Centralism, devolution – the need for national restructure
It should by now be incontrovertible that the size; authority and powers of the Federal central government of Nigeria are in need of substantial circumscription and reallocation.
We also now know that all countries Nigeria including, dare artificial constructs – in the sense that there is no country in the world that is not a construct of geography or political influence; show me a country that is a homogenous entity with people of identical ethnicity race religion or language if you can.
The costitutional rationale for Nigeria is stated in section 2 (1) and 3 (1) of the Constitution where it is recounted that she is a federation consisting of states and a Federal Capital Territory. Nigeria is the sum total of the states of the Federation.
Without the states of Nigeria having combined together to form Nigeria, there simply would not be a Nigeria. The federal government is a fiction. In order for there to be a fictional central federal authority the states have to effectively shed their authority and powers to create a central government. Regrettably Nigeria in practice and principle has failed to recognise this reality in the allocation of powers in its national affairs. The sovereignty of the people is self-evident in the place where they live eat and sleep – their most effective local government of response of a Nigerian is – his state government.
On the contrary over the decades Nigeria has held on firmly to the practice of “Centralism” -an over centralized structure of governance and democracy irrespective of the social inequities and economic injustice that it creates. This “top -down” strategy government from centre “downwards” is what Nigeria has practiced with evidently little material success.Much, if not ALL of the present day disaffection of Nigerians, resulting in conflict and tension,this arises from or is traceable to an over bearing; over centralized national government structure- it offends federalism.
The true building blocks of constitutional democracy are found in building a “bottom- up” strategy where federal principles prevail. This would be principally driven by the most viable local institutions in Nigeria – the sub-national states or some other entity; This can be sustained through”subsidiarity” – where all government functions are performed principally at the sub national level and only thereafter supplementarily by the national institutions.The above views of Professor James S. Wunsch in “Refounding the African State and local self -governance: the neglected foundation” are irresistible.
This is not new to the world or Nigeria – it is the basic instinctive most natural order of things – and it is necessary now.
Tocqueville (1966)iterated that the highest performance of society is at the sub-central; sub- national level.
“The township is the only association so well rooted in nature that whenever men assemble if forms itself. Communal society therefore exists among all people whatever be their customs and their laws; man creates kingdoms and republics but townships are coeval with humanity…So communal freedom is not one may almost say the fruit of human effort. It is seldom created but rather springs up on its own accord. It grows almost in secret amid a semi barbarous society. ”
The evidence against centralism is clear:
There is strong evidence that “centralism” has led Africa to some of the weakest governments in the world. Lacking in effective budgeting and population administration and leading to waste.
All over Africa and in Nigeria centralism has led to ethnic conflict and policy disaster as the ill- equipped and poorly connected central government seeks to impose in almost imperial fashion decision alien to the locality.
Finally centralism has not been an effective remedy for the problems of multi-ethnicity. It has succeeded nowhere and is often found where there is national poverty. Centralism has not developed local structures or peoples- where you find such progressive development it a result of local sub-national efforts against the odds. Lagos State is a case in point
Federalism: Many of our forebears fought constitutional domination and servitude. The Nigeria of tomorrow must embrace constitutional partnership based on equity first among the States and with the federal government and thereby gain legal guarantees and further autonomy on issues related to preserving their distinctiveness and ensuring commensurate economic and social advantages.
We often hear the cynics cry – What is this ‘True Federalism’ anyway? Whatever it is, it is NOT the adversarial practice we find in Nigeria today where one (Federal) government has both suspicion and low regard for another (the State) – take for instance the condescending (adversarial)view of Federal agencies of state governments, the Federal central consumption of tax that is in no way attributable to its effort or where the central government decides that it has constitutional power over ponds, creeks, lakes, and streams of districts within the state territories hundreds of kilometers from the seat of the central government.
There are tiers of government not ‘levels’ – each tier of government must have defined limits of autonomy and should then receive financial resources tailored to their specific requirements as defined by the mandate of legislative competence, their actual situation and the new statutory indices of calculation.
As a result therefore, neither the federal government nor the governments of the constituent units are subordinate to one another. Theycarry out constitutionally defined mandates.
An adjustment of the Revenue Allocation formula to achieve an increase in functions of State Governments so as to provide appropriate funding to discharge such responsibilities- is imperative.
Local Government Areas are administrative divisions of parts of the territory of the component States of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
We now know that the 1976 Local Government Edict was an unfortunate watershed,it would have spared of years of inequitable ‘equality’ imposed on Nigerians, leaving the administrative units to reflect and represent local history, tradition, culture, community viability and administrative necessity.
Nigeria as a matter of necessity must revert to EQUALITY only when based on EQUITY and not equality for the result of stagnation of comparative economic and physical development in the States.
For as long as this prescription is being forcefully made by political and undemocratic means because of revenue allocation, the tension of, inequity and social injustice will prevail.
The local government system must be removed from all central and national considerations and return to where it rightly belongs within the legislative competence of the State Houses of Assembly and within the reach of the people.
The source of misconceived power allocation is in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The legislative list conferring exclusive rights on the central Federal authorities displays an over concentration of local matters in a central government.
The present over – bearing anomaly of a central federal and “superior” government is highly ineffective and not linked with or reflective of the aspirations, interests and immediate needs of the Nigerian people.
The enormous Federal central government has proven to be an effective means of extracting the wealth created and owned by the people as represented by their sub-national government for which the states receive a dismal return.
It is aberrant in the extreme to prioritize an artificial entity called “Federal” – because while the country is made of actual places states such as Ogun, Kano and Anambra- there is no place called the “Federal”
Evidence also shows that Nigeria’s central government has grown more powerful over the years with successive constitutions from 1960; 1963; 1979 1999 – this growth in central power has coincided with growth in poverty, under development and ethnic tension.
The national free ride is over – Nigeria must take steps to restore not only human expectation of sub-national ‘local’ priority in nation a building but ensure that waste and tension associated with marginal importance of “centralists” at the expense of the masses is reversed.
OLASUPO SHASORE SAN – Former Attorney General & Commissioner for Justice Lagos State, is a Partner Ajumogobia & Okeke and a Delegate Lagos State at the Nigerian National Conference.