How centralisation and prebendalism destroy Nigeria
In Nigeria’s pre-independence years, the colonial administration and nationalist leaders both came to the conclusion that a federal system of government would best serve Nigeria’s interests. Nigeria is diverse in every dimension – ethnic groups, religious affiliation, cultures, languages, resources and endowments, and development. Federalism was invented because of nations like ours!
The optimal system of government for diverse assemblies of people is a federal one that allows those different people to create unity out of diversity. The system of regions and states preserving their autonomy in relation to local matters such as education, healthcare, language, chieftaincy, local government, intra-state commerce, local policing etc. while federating together regarding matters such as currency, defence and national security, foreign relations, customs and excise etc. liberates diverse peoples by removing the fear of obliteration of their local identity while allowing for synergies at the national level that benefits everyone. On the other hand, attempts at enforcing a centralised, unitary or unitarian form of administration over diverse peoples usually results in real and perceived fears of hegemony or domination and is predictably prone to instability or even civil war!
In Nigeria’s first republic, federalism produced positive socio-economic and developmental benefits as our three or later four regions engaged in healthy competition for development that saw each of the regions set up universities, stadiums, industrial estates, scholarship or free education schemes, broadcasting services and invest massively in their own infrastructural and commercial development. This era has been described as a period of “competitive communalism” which was unfortunately undone as the unbalanced structure of the federation(with a Northern region that was larger than the others combined in terms of ascribed population figures and in parliament) led to the North seeking hegemony and domination of the other regions. The cycle of attempts at hegemony and domination undermining Nigeria’s federal structure, unity and stability (which led to the Nigerian civil war and the June 12 crisis) persists till today!
It is the search for hegemony that led to expropriation of states’ rights over mineral resources, sales taxes, inland waterways, power transmission etc. by the federal government. It is the quest for hegemony that led to the creation of 36 unviable states and 774 useless local governments and the attempt to turn these LGAs into a federal responsibility by inserting them in the national constitution as well as ongoing attempts to turn LGAs into a third-tier of government in the name of local government autonomy. The main cause of political instability in Nigeria has been the quest, usually by the Northern ruling power elite (but also by other regional elites, such as the South-East when they had the brief opportunity under Ironsi and arguably Jonathan as well!).
In fact I argue that there are only very few political crisis anywhere in the world that the principles of federalism would not solve! The crisis in Northern Ireland which had caused so much terrorism and death was resolved essentially based on devolution of power to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales; the wars and division of Yugoslavia could have been prevented by a federal system of government; the Nigerian civil war could have been prevented by the Aburi Accord, which was based on federal or con-federal prescriptions; perhaps the break-up of the USSR could have been prevented by giving greater power and autonomy to the Soviet Republics. In my view, continued instability and underdevelopment in Nigeria would be addressed only by returning to a genuine federal system that allows autonomy and devolution of power to the states or regions (now called geo-political zones)
Nigeria’s post-independence competitive communalism has since been replaced by a “prebendal” system as we adopted a neo-unitary government, centralising resources at the centre and removing incentives for the federating units to be productive or self-sustaining. Prebendalism, according to Professor Richard Joseph (in his book “Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria: The Rise and Fall of the Second Republic”) is now the anchor of Nigerian politics-“… clientilism and prebendalism are two of the fundamental principles of political organisation and behaviour in Nigeria”. He argues that prebendalism is the most appropriate conceptual notion for explaining Nigeria’s politicians’ intense and persistent struggle to control and exploit the offices of the state and defines prebendalism in terms of “the historical association of the term “prebend” with the offices of certain feudal states which could be obtained through services rendered to a lord or monarch or through outright purchase by supplicants… the adjective “prebendal” will refer to patterns of political behaviour which rest on the justifying principle that such offices should be competed for and then utilised for the personal benefit of office holders as well as their reference or support group. The official public purpose of the office often becomes a secondary concern… ”
In plain language, in Nigeria people seek public or political offices for their personal interests and share the proceeds thereof with their “clients” or “constituencies” who receive “prebends” from the lord and master. In this system, the formal or official purpose of government becomes secondary or even irrelevant! Such prebendal politics becomes self-sustaining and permanently institutionalised in a unitary government where all sources of wealth and power are concentrated in an unproductive, rent-distributing, corrupt state! The states themselves then receive “prebends” from the federal government! The prebendal nature of our nation is starkly illustrated in the ritual of the Federal Executive Council (FEC)sitting weekly or fortnightly to approve contracts (in effect distributions from the national purse) and in the monthly Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC)meetings where the states and federal government gather monthly to share proceeds of the sale of oil!
It is also illustrated in the long list of matters dedicated to the federal government in the exclusive legislative list and in the revenue allocation formula which gives 52% of national revenue to an incompetent and remote federal government, which in effect operates as a feudal bureaucracy with an “emperor”,“sheik” or “king” at its head! Centralisation subverts Nigeria in other ways – a constitution that creates states and local government with powers to enact law and bye-laws, but prohibits them from creating law enforcement agencies to oversee compliance and sanctions regarding those laws. So in the absence of state policing organs and monopoly of law enforcement by a single federal police which is starved of resources and bereft of capacity and modernity, a near-complete breakdown of law and order is the consequence! That is why Boko Haram nearly brought this country to its knees for over five years; that is why so-called Fulani herdsmen kill with impunity across the whole country; and that is why you have rampant, unchecked kidnapping and crime across Nigeria!
It is because of centralisation that we take huge resources every year from the Niger-Delta while leaving the region desolate and poor; we hand over “prebends” to acquiescent elites from the region only for the excluded majority to explode in anger every now and then as we saw with Isaac Adaka-Boro, the Orkar coup and now the militancy that frequently cripples oil production. Our defacto unitary system has produced states and local governments who can neither pay staff salaries nor perform the basic functions of governments-who cannot properly educate their citizens, secure their communities or provide basic, functional roads and other infrastructure.
Another effect of centralisation are the huge mineral resources, solid minerals, either left untapped or mined illegally by persons and firms who lack the resources, organisation and network required to build a thriving mining sector. The federal government in which the constitution bestows control of solid minerals is either too remote from the locations of the minerals or lacks the incentives to focus on them as long as it gets its rents from oil! You can say the same for taxes, whethercorporate or sales, agricultural exports, investment in power and transport infrastructure orproper development of our inland waterways. Our misguided and ill-intentioned centralised government has led to high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality, the absence of basic healthcare and dysfunctional politics characterised by cut-throat, destructive, expensive and self-serving contests for the almighty federal power every four years! The cycle of alarming political risk we endure at four year intervals undermines economic growth, investment, policy consistency and sustained development!
Nigeria’s imperative is to return to federalism, state/regional autonomy, devolution of powers, greater fiscal control over resources including mineral and tax resources by the states, and “competitive communalism”. I think it is clear that as long as we prefer the failing paths of centralisation and prebendalism, Nigeria would never attain its potential.
Opeyemi Agbaje