NEWS  report  has it that Dr. Andy Uba, a front-runner in the Anambra gubernatorial race, has declared his support for efforts to return Nigeria to true federalism and has joined MOVUP-NIGERIA (Movement for Unity & Progress of Nigeria) thereby endorsing the organisation’s 12-point constitutional agenda that roots for extensive devolution of power to the states or regions, de-emphasis or moderation of the Federal Character principle in favour of merit, among others.

The report noted that Andy Uba’s opinion and commitment to this struggle is partly informed by his desire to build a power station for Anambra state if elected governor, to enhance productivity, generate jobs, mass employment and prosperity in the state, as well as arrest the desperate security situation in the state, attract both local and foreign investors and curb the continuing exodus of quality manpower from the state. According to the report, Dr. Uba also hopes to use the proposed state police to consolidate the security needs of his state as well as work for the exploitation of the long neglected oil & gas resources of Anambra State.

I think that Andy Uba is a politician to watch. His articulations and deft politics mark him out as one who not only understands the terrain in which he is operating but also the issues that are close to the hearts of the people he seeks to lead. His forthright declaration and support for a new constitution for Nigeria and his bold politics are bound to alter for the better the developmental paradigm of Anambra State, the South East and Nigeria in general.

The MOVUP-NIGERIA Secretary, Mr. Ochu, has already remarked that given Andy Uba’s pronouncements and identification with the drive for true federalism in Nigeria, he has proved that unlike his fellow contestants in the Anambra governorship race, he, Uba, sees the bigger picture and understands the wider issues and possibilities for Anambra state and Nigeria as a whole, and is not one of those narrow-minded politicians without the depth of character, courage and perception to deliver or perform creditably in office. But what are the wider issues the honourable secretary refers to?

It is true that when people of different ethnic or racial background congregate to build a nation, they tend initially to be parochial, but they do generally become cosmopolitan with time. Nigeria and Nigerians have therefore had their follies, and the country’s many ethnic nationalities have in the last one hundred or so years fought and battered one another in the inevitable struggle for supremacy and control of the young Nigerian state.

The first casualty of this struggle is the Nigerian census or demographic data. In the very struggle to have the upper hand, every sub-national group in the country has manipulated and in fact taken undue steps that have led to the inflation of its population figures in order to enjoy enhanced revenue allocation from the centre as well as have more representation in the House of Representatives.

The drive for unfair advantage and domination of the Nigerian state by respective sub-national groups was however taken to new dizzying heights under the Abacha dictatorship.

Abacha deviously created

too many local government areas (LGAs) in the North West to give his home-zone a domineering status. His home-state of Kano alone was subdivided into 44 LGAs even when Lagos state whose official population figure was higher than that of Kano state got only 20 LGAs. It was clear where Abacha and his fellow conspirators were going! As a consequence, the North West today occupies 92 seats (25.56%) of the 360 seats in the House of Representatives.

This is about equal to the total number of seats occupied by the North East which has 48 seats (13.33%) and the North Central with 49 seats (13.61%), or put differently, the combined representation of the South-South which has 55 seats (15.28%) and the South East with only 43 seats (11.94%).

The South West was of course ‘settled’ with 71 seats or 19.72 percentage representation in the House. Of course, these iniquitous enactments have since been packaged and entrenched into the so-called Nigerian 1999 Constitution by the remnant of the Abacha clique without recourse to inputs by other stakeholders in the Nigeria project, to the utter consternation of the latter. This is the crux of the matter!

It is an understatement to say that the above enactment particularly shortchanged majority of Nigerians, fouled the political air in the country and have given vent to insinuations of internal colonialism and petty apartheid in Nigeria.

The truth of the matter is that Abacha and his cohorts went too far. What they did is like the transformation of conventional rigging of elections into a historic electoral heist. It is not true that anything can be done in the name of politics.

For even in profligacy, there must be a minimum standard of decorum. By and large, the loaded dice called the Nigerian 1999 Constitution has disillusioned many hitherto patriots and believers in the Nigeria project.

It has aggravated the tension in the land and has hence put a serious question mark on the viability of Nigeria as a nation-state.

Cicero it was, and later the German Philosopher, Kant, who opined that the people (in a polity) is not just any group of men, associated in any manner, but the aggregation of a considerable number of men who are united by a common agreement about law and rights (the Constitution) and the desire to participate in mutual advantages.

Given this definition, the absence of ‘a common agreement’ and the imposition of a one-sided Constitution on Nigerians by a clique, it becomes quite clear that Nigeria does not have one people, ‘the people’, but is made up of a motley crowd in which everyman is on his own, doing whatever he can, however amoral or asocial, to get by.

In effect, the Nigerian crowd is made up of peoples of diverse origin, pursuing multiple and mutually opposing objectives. Little wonder the country’s continuing slide into a state of anomie; for the high level of corruption in high and low places in the country, and of course our individual and collective callous attitudes and the groundswell of criminal negligence in official and non-official circles that have held the country down as well as eclipsed the idea of society or a thriving civilized community in Nigeria. Nigerians no longer seem to bother about right and wrong.

Have you not seen the strident protest of the Urhobo over EFCC’s temerity to prosecute their son, James Ibori, for corruption and money laundering? The Urhobo are not saying that Ibori is not guilty as charged. What they are saying is that whatever Ibori did is the ‘done thing’ and is in keeping with the mood of the nation, the contemporary Nigerian culture.

That is a pointer to the bedlam Nigeria has degenerated into in the last few decades, particularly since Abacha and the impositions that have killed our nation.

It is the viewpoint of MOVUP-NIGERIA that to redress these anomalies and return Nigeria to the path of sanity and progress, we must first deconstruct Abacha and create a level playing field that will reassure every group in the country and hence restore their allegiance and commitment to the task of building a united, just society and nation in which the legitimate interest of any group is not trampled upon.

Simply put, we must create a new constitution to which ‘the people’ of Nigeria will happily subscribe to and hold inviolate; a constitution to which all Nigerians shall embrace as their own, so that we may enjoy the comradeship, unity and mutual advantages that will flow therefrom.

This is why a clause in the MOVUP-NIGERIA 12-point constitutional agenda recommends that “in view of the fact that census figures in Nigeria have remained rather contentious, unreliable and divisive, the use of population as a factor in revenue allocation and political representation is to be suspended until such a time that Nigeria is able to produce a reliable census data”, while another clause calls for “equality of zonal or regional representation in the central legislature”. In yet another clause, we recommend in part that “…Revenue sharing should indeed be between the centre and the federating units, that is, the regions, or, in the present circumstance, the states. The regions/states should share whatever they get with their respective states/LGAs”.

I am greatly enthused that candidate Andy Uba understands and is supportive of these maxims. His bold attitude is indicative of political maturity and sagacity. It shows that as governor, he will be able to fend for his state as well as work assiduously for the enthronement of justice, equity, true federalism, progress and good governance in Nigeria without which the country will willy-nilly continue on its despicable devastating road to Somalia; the road to perdition.

It is encouraging that Uba understands that the most important reform Nigeria needs is political; that we first need to effect a thorough restructuring of the captive Nigerian state that will in turn reconcile the different Nigerian peoples and hence liberate the suppressed genius and complementary energies of the people for social and economic advancement.

It is for the above reasons that I personally recommend Dr. Andy Uba to the governorship of Anambra state. I therefore urge the good people of Anambra state to vote massively for Andy Uba come 6th February 2010. Olulu ka emee; obu nwa-afo Igbo!

Mr.  Nwankwo  is Chairman MOVUP-NIGERIA.