Igbo leaders conference on federal character and restructuring in Abuja

‘THE Great Debate For National Unity: Federal Character, Restructuring and Rotation of Presidential Powers in Nigeria” put together by Igbo Leadership Development Foundation at the Sheraton Hotel in Abuja last Thursday was designed as a dialogue among representatives of ethnic nationalities in the country, but it tuned out a session of monologues and a showcase of how far disintegrated the nationhood project has become here.

Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, in his usual moderate voice set the agenda for the conference but not without telling the country some naked truths on the need to run an inclusive country where no section is marginalised as we currently do to the Igbos on the highest office currently.

After Gowon’s speech as Chairman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai came up as co-Chairman and things degenerated immediately as he said he would only speak on Federal Character and Rotation “because I do not understand what restructuring means”.

Ms. Ankio Briggs and Dr. Anthony Kila who spoke before me defined restructuring as return to federalism which military rule eroded before I came up. I waded in and reminded all of the North walking out of the Federal Parliament in 1953 in the first act of secession to protest the motion moved by the Action Group for Nigeria to become independent in 1957.

Fighting the colonialists

I added that the rallies the AG held in Kano to educate the public on the issue led to riots during which killings occurred and that we fought a civil war over the quest for independence at a time when other countries in Africa were fighting the colonialists.

When the dust settled, the North issued an eight-point-programme as a condition to return to Nigeria:

(1) That each region shall have complete Legislative and Executive Autonomy with respect to all matters except the following: External Affairs, Defence, Customs and West African Research Institutions; (2) That there should be no Central Legislative body and no central executive or policy making body for the whole of Nigeria; (3) That there shall be a central agency for all regions which will be responsible for matters mentioned in paragraph (1) and other matters delegated to it by a region; (4) That the Central Agency shall be a neutral place preferably Lagos;

(5) That the composition and responsibility of the Central Agency shall be defined by the Order-in-Council establishing the constitutional arrangements. The agency shall be a non-political body. (6) That the services of railway, air, posts and telegraphs, electricity and coal mining, shall be organised on an inter-regional basis and shall be administered by public corporations. These corporations shall be independent and covered by the statutes under which they are created by the board of experts with a minority representation of the regional governments;

(7) All the revenues shall be levied and collected by the regional government except Customs revenue at the port of discharge by the Central Agency and paid to its treasury; (8) The administration of the Customs shall be so organised so as to assure that goods consigned to the region are separately cleared and charged to duty. Each region shall have a separate public service.

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The demands of the North was for restructuring Nigeria to a confederal arrangement while the restructuring we ask today is for a federal arrangement based on productivity on the basis of which we gained independence and which served us well and upon which a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria can live in harmony.

The Daily Trust of February 8, 2020 published a bold story that graphically showed the lopsided federal character of the present administration. The report was entitled “Federal Character Commission Grounded.” The paper reported that the Federal Character Commission was being illegally run with only one commissioner as other 36 commissioners have served out their tenures but have not been replaced by the Federal Government.

The current Acting Executive Chairman of the commission, Ambasador Abdullahi Halidu Shinkafi, is the only remaining federal commissioner at the agency. Thirty-six commissioners out of the 37 approved by the Federal Character Act are not in office. It was gathered that Amb. Shinkafi’s tenure as a commissioner representing Zamfara State would also expire in April and the commission would be left without a single commissioner. It would have been a practical joke for the present administration to run with a full complement given its observance of federal character in breach.

The FCC is a Federal Government body established by Act No 34 of 1995 to implement and enforce the federal character principle of fairness and equity in the distribution of public posts and socio-economic infrastructure among the various federating units of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The provisions of the 1999 Constitution in sections 14 and 153 consolidated the establishment of the FCC for operation in a democratic system of government. The commission is mandated by Paragraphs 8(1)(a) and (b) of Section C, part 1, Third Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to: “Work out an equitable formula, subject to the approval of the National Assembly, for distribution of all cadres of posts in the public service of the federation and of the states, the Armed Forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, other government security agencies and government-owned companies/parastatals of the states.”

The Acting head of the FCC was at the conference too. He asked to speak and then talked down on delegates, asking anybody to come out and prove that federal character is being breached in the country today. He then walked out in full arrogance after he delivered his insults.

He didn’t wait for the President General of of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nwodo, to catalogue for him the serial violation of federal character that has seen 15 out of 17 Service Chiefs being from a section of the country and heads of revenue agencies (Ministry of Finance, Customs, FIRS, NPA, AMCON, etc) are all from the North. He added that “only three days ago NIMASA was handed over to another person from Kaduna with the MD of the Ports Authority from the same Kaduna”.

In a tone of total indignation, Chief Nwodo said “instead of treating ourselves this way, is it not better we agree to go our different ways?”

Prof Pat Utomi in his contribution pointed one major ailment Nigeria suffers at the moment: the sharing appetite which he said is a major source of underdevelopment. He recalled that in the days when local governments generated their resources and were truly units of development, there were more of them in the South than the North. But that after the 1976 reforms and they were tied to money sharing, reversal became the case “as every General from the North turned his village to a local government”.

A female speaker from the North screamed and yelled at the audience and other speakers for holding the North responsible for the insensitivity of the present administration but ended up agreeing with Alhaji Abba Gana thus: “We Northerners who are supposed to own these appointments are also embarrassed by them.” But they are not saying it out and does she want those who are at the receiving end to keep mute too?

Insensitivity of the administration

Professor Greg Ibe, the Chancellor, Gregory University, Uluru; gave a well researched keynote address full of keys and notes at the conference. He recalled that of the 28 persons involved in the amalgamation of 1914, only six were Nigerians and the rest British, including Fredrick Lugard and Lewis Harcourt. The Nigerians were:

*Sir Kitoye Ajasa representing Lagos

*His Highness, Oba Ladigbolu (Alaafin of Oyo)

*Hon. R. Henshaw (Obong of Calabar)

*Hon Maiturare (Sarkin Musulumi and Sultan of Sokoto)

*Hon. Abubakar (Shehu of Borno)

*Hon. Usmain (Emir of Kano)

There was no signatory from the South East to the amalgamation treaty!

My takeaway away from the whole event was that Nigeria may be in its last days like Yugoslavia if we do not learn to listen to ourselves to be able to hold meaningful dialogues about the future of our country. Monologues will lead you to nowhere.

Abuse of power by a section to the discontent of the rest country is an ill-wind that ultimately cannot blow the polity any good.

VANGUARD