By Clifford Ndujihe, Deputy Political Editor

TWO years into the Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, agitations and counter-agitations for the restructuring of the polity into what the proponents describe as true fiscal federalism, have remained on the front burner. And currently, the issue has taken a fresh twist with some of proponents threatening to boycott the 2019 general elections if President Buhari did not take urgent steps to restructure the country.

The inferno of the restructuring debate has been further stoked by a number of prevailing challenges in the country such as biting recession, inability of most state governments to pay salaries, menace of herdsmen and recurring murderous clashes with farmers, agitation for the Republic of Biafra, restiveness in the oil-rich Niger-Delta, and alleged maltreatment of some sections of the country by the President Buhari-led Administration through appointments.

Those in favour of restructuring usually cite what prevailed in the First Republic when the three regions – East, West and North and later Mid-West developed at their own pace and unleashed development in their various areas. According to them, with 50 per cent derivation and more responsibilities to shoulder, there was inter-regional competition as the regions strived to outwit one another in terms of socio-economic development.

Those opposed to restructuring said the agitators are not clear about how restructuring can be implemented other than the amendment of the Constitution, which they said the National Assembly is handling. They insist that restructuring will not crack the kernel of socio-economic, ethno-religious, political and development problems plaguing the nation. They further argued that it could be a recipe for the disintegration of the country.

In like manner, those in favour of restructuring said the quickest route to dismemberment of Nigeria is refusal to restructure the country. They added that the way forward had been marshalled by the 2014 National Conference, organised by former President Goodluck Jonathan. The only thing needed now is implementation, they said.

National Dialogue

However, a group of Northern leaders, known as Northern Delegates Forum, NDF, who were delegates at the 2014 Conference, have opposed the implementation of the confab recommendations claiming that the major decisions of the conference were taken through undemocratic means. Those who gathered on the banner of the NDF included former Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu; former Minister of Power and Steel Development, Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu; former Minister of Defence, Alhaji Mohammed Bello and former Member of the House of Representatives, Mohammed Kumaila.

They said that the North’s three geo-political zones were not given fair representation in the membership of the conference, considering that the North has 70 per cent of the nation’s landmass and 55 per cent of its population. In a keynote address, a former minister, Bashir Dalhatu, said that northern delegates made several attempts to get former President Jonathan to reflect the diversity and complexity of the country in composition of membership of the conference but they were ignored.

“The 2014 national conference had 492 members and the north which constitutes about 70 per cent of the country’s landmass and 55 per cent of its population was allocated 189 delegates while the South with only 30 per cent of the landmass and 45 per cent of its population was given an incredible 305 delegates.

“This went against sensible demographics, law and practice, which could have hardly been done in good faith. Certainly it was designed to put in particular our delegates and the North in general at a disadvantage. All attempts to get the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, including pleas by well meaning Nigerians who genuinely wanted a national conference to reflect the diversity and complexity of the Nigerian society, fell on deaf ears.”

Expectedly, the NDF position was countered another group of delegates drawn from all parts of the country, who urged President Buhari to have a rethink over the report of the conference by initiating a process to implement it.

Implementation of the report

At a meeting in Abuja, recently, the former delegates, such as Chief Olu Falae, General Alani Akinrinade Chief Edwin Clarke, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, Professor Jerry Gana, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Chief Mike Ozekhome, John Darah, Yinka Odumakin, Chief Raymond Dokpesi and Dr. Kunle Olajide, said they would embark on moves to ensure the actualization of the conference report as the basis for the conduct of the 2019 polls.

The South West delegates, specifically, said that the implementation of the report is the minimum demand of the region for the conduct of the 2019 elections. Chief Ezeife shares this view, adding that the issue now is restructuring or a referendum for Nigerians to decide on the way forward. He disclosed that the Southern Peoples Assembly, SPA, will meet soon to take a decision on whether the people of southern Nigeria will participate in 2019 elections, if the country was not restructured.

In his 90th birthday message on May 24, elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, made a case for the implementation of the confab report. He criticised some Northern leaders who are opposed to the move, arguing that they were signatories to the over 600 recommendations made at the National Conference.

In an interview to mark his one year in office, President Buhari dimmed hopes of implementing the confab recommendations. He said despite the persuasion of his predecessor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, he had not even read the confab report and that it would remain in the archives where, according to him, it rightly belongs.

He said: “I advised against the issue of National Conference. You would recall that ASUU was on strike then for almost nine months. The teachers in the tertiary institutions were on strike for more than a year, yet that government had about N9billion to organise that meeting (National Conference), and some (members) were complaining that they hadn’t even been paid.

“I never liked the priority of that government on that particular issue, because it meant that what the National Assembly could have handled was handed to the Conference, while the more important job of keeping our children in schools was abandoned. That is why I haven’t even bothered to read it or ask for a briefing on it, and I want it to go into the so-called archives.”

Of late, many eminent Nigerians, across the country, have joined the restructuring crusade. They include former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who wants the six geo-political zones to become the federating units; and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who canvassed true federalism and urged the Federal Government to devolve power to the federating units.  With the 2019 elections less than two years away, it is to be seen how the President Buhari-led Administration will handle the issue.