The LEAD Project Foundation has been a leading voice in advocating for the restructuring of the monstrous political structure that promotes abuse of power and persistent of poverty and stagnation in Nigeria. Our investigation of Nigeria's democracy and its crisis identifies 'capture, corruption, coercion' as the political economy problem of the country. A dubious political system, toxic political players , ignorant and impotent majority persuaded by propaganda and identity narratives. This is a tragic mix.
No doubt, the unitary centralised political system-expensive, wasteful, dictatorial/tyrannical is the root cause of the country's sad story, a clear manifestation of how human stupidity affects society and economy. The focus was neither 'economic efficiency and social equality' rather exploitation and domination, luxury and adorenment , the licence to do as one pleases as events of recent times have clearly revealed. The truth is such idea is unsustainable and creates more harm than good. According to Wikepedia, the concept of restructuring is "the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational or other structures of an entity for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs"
The aim is to reduce costs, to make better use of talent and diversity, to improve competitive advantage of the states if possible merge some states that were created for political purposes that are now unproductive and unsustainable, decrease or consolidate debt, encourage innovation and competition among the states to guarantee citizens security and freedom. The benefits of restructuring Nigeria are numerous given the experience of nearly six decades of meaningless and counter-productive unitary centralised political system.
Restructuring Nigeria is about reviving a declining country to increase its value , reposition it for growth and make it more responsive to its challenges of improvement of overall citizens well-being. Restructuring Nigeria is about devolution of power and responsibilities to states to enable them deliver sound government including the capacity to deliver world class infrastructure and social services including education and healthcare services , job creation and overall poverty reduction. Similarly restructuring the country will help the country's diversification efforts to become effective and efficient and more successful.
The current security challenges in the country is a constant reminder of in-effective central system seeking ethnic domination using federal power to reduce other ethnic group influence. A system where state governors are mere Chief Executives without power. In what I described as lamentations of executive Governor in Nigeria, Alhaji Masari declared that he has failed to protect his people. "I cannot look my people in the eyes, I have failed to protect them"
Definitely, the security crisis in the country hightened by influx of foreign Fulani herdsmen who now occupy forests in various states unleashing terror, madness and mayhem despite the country's land-act laws to protect indigeneous peoples' rights and inability of the state governors to protect their citizens further highlights the urgent need for greater devolution of power and resources to states/regions. No doubt, Federal power duplicates autonomous functions, waste resources, kill independence, energy and hard work, promotes unnecessary competition at the center, sycophancy, corruption and political clientellism.
Restructuring Nigeria is about limited government, 'cutting administrative and operational costs in response to a downturn or anticipated downturn in revenue or margins' as we are currently witnessing during the pandemic period. Restructuring Nigeria is not about secession as interpreted by power holders to maintain the status-quo. Restructuring Nigeria implies a major shift from the status-quo, "major change as opposed to a subtle improvement"
The current government has plunged the country into huge and irredeemable debts that will hunt the country for a long time and there is nothing to show for it, just white elephant projects , even excluding some states in supposed investments that will involve them in the future loan repayments, so restructuring Nigeria is about limiting abuse of power, unnecessary politicisation of public policies and limiting financial harm inflicted on the country through reckless executive power. Recently Atiku Abubabakar, the opposition PDP presidential candidate raised alarm about Nigeria's debt crisis.
According to him; "the country cannot be rubbing its children to pay for its greed. The country cannot be on the verge of economic ruin, while still maintaining a Presidential Air fleet that has more planes than the Presidential fleets of those from the countries we take loans from. In his own words; "revelation from Nigeria's first quarter 2020 financial reports in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, shows alarmingly, that whereas Nigeria spent a total sum of N943.12 billion in debt servicing, the Federal Government's retained revenue for the same period was only N950.56 billion. This means that Nigeria's debt to revenue ratio is now 99%. He warned that the country is at a 'precipice'. "No one should be deceived. This is a crisis! Debt servicing does not equate to debt repayment.
The reality is that Nigeria is paying only the minimum payment to cover our interest charges, the principal remains untouched and its possibly growing. If our revenue figures do not go up, and go up quickly, Nigeria risks a situation where our revenue cannot even sustain our debt servicing obligations, meaning that we may become insolvent, and our creditors may foreclose on us, as has occurred in Sri-Lanka and the Maldives" It will be recalled that he had also written in opinion editorial of December 17 2019, titled Endless Borrowing Will Lead Nigeria to Endless Sorrowing'
Lastly, he warned that "Nigeria is facing a crisis, and we cannot continue to keep up appearances by taking out more loans to prop up our economy. This would amount not just to robbing Peter to pay Paul, but to robbing our children to pay for our greed" It's on record that Nigerian legislators are one of the highest paid in the world receiving a monthly salary of $37,000 per month whereas the minimum wage is N30,000.00, less than $75 dollars in-addition to other executive rascalities that has created deep inequality in the society. Nigeria being a mono-economy does not need a bogus and tyrannical unitary centralised political system, people need liberty, freedom and autonomy to become more productive and competitive.
Furthermore, Mohammad Sanusi, immediate past Emir of Kano and former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria has also warned that Nigeria's governance structure is set up for bankruptcy. According to him; "it is inevitable for Nigeria to be bankrupt with its current governance structure" He described the current structure as "too expensive and unsustainable" He has been very outspoken about the cost of governance in the country and said with the fiscal crisis the country is facing and looking at where Nigeria is headed post COVID-19 crisis, it has become imperative for Nigeria to ask fundamental questions about the structure of its federation. Speaking at a webinar hosted by Emmanuel Chapel on 'Mitigation of the Economic Impact of COVID-19 and the Path to Recovery', Sanusi said when he was the Central Bank Governor, the price of oil was over $100 per barrel, the government at the time spent Eighty-percent of its revenue on salaries and overheads. "Now I'm sure that with the shortfall in revenues and where oil prices is after debt service, we probably have to borrow to pay salaries. We have got to look at the structure"
He stated further, "If you have a company and you have extremely high overheads and you need a high contribution margin to break even, you would be looking at how to reduce cost. So, we have a constitution that says we should have a president and a vice president, we must have a minister from every state of the federation, whether or not it's thirty-six ministries, we should have 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives. It also said we should have thirty-six governors, thirty-six deputy governors, each state with its House of Assembly and comprising many legislators, 774 local government Chairmen, Councillors, the personal assistants and special assistants(at all levels), staff members and vehicles"
The good thing is the current structure was a military idea that is anti-growth , seeking a militaristic empire and no longer relevant in the modern era, even before the COVID-19 exposure so it requires immediate overhaul despite unnecessary pranks and politik by the current APC government playing endless political football with the future of more than 200 million people in Nigeria. Restructuring is inescapable because the current system does not hold further promise of a better future. The unitary centralised political system is the creation of unthinking individuals obsessed with fascist ideas of the 19th century domination of one group by another. A feudal empire seeking allegiance rather than individual liberty and freedom.
Today is about freedom and autonomy agenda and we must embrace it. The current structure is the root of all the country's problems- division, poor leadership, weak institutions, economic violence, persistence of poverty and stagnation. It must be dismantled to address the inter-connectedness of trust, governance and growth. Adapt or perish is a well known phrase, "now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative.
This line addresses the fact that the world is constantly changing, requiring those who do not wish to be left behind to change along with it"-HG Wells famously wrote in 1945. Empires belonged to the past and the future is nation states. Nation states are built in equity and justice not unity and continuity regardless of inequity and injustice. A house or business built on a weak foundation will definitely fall. A national dialogue is very important and imperative for a new constitutional settlement that will address the concept of harmonious society and help the country to flourish.
Society is a moral phenomenon and membership of every society is defined on equity and justice which restructuring seeks to achieve. The people that share the territory will definitely decide the future they want not to be determined by a hand full of military junta. Nigeria desperately need a new constitution that has the will of the whole society on how they will be governed and decisions taken on their behalf. The truth is those who resist restructuring are the very people that need it most, unfortunately they dwell in the past driven by barbaric ideologies of the very people who keep them impoverished. The world has changed and we must adapt to the new world of freedom and autonomy. Change is happening so fast that those who hold back, even a little will be left behind as HG Wells rightly stated . "Now more than ever you must be innovative and creative to survive"
Lastly, the current APC government has helped made restructuring very imperative as it has laid bare the gross abuse of the monstrous unitary centralised system for all to see. Restructuring is driven by a need for change. Restructuring Nigeria is a development intervention whose time has come and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Restructuring is the future and will definitely drive future politics in Nigeria. Restructuring not the next election is the answer to Nigeria's multifarious problems, even elections depend on restructuring to become successful. Infact restructuring is citizens rights.
Restructuring Nigeria is about repositioning for citizens security and prosperity, indigenous peoples' rights, limited government and cost reduction, abuse of power and the licence to do as one pleases, economic diversification, improve competitive advantage, greater devolution of power and responsibilities, greater citizen engagement, greater economic and political rights, better citizenship and diversity, constitutional settlement or addressing the legal structure of the country we share, 'economic efficiency and social equality' , turnaround, proper and transparent democracy, sound government and stability in Nigeria.
What can ordinary people do. They need information and awareness to demand change. This blog is an attempt to change the narrative of the political actors who benefit from the impunity of the dysfunctional system and inspire ordinary people to put pressure on the politicians to restructure the country for the betterment of our collective lives. Pressure works and democracy recognises this fundamental human rights to effect change.
Let me conclude with some remarks from President Buhari's speech at the United Nation's General Assembly-UNGA-72; How to restructure the United Nations should be our priority number one. In his own words; "to restructure or not to restructure is no longer the question, the United Nations must be restructured to remain relevant in years to come. Several ideas are out there, all we need is to get them out together and agree on what works for the majority of the people around the world"
My take is charity begins at home, the 2014 National Confab which has input from well constituted assembly of all the stakeholders in the Nigeria project, Nigerians from all the ethnic groups in the country , the ideas they provided should be implemented. Meanwhile restructuring was election campaign promise of the current ruling APC government, so when is the restructuring taking place.
Uche Okeke is the Founder of The LEAD Project Foundation and Nigeria News Aggregator
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