***WHY WE MUST GO BACK TO REGIONAL GOVT*** These ideas about a necessarily strong center have been proven to be unworkable, and focusing only on the oil wealth of the nation that has been perennially wasted due to the decline of unit (states) functionality. It is as if having oil means that the units should lay in economic slumber and their endogenous wealth opportunities should not be explored: the cocoa, the timber, the palm oil, the beans, the golds, the coal, the cassava, and etc. Even though it is understandable that you may have responded to the exigencies of the time then, we are all today collective casualties of the unitarized federal structure that was introduced aimed only to control the oil. If this has been used well, perhaps there would have been a justification, but it has only created the national cake-sharing culture rather than the national cake baking attitude. It has also created the culture of corruption since the oil is seen as nothing labored for by anyone. At best, we should confederate, having semi-autonomous regions with a center under constitutional limitations in its control of the regional units, or strong only with regards to issues of diplomacy and state sovereignty. Unitarism ala the current federal system is not productive. The main challenge would be how to transit from economically dead regional units nearly 100% dependent on the federal government, to a regional system. This would leave many states crumbling. But with concessions and compromise among the delegates, there should be an incremental approach to build up the regions to some levels of self-reliance before it takes full scale. Regionalism is the best way to go. This is without prejudice to the need for FG to control oil wealth which is the only logic driving the unitary federalism we have now, nor is it an apology to the resource control clamor of the oil-bearing states. Nigerias problems at this juncture is beyond these. Regionalism will make leaders accountable to the regions and be more committed to developing it rather than the situation of the centralism where everyone goes to steal what belongs to all and no one in particular. Regionalism will also wake the regions up from their slumber-like dependence on allocation from the center, but return to home-based wealth generation by resuscitating the activities where they have comparative advantage to develop and complement other units. It will diffuse the tension generated by conflict to occupy the presidency which is also at the height of the perennial power struggle during elections in the country. Regionally organized structure will make the people feeling the pain to also wield the power to solve the problem, and thereby more committed to its solution as against an Igbo or Yoruba man heading leading a mission to address insurgency in Hausa land. This have engender an attitude of indifference on the part of the office holder. It is high time Nigeria starts looking beyond the beggarly reliance on oil solely, but a rapid diversification and empowering the regions to stand on the own in fiscal terms.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 10:33:07 +0000
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