This beautiful piece by Chief Olu Falae is for those who
pretend that they do not understand what restructuring is all about.
FOR THOSE STILL GREEKED BY THE TERM, THIS IS THE MEANING OF
RESTRUCTURING AS CANVASSED BY SOUTHERN NIGERIA BY
- Chief Olu Falae
You know I am a leader in the South West and at the National
convention, I was elected as the leader of the Yoruba delegation. So, I am
central to the Yoruba position. The Yoruba position is my position and it is
the same position I canvassed in my book, ‘The way forward for Nigeria’ which I
launched since 2005 in Lagos. What we mean by restructuring is going back to
the Independence Constitution which our leaders negotiated with the British
between 1957 and 1959. It was on that basis that the three regions agreed to go
to Independence as one united country. So, it was a negotiated constitution.
This is because, if the three regions were not able to agree, there would not
have been one united independent Nigeria. But because the three regions at that
time negotiated and agreed to package a constitution, that is why they agreed
to go to Independence together. When the military came in 1966 and threw away
the constitution, they threw away the negotiated agreement among the three
regions, which was the foundation of a united Nigeria.
So, the military did not only throw away the constitution
but a political consensus negotiated and agreed by our leaders of the three
regions in those days. When we say restructuring now, we are saying let us go
back substantially to that constitution which gave considerable autonomy to the
regions. For example, each region at that time collected its revenue and
contributed the agreed proportion to the centre. But when the military came,
they turned it round and took everything to the centre. That could not have
been accepted by Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikiwe or Obafemi Awolowo.
This constitution we are using was made by late Gen Sani
Abacha and the military; and Abacha came from only one part of Nigeria, so he
wrote a constitution that favoured his own part of Nigeria. That is why I am
saying, let us restructure and go back to what all of us agreed before. That is
the meaning of restructuring. The regions used to be federating units, but in
today’s Nigeria, they would now be called federal regions because states have
been created in the regions. So in the West, you now have a federation of Yoruba
states which would belong to the Nigerian union at the centre. So, it is not
like the region of old with all the powers. No. It is now going to be a
coordinator of the states in the zone. That is what we mean by restructuring.
And the regions would have considerable autonomy as they used to have. For
example, for the younger people, they may not know that every region then had
its own constitution.
There were four constitutions at independence –the Federal
constitution, Western constitution, Eastern constitution and Northern
constitution. That was how independent they were and every region had an
ambassador in London. The ambassadors for the regions were called Agent-General
so that you do not confuse them with that of Nigeria then called High
Commissioner. So, Nigeria had four ambassadors in London. The ambassador for
Nigeria then called a High Commissioner was M.T Mbu. The ambassador for Eastern
Nigeria then was Mr Jonah Chinyere Achara, Western Nigeria was Mr Omolodun and
for Northern Nigeria, it was Alhaji Abdulmalik. There were four of them. That
was the kind of arrangement we agreed to, but the military threw it away and
gave us this over-centralised unitary constitution. So, we said this is not
acceptable any more; we must go back to the negotiated constitution which gave
considerable autonomy to the regions so that they can compete in a healthy
manner. For example, Chief Obafemi Awolowo wanted to introduce free education
in the West and other regions said they could not afford it, but he went ahead
to introduce it in the Western region. He said he wanted to pay a minimum of
five shillings a day, while others were paying two and three shillings. He went
ahead and passed the law, making five shillings the minimum wage in Western
Nigeria.
There was no problem with that. In Western Nigeria, the
constitution provided for a House of Assembly and the House of Chiefs. In
Eastern Nigeria, there was no House of Chiefs because they did not think they
needed one. There was no problem with that and that is the kind of Nigeria we
negotiated in London, but that is different from what we have today. So, we are
saying let us go back to that arrangement which all of us agreed at
independence and not what Abacha imposed on us, which is very partial, unfair
and one-sided. That is the meaning of restructuring; it is to restructure
unfairness and give semi-autonomy to the federating units.
Chief Olu False is a leading Yoruba leader and was Head of
the Southwest Delegation to the Jonathan National Constitutional Conference.
0 Comments