAL 811: DEFT OR DAFT?”, (Foreword by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, OFR, CFR and Official endorsement by the Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, CON.  You can visit the website  www.adetoluademujimi.com for more details