Section 14(2)(b) of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution says security and welfare are the primary purpose of government. Section 15(3)(a-d) of Chapter 2 of the Constitution, the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, specifically directs the State to provide facilities for free movement of people, goods and services; encourage inter-marriage; and promote associations across ethnicity, linguistic or religious barriers. 16(1)(a-d) requires the State to harness the nation’s resources to benefit Nigerians. Section 16(2)(a-d) directs the State to promote the economy; assure fair distribution of resources; ensure suitable and adequate shelter, food, minimum living wage, and pensions; and care for the old, the sick, and the disabled. Right now, the state of the Nigerian union (without prejudice) is in abject breach of these provisions. Life in Nigeria is Hobbesian “short, brutish, and nasty.” The price of crude oil, that fetches 95 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign earnings, and 80 per cent of government revenue, is falling like a brick. The 2015 Budget faces N1.3 trillion cut, and the resulting austerity measures throw everyone into a funk. The situation looks nearly irredeemable because of Nigeria’s history of resource misapplication, deteriorating infrastructure, blatant pilfering of public funds and promotion of parochial ethnic interest over merit. The constitution, a classic oxymoron, is unitary in structure, but federal in name. Part I of its Schedule Two has a comprehensive list of 68 items on the Federal Exclusive Legislative List: These include commerce, arms and defence, aviation, broadcasting, marriage, and an imprecise, omnibus clause: “any matter incidental or supplementary to any matter mentioned elsewhere in this list.” Section 80 requires all revenues or other monies raised or received by the Federation to be paid into one Consolidated Revenue Fund that can only be spent by an Appropriation Act of the (Federal) National Assembly. Section 81 empowers only the President to cause to be prepared and sent before the National Assembly, the estimate of the yearly revenue and expenditure of the Federation. Section 1, Part II of Schedule Two, the Concurrent List, empowers the National Assembly to divide public revenue between the Federal Government and the States; among the States; between the states and local government councils; and among local governments. Still, the revenue allocation formula skews most of the money to the Federal Government. In 2104, the three arms of government – Executive, Legislative and Judiciary – spent N4.6 trillion, but some 31 autonomous agencies, like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Nigerian Ports Authority and Nigerian Customs Service, that report only to the President, spent N12 trillion! The Federal Government also runs the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the Niger Delta Development Commission, on behalf of oil producing states. Whoever emerges president between the Peoples Democratic Party’s incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, and a former military Head of State, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), of the All Progressives Congress, will wield enormous, almost imperial, powers. Everyone, including his Vice-President, whom he cannot sack, except through a National Assembly impeachment, will work at his pleasure. Check Section 148(1) of the Constitution. Jonathan has the advantage of incumbency, but bears the cross of an uninspiring scorecard that is under review. People complain about the security debacle and the tottering economy, and wonder if he could come up with a radical policy change if reelected: His bag of tricks is effete, if not exhausted. And he is beholden to a cabal of buccaneers.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 12:05:54 +0000
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