This is the second and concluding instalment of this presentation which was first published in yesterday’s edition of Vanguard.

HE would have the status of a permanent secretary in the public service. The local level of government should be the affair of the Regional Government. It means that all the 774 local government councils would be inherited by the Region into which they fall.

The Region can increase the number or reduce it as it deems fit. All elected people at all levels except the head of government business and the cabinet should work part-time and earn sitting allowances. This happened in the First Republic and it is doubtful that the current full-time law makers did more work than those who served us before the military came in 1966.

Part five: How to effect the changes: The changes can be effected constitutionally if we have the political will to do so. The most credible forum is the Council of State provided for under section 153 (1) (b) of the Constitution. Its composition and powers can be found in Part 1 to the Third Schedule of the constitution. It is constituted by the following persons.

Th e Vice-President, Deputy Chairman; all former Presidents of the federation and all former Heads of the Government of the Federation; all former Chief Justices of Nigeria; the President of the Senate; the Speaker of the house of Representatives; all the Governors of the States of the Federation; and the Attorney-General of the Federation; The Council has power to discuss any matter referred to it by the President.

The president should table before the Council of State the problem sustaining the present structure which the military imposed. He should tell the Council the cost of running the government and show that we cannot grow or develop at the rate we are going. A restructuring that would slim down the system of government and lead to more accountability should be presented for discussion.

If the Council agrees that we should make sacrifices for growth, the Attorney-General and his colleagues in the Federation will prepare necessary documents that will reflect changes needed. They will be sent to the law-makers through the appropriate channels in the Council of State – the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House for passing into law by the National Assembly without debate, and the Governors of states for the Houses of Assembly for endorsement. Section 9 of the Constitution settles the procedure for doing this.

Part six: Gains from the changes: If the political arm of government is restructured, we would have a •Federal Government with more time to plan for a powerful country. b)•Central Government that would be more efficient and less corrupt. c) •Regional Government that would be a buffer between the State and the Centre, and that would be more handy to settle problems of the Region and plan the development and growth of the Region. d) •State Government that would be more efficient in the management of resources, and more accountable and less corrupt. e)• local government arrangement that would be more efficient because experienced people who have retired from service can be called upon to help out with local policy-making to be executed by civil servants. f) •polity that will see professionalism emerge without the distraction of politics which has become a lucrative business because of the opportunity of invading the national, state and local government treasuries, which the present arrangements encourage. g) •More than half of the money spent on sustaining the present arrangement would be available for development.

Part seven: Conclusion: This proposal is for discussion. Someone has to start the talking because the real issues are being evaded or avoided. When the United States started its journey on the Democracy Highway, it encountered problems, and still does. These were tabled and discussed. The literature popularly referred to today as the Federalist Papers was a summary of the argument put forward by those who believed in a Federal structure for America.

The Federalist papers were written between 1787 and 1788 in several New York newspapers to persuade New York voters to ratify the federal constitution that had been proposed for the country. These papers numbered 85 and they outlined how the new government would operate and why the Federal choice would advance the cause of America more than the confederal system that others wanted.

The epilogue: This little publication is my birthday gift to Nigeria, to a country I see as a world power within the next 25 years. It is about the only federation packaged in the first quarter of the 20th century still standing. All others have collapsed. The reason it is still standing is that the communities comprising it were there relating one to the other for centuries before the packaging which started in 1849 resulted in the walking together at amalgamation in 1914. And in 2014, we were 100 years old in the integrated space without integrating the people.

But there is more than a physical dimension to Nigeria as a physical entity. Its people have a spiritual role to help grow the earth through imbibing and infusing recognitions downloaded from above. See why Nigeria as a physical entity won’t collapse! To those who look only sideways, rummaging the horizontal dimension of living and forgetting the vertical, the above from where they came, there is a pointer for them – look upwards for solutions to problems or perish.

When as Minister of Information (1986-1990) I wrote letters to my countrymen and asserted that Nigeria did not only have a future but also a mission, some doubted my sanity. Now I know what that mission is. All 170 millions of us are not here by accident. All of us, as individuals, have a role to play in the growth of the environment which we were born into or in which we live. But there is more to us who live in Nigeria. Look around and see if I am wrong to claim that there is an anointing here to access. I have, as they say, paid my dues, have never asked to be honoured or celebrated. I enjoy celebrating others. And that I do here toasting the success of a Nigeria that will grow the earth. I want to be remembered as one who helped to sustain the dream that Nigeria has a future and a mission. Be part of the fulfillment.