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Emmanuel Uzo Obi There could have been no better title than the one chosen by the President -elect for his post election speech-'Nigeria shall rise again', which summarizes the expectations of all Nigerians. In this presentation, I have attempted to recap some of the major problems facing Nigeria, and then attemp to lay out a roadmap towards Political and Economic recovery. To be able to appreciate the solutions suggested here, one must change his mindset, because, the world has changed and is still changing. We as Nigerians, must not stick rigidly to our old way of doing things, or continue to hold tight to what our colonial masters bequeathed to us as the best attainable standards. Knowledge is the new source of power and we have a chance of increasing our share of it, and also of benefiting from the knowledge and breakthroughs of other people. Just as people give birth to children, so does knowledge beget knowledge. The good news is, the more we learn, the easier it is to learn still more. The bad news however, is that it's easy to fall behind in today's knowledge explosion. Much of what we learn gets outdated in a hurry, because , the shelf life of such knowledge is short as better answers keep popping up. This summarises the problems we face in Nigeria today, in our policy making and planning. In today's world information economy, the pace of change and technological advances is so intense that we need to be perpetual students. Our legislators and policy makers must in the light of these keep updating their knowledge so as to find better ways of serving the needs of their constituencies and the larger Nigeria. To keep conducting business as usual would further erode the confidence that people have in the government , whether civilian or military. For example, every year, when government presents it's budget, the figures for capital and recurrent expenditures, expected internally generated revenue, sectoral allocations, change in tarrif laws, lifting of import restrictions etc are highlighted as if those where what mattered in raising the standard of living of Nigerians. Never has people oriented programmes such as social security, healthcare reform, subsidized medical aid to the poor etc been seriously addressed. Free education and free healthcare are always bandied about by some mischievious politicians but even the United States with a vibrant economy, does not have free healthcare. When suggestions are made about health insurance, and other reforms that could change things for the better, there are people who specialise in finding out ways and reasons why these can'nt work in Nigeria. Either this is done out of total ignorance, or refusal by some people who benefit from the hopeless state of affairs to accept simple workable solutions and action plans. I have reserved a detailed discussion of these, under the economic segment of this presentation. POLITICAL
The political problems that confront Nigeria today, will involve a
total reinventing of the political landscape. The Presidential system of government is a total success in the United States. In fashioning the Nigerian 1979 constitution, I believe Nigeria tried to benefit from the successes of the American experience. But unfortunately, in our desire to do it the Nigerian way, we left out key aspects of the U. S. system which contributed greatly to the failure of the second and third republics. For example, there was no true federalism and Nigeria retained a national police force. Besides, Nigeria did not have any concept of civil rights and liberties given the diversity of the populace. Perhaps, in recognition of the absence of true federalism, there has been on-going discussions about the devolution of powers to the states. Unfortunately, the manner it is being pursued shows the reluctance of Government to embrace true federalism. There have been calls for a regionalisation of the military and this immediately raises the question as to the true motives of such calls. If Nigeria hopes to remain a united and indivisible country, then such calls are totally out of place. Taking another cue from the United States, there is no regional armed forces. 36 STATE STRUCTURE: Another important matter that needs consideration is the state structure in Nigeria. There far too many states which would require a lot in terms of capital expenditure to develop the state capital for example. Take a look at the state of urban decay in the capitals of the former regions. The beautiful landmarks left by the British have been completely eroded, so where do we start with a multiplicity of new state capitals? Besides many of the new states do not have the economic resource, industrial, commercial potential to exist as states. Therefore, the remain as beggar states largely dependent on the federal government for survival. Therefore, if a different political party controls the centre, then the states would be manipulated and made to suffer. The argument has often been made that state creation is aimed at bring development closer to the grassroots, but it is difficult to see how this have been achieved over the years. The expenditure needed to put a state government bureaucracy in place, and also put up a adequate infrastructure is very enormous. To take care of these would mean that other far more important areas would suffer. Do we really need 36 states?Are there better ways of achieving the goals of state creation at cheaper cost as well as raising the standard of living of Nigerians?Some may argue that it may not be politically expedient to review the state structure, but what of economic expediency?There are on-going discussions about the six geo-political zones or federating units;could this be a way out of our present dilemma? LOCAL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE: In order to address the economic problems we face in operating a 36 state structure, it may be necessary to examine the number of tiers of government;federal, state and local governments. How effective have the local governments been in achieveing the goals of local government tier?I believe they have not been very effective so the federal government have responded by creating more local governments. What we have today is that the local governments focus attention mainly on the city or town where the local government is headquartered. The rest of the local government area is marginalised and consequently the calls for more local governments. In the past, we had city and town councils as well, and I think those levels of government in those days were very relevant and productive and brought government closer to the people as well as encouraged increased participation in governance. Again, if we look also at the American system, we notice that the local government comprises the county government and also city/town governments. So the question is, can we use the two tier local government structure to achieve the goals we had intended in creating a multiplicity of states?For one, I know the expenditure required to maintain infrastructure for the two tier local government is less than that require for a state. The same applies to cost of running the bureaucracy and in the end, far greater results would be achieved. ORGANS OF GOVERNMENT/PROLIFERATION OF POLITICAL OFFICES Another important area that needs be discussed is the structure of the various arms of government. One characteristic feature is the proliferation of political offices and ministries. At the level of the legislature, what would be the justification for 108 or 109 senate seats?Is it the population, or the size of Nigeria, or perhaps the number of states?Taking a cue again from the United States, there are 100 senate seats, and the population I beleieve is more than double that of Nigeria. There are 50 large states and one of them is as big as the entire Nigeria. The economy is very buoyant and the congress is very productive and efficient. So what does a large senate do for Nigeria?Besides, what does a deputy senate president and deputy speaker do in Nigeria?I beleieve these positions have offices and seperate votes. Do the Nigerian senators have a way of touching bases with their constituencies?Is there a participatory process in Nigeria democracy? How does an elected candidate get re-elected in future elections if he does'nt touch bases with his constituency? Perhaps, by being a good party man and pleasing the political godfather with the hope of rigging an election. The purpose of highlighting some of these issues is a desire to ensure that our political class realizes that Nigerian democracy must evolve and not remain stagnant. With the information age, Nigerians hopefully would have access to information from the outside world and their expectations from the Political system would increase. Again, at the Executive level, the number of ministers is far too many and yet there is no correlation between the numbers and efficiency. Those who argue against the Presidential system of government frequently, raise the issue of it's being expensive. But they forget that Nigeria has over 20 ministers while again in the US, the number is probably half. In other words, Nigeria makes the system unnecessarily expensive. The judiciary, is very vital in the administration of justice and if we are to practice true federalism and possibly come to grips with the number of states we actually need, the the structure/hierarchy of courts ought to be reviewed. Perhaps, instead of having more ministers and too many legislators, we would need more judicial officers since numbers have an impact on the efficiency of this branch of government among many other factors. The procedure for appointment of Judges needs to be addressed in considering the independence of the judiciary. Should we adopt a dual system of appointment of Judges at High Court level and election of qualified legal practitioners on non party basis?I have addressed these matters, later on when laying out the action plan or road map. PUBLIC SAFETY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT: For too long the role of the Police, has primarily been seen as that of law enforcement. The important role of ensuring public safety has continously played second fiddle. The role of community service has also been just on paper. All these have contributed to the perception of law enforcement agencies and the Police by the populace. The proper role of the Police should be Public safety, law enforcement and community service. If the government accepts this, then what structure does Nigeria have for achieving these roles? Presently, law enforcement is centralised and this is very unhealthy for true federalism. The result is that political parties who control the federal government, try to create a subsidiary role for the law enforcement agencies by using them as instruments of oppression and repression. They have most times abused whatever exists as the civil rights and liberties of the citizenry. Apart from the structure of the Police, it has never been well equipped or trained. For example, information is a very vital tool the Police needs for it to operate efficiently. But it is shocking to know that most Police vehicles do not have two-way radio communication. In the United States for example, a mere taxi cab operator uses two-way radio in his business. These taxi cabs are better equipped than our own police 'cruisers'. Is'nt this sad enough?How do we intend to attract foreign investors who have no sense of security in Nigeria? If my memory serves me right it was during the tenure of retired Police IG Adewusi that the Nigeria Police procured armoured vehicles. But the regular Police man had no two-way communication. Whenever the pressure was much on Police for inefficiency, the Police hierarchy responded by redeploying police officers and dubbing it reorganization of the Police. Because of the sense of insecurity in Nigeria, most Nigerians stay off the streets as early as 8-9pm and the entire economy almost shuts down. How do we resolve this matter?Is it by setting up a taskforce of retired/serving Police Officers to reorganise the Police? Such a task force will do no better than bequeath Nigeria another old ramshackle colonial force. To change the face of the Police, we need to inject outside input. A foreign investor or tourist who places a 199 emergency call will be shocked to either hear a busy telephone signal or 'sorry we do'nt have transportation'. Apart from these, do we as a nation at this stage in our development still deserve the Police cells and dungeons that still exist? What we have today is a situation where suspects for serious crimes and kept in the same cell as suspects of simple offences. The result is that these suspects for simple offences later graduate into hardened criminals. Do will still deserve a system where suspects are forced or manipulated to make written statements without legal help? What is the use of maintaining a Police barracks for a civil police force when the police ought to intermingle with civil society? In the later part of this presentation, I have highlighted some ways of making the police more effective and more community friendly. From what goes on today, it is very clear that the Government's perception of Public safety is wrong. Public safety should involve the fire service as well as the Emergency Medical service(EMS). For example, in a serious automobile accident, these three departments have a role to play. If the vehicle is mangled, the fire service helps in rescue work, while the EMS renders emergency medical treatment and conveys victims to the hospital while the police do their on duty by writing an accident report. There is the need for us to change our old way of doing things and function in a more organised manner.
DISCRIMINATION Federalism does not envisage discrimination. Though there are sveral states, they should be united in one indivisible Nigeria. The states should be independent in the running of their own internal affairs, but never to discriminate against citizens of Nigeria. The non-indigene saga where some state governments retrenched employees from other states is quite unfortunate. More unfortunate is the fact that the office of the CGS allowed it to happen. Are we really one country?Or are we pretending to be one? For example, let us look at American federalism and take some cue. Any American can get a job in any city, county or state of the entire US. There is nothing like state of origin in seeking for employment and there are serious consequences for discrimination. It is my view that in order for Nigeria to survive as a federation, certain new concepts should be introduced;citzenship of constituent states. The determining factor should be place of residency and not place of birth or ancestry. I shall explain in detail later when dealing with suggested political reforms. POLITICAL REFORMS
State Structure/6 Federating Units:
Legislature:
Executive:
Also, the state bureaucracy should be limited to no more than 11
ministries or departments namely;
In this outline, it should be noted the addition of securities
regulation, incorporation of businesses and insurance. This implies that
these matters should now be moved to the concurrent list. For the Appeal court and Supreme court, it is suggested that a fraction of the compositon of these courts should be elected from among qualified legal practictioners, while the balance should be appointed by the Governor on the advice of the AJC subject to state senate confirmation. In all these cases, candidates for election for judgeship must be residents of the constituency in which they seek election. For this purpose, continous residency should have been maintain for at least four years prior to any election. The rationale for this suggetsion is to ensure the independence of the judiciary to a large extent. Also, it is suggested that the State Attorney-General be an elective position on non-party basis. On provincial level, there should be an office of the director of public prosecutions for each province. Again, it is suggested that this position should be redesignated 'Provincial Attorney'. Even though these offices are elective, they are still subject to the discipline of their professional bodies.
Federal Structure: My suggestion is that Ministers should be redesignated secretaries, while the present permanent secretaries should be deputy secreatries and down the line. The office of head of the civil service should be abolished and the office of SFG should be merged with that of external affairs. |
