Sixty-two years ago, Nigeria as an independent state started with a parliamentary system of democracy with semi-autonomous three regional governments. Through its tortuous political journey to the present, it went through military dictatorship with small federating units that are centrally controlled.
The year 1999, issued a presidential system of democracy with the president vested with a lot of powers with weak federating states.
To complete our metamorphosis into a prosperous nation, the last leg of restructuring that is not only pragmatic and feasible but will address the call for self-autonomy or even sessional cries, it is paramount that the next government should address and act immediately on the issue. I mean by the 2027 elections, Nigeria should be different. We should be having the last president in this old dysfunctional system.
But as they say, the Devil is always in the details. This New Nigeria cannot but retain the 36 federating units with FTC. Like the United States of America which harbours people of different races, ethnicity, religions, ideological differences, and persuasions, a nation that was built on the ruins of a bloody civil revolutionary war, the Nigerian political option is narrowed towards this model.
Our type of federation should be fashioned in a manner that will accommodate our drastic difference with self-governing states, under a central federal government that deals primarily as a guard to our collective sovereignty and economic posterity, especially when dealing with the outside world. This will silence all insurgencies whether it’s ethnic like Biafra or Oduduwa or religious like the Sharia-based agitators or economic like the farmer-herder clashes.
Except for the FCT, where all Nigerians should have equitable representation, and should be made unattractive for business or industrialization but habitable for administration which will decongest it, all other states have the power based on the democratic principle in each to promulgate laws that will ensure peaceful coexistence and progress.
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When it comes to resources, each state should control its resources but pay its shares of common expenditures to the federal government with a percentage agreed collectively.
In short, we need a united state of Nigeria. Who knows, in the future, it can be a nucleus of the United States of Africa.
In this case, IPOB would have no federal police or troops to attack, they can only attack their people. Boko Haram areas would all be policed by their people. Herdsmen would have no reason to migrate to other states without permission as other traders should have to get before being allowed out of their native states.
With alternative energy advancement, the Niger Deltans would have little to worry about their commodity which is still valuable for some time, as other regions are ready to exploit their God-given resources widespread throughout the country.
For me, any politician that is ready and capable of restructuring Nigeria to our collective taste immediately with the participation of foes and friends has my vote. I don’t want empty promises about fighting terror or secession or corruption or fake promises of industrialization in a nation of poverty-stricken unskillful citizens and half-baked intellectuals.
They are all political ploys to get power from gullible sick and poor citizens. Haba! After 62 years of independence, Nigeria should come of age. May Allah see us through, Amin.
Sheikh Gumi posted the write-up above, entitled “The Restructured Nigeria” on his official Facebook page.
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