Nigeria seems closer than ever towards bringing back the traditional institution into the machinery of government, this time with constitutional powers. The recent consensus agreed between the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, and the National Council of Traditional Rulers, NCTR, in Aso Villa was a strong pointer to this.

That the meeting held in Aso Rock indicated that the idea may have the blessing of President Bola Tinubu. So, the stage is set for the Bill in the National Assembly seeking constitutional roles for the traditional rulers to be accelerated to fruition. A Bill to this effect has been lying in the House of Representatives after passing the second reading way back in December 2020.

The immediate trigger for the renewed urgency behind this drive has to do with our intractable security challenges and the attendant mass hunger due to the crippling of farming activities in most parts of the country. This menace is most severe in the North where jihadist terrorists, armed herdsmen and their bandit variants have seized large swathes of territories and imposed themselves on defenceless Nigerians.

Despite their best efforts, the Nigerian Armed Forces, Police and other security agencies have failed to arrest the situation. Our territorial integrity has been so compromised that these armed hoodlums only recently plunged the entire North into darkness by vandalising power grid towers and pylons.

It is unfortunate that Nigeria is a country that waits until it is in the middle of life-threatening dangers before putting up a desperate struggle. We never plan ahead to prevent danger and grow; and when we do, we never implement.

Giving traditional rulers active roles in governance was one of the measures we should have taken as soon as we gained independence from colonialist Britain and decided on federalism and democracy as our form of government.

Rather than do this, our founding fathers and their successors continued to use the colonial template of amassing the powers of the state instead of giving power back to the people. Over time, runaway population, worsening poverty, complexity of criminality and insecurity, have left us with no choice but to seek to bring back the grassroots into governance. But are we going about it the right way?

Nigeria needs a holistic approach to power devolution, part of which will include giving constitutional roles to traditional rulers. This is the only way we can reclaim our vast ungoverned spaces seized by criminals, insurgents and terrorists.

Devolving power to our local communities and empowering traditional institutions, especially in the areas of security, implementation of economic policies and administration of justice, will make governance more effective. A pick-and-choose approach will prolong the process – and the damage.

The Constitution must be comprehensively repositioned to give power back to the people.