Nigeria too big to have one man as president —Balarabe

Former Governor of old Kaduna State and leader of the Conference of
Nigerian Political Parties, Balarabe Musa, tells TOBI AWORINDE that
Nigeria’s current structure has prevented the country from reaching its full
potential

Why do you think Nigeria should be restructured?

The calls for the restructuring of Nigeria are genuine and they have been
going on for a very long time in the country. But it has always been an
issue of the country returning to a situation whereby we have the regions
and there is the centre. In the past, the centre was stronger than the
regions. I advocate for a return to the regions, as we had before, with a
strong centre capable of uniting the country and also bringing progressive,
even development throughout the country, which certainly a weak centre
cannot do. Again, in our experience of campaigning for restructuring, one of
the big problems is that some groups with some other interests got
involved and made the whole call for restructuring threatening. For
instance, the role of the (National) Reformation Council and the National
Democratic Coalition were not helpful to the genuine call for a restructuring
because they tended to look at the problem of Nigeria as a matter of
tribalism, ethnicity and so on. But it is not! The ethnicity, tribalism, etc. are
reflections, but not the real thing. I think this time, if we really want to
campaign for genuine restructuring of the country, it should be for reasons
of uniting the people. We have a lot of work to do on unity; we have a lot
of work to do on reconciling Nigerians. For that reason, definitely, we need
restructuring.

And then there is another issue which also has to be taken into account;
even when the campaign for the creation of regions was made, one of the
salient reasons, which wasn’t so expressed or stated but it was there, was
that there was this growth in the number of elite with individual interests
that threatened the interest of the country and states were created for
them to make less trouble for the country and bring about unity. States
were created simply to enable them to have areas where they can do their
things and bring peace to Nigeria. The restructuring now can also take into
account this more serious emergence; for instance, of the elite. Now, there
are so many elite; each one wants to become the president of Nigeria or
something like that and they make a lot of trouble for this country. And
their way of peacefully pampering them, making them peaceful, is to create
regions so that while they don’t become president of Nigeria, they have
become something that at least can fulfil their ambition by being emir of a
region or something like that.

What does this restructuring entail?

There are three approaches to restructuring; we can talk about them
altogether or individually. The first one is a return to the original system
whereby the regions become the federating units. Then there is (the option
of) a return to the parliamentary system. And the third one is a return to
the leading role of the states in the economy. These are the three most
important (types of) restructuring and all the three can be combined. For
instance, we can have a return to the regional set-up under the presidential
system and stay with the leading role of the states in the economy to
ensure peace, equality, justice and development of the country. We can
have all of them because they are complementary. But whichever we
choose, we must understand that we must have credible leadership. We
have not been having credible leaders since 1966 when the military came
in. We had credible leaders before the military came in 1966, but we were
able to manage the situation in the country. For instance, before the
military came, we didn’t have this disabling level of corruption, stealing and
criminal waste of resources. Whoever stole any kobo of public funds was
investigated, prosecuted and punished accordingly and in an exemplary
manner. Thus, we didn’t have things like we have today, simply because,
at that time, the state played the leading role in the economy.
But since 1966, when we began to restructure the country into a place
where private interests played a leading role and public interest became
only secondary or even incidental. We didn’t have this disabling level of
corruption, stealing and criminal waste of corruption until we arrived at a
situation where virtually 95 per cent of Nigerians survive on some
illegitimate means, whether they know it or not; whether directly or
indirectly, willingly or unwillingly—some even say not more than one (per
cent) survives on legitimate means. That is the system.

Are you of the view that a particular region benefits more from the
structure of Nigeria than other regions?

It is an abuse and should be stopped. For instance, the president can
decide to enrich where he comes from or wherever he wishes and get away
with it, even though there is a Federal Executive Council, which is supposed
to work with the president. Yet, the president does that and people take it
or even glorify him for doing what is wrong. We have seen cases whereby
deliberate marginalisation of sections of the country has taken place and
people don’t do anything about it. For instance, we have the most recent
one, where the President appointed his kitchen cabinet of about 23 persons;
not a single one from a particular zone of the six geopolitical zones in
Nigeria. Only a few people are allowed to assume power and nothing
happens. In other countries, no president will abuse his power and get
away with it. We know of so many countries where presidents who were
supposed to resign were impeached because they misused their powers.
Is there any constitutional basis for President Muhammadu Buhari saying
Nigeria’s corporate existence is non-negotiable?
That is what I am saying; it is an abuse of power and it should not be
allowed. It should be challenged, peacefully and democratically. It is an
arrogant abuse of power which should not be allowed and it is because
this sort of thing is allowed that we have this negative state of the nation,
political instability, etc. In other countries, where there is a strong political
culture, nobody can go below the standard and get away with it, let alone
abuse power. But here, it’s done and people get away with it. It shouldn’t
have happened. If we had a party system, unlike what we have today, the
president would have to take into account the implications before he says
anything. But here in Nigerian, when you become a president or a governor,
you are the party.

The structure of Nigeria is such that each region relies on one another
economically. Wouldn’t this be threatened by restructuring?

It is possible if we have irresponsible leaders. But if we have a responsible
leadership, every unit will work in cohesion with the other units in the whole
interest of the country. For instance, now we hear this nonsense in Nigeria
of a state saying it will ban people from other states from coming into its
territory or moving freely in its territory, while this contradicts the
constitution. The constitution gives every Nigeria freedom of movement
throughout the country.

The intentions of some of those joining the calls for restructuring have
been called into question. Do you think there may be political agendas at
play?

It has always been there. People say Nigeria is too big to have one man as
president controlling everything. It is true. The country would be better off
if it is restructured into regions and the regions are the federating units.
The regions are big and viable enough. People break Nigeria into six
regions. Each of the regions would be more viable and that would be in the
interest of the whole country. For instance, the North will concentrate on
agriculture in the interest of the whole country, while the other regions will
also pay more attention to the sectors that are more favourable to them.
Now, we have a situation whereby we have a neglect of everything. But if
we restructure into regions, we would have a region taking full
responsibility for what are the best resources in their area. It doesn’t mean
that they would deny the centre any right. No! Some resources should be
kept at the centre because they are better managed (there); for instance,
mineral resources are better managed by the centre—that is, some of the
mineral resources, not all. I am sure, if we leave some of the resources to
the regions, they would not be able to cope. Take the case of oil, for
example; if you say only the South-South, where oil is produced, should
have total control, you may find that they may not be capable doing it.
There are certain things that must not be at the centre. That’s why the
centre has to be stronger to handle the interest of the whole country.


What are the repercussions if President Buhari ignores the calls for
restructuring?

The party (the All Progressives Congress) will eventually deal with the
matter because the party will find that its future is being undermined. As
weak as the party system is now in Nigeria, the party will find ways of
dealing with the matter.

Do you think the APC’s refusal to acknowledge the 2014 National
Conference recommendations may haunt the party?

It was an abuse to the conscience of Nigerians because it was (former
President Goodluck) Jonathan who originally outlawed a national
conference. Later, when he found it useful, he welcomed the idea of having
a national conference. He went arrogantly to appoint every member of the
national conference. The President is right if he says he doesn’t want to
have anything to do with this conference because it was not legitimate. It
was just the design of Jonathan for his political purpose.

Punch