For the umpteenth time, I am writing about the noisy clamour for
restructuring which seems to be a cure-all placebo for all manners of
political discontent in Nigeria today. As in previous times I had
written, I still hold onto my position that there is nothing more than
political deceit around the noisome restructuring clamour and no time is
that dubious political content obvious than now.
If I may ask, why is it that there is still no clear, concise and
generally accepted idea of restructuring several years after that bogus
and inchoate demand made its way into our chaotic national discourse?
What is amazing is that as at today, so many people mouth restructuring
without anyone showing the light as to how it could be realised and what
outcome would be acceptable to the diverse groups that have invested
hope in it to cure all the national maladies Nigeria has accumulated
since independence.
Strangely, the term has remained bogus, undefined, queer and unclear
while it has become a ready hatchet in the hands of all manners of
displaced politicians who employ it to sow rancour, division, hatred and
schism among Nigerians.
As I contended in a previous report I did on the issue, restructuring,
as presently employed in Nigeria, is like an elephant felt by 100 blind
men. All describe the elephant by whatever part of the body he feels and
this bodes more confusion and discord among the blind men as to what
the elephant really is. That is the absurd trajectory sorounding the
present clamour for restructuring. It is strange that none of the people
or groups welding this political cudgel has attempted to give a clear
roadmap into what the term practically translates to all Nigerians. None
has told us how restructuring could be brought about besides noisily
telling the President in a democracy to ‘restructure Nigeria’.
No one has told us how Nigeria will look like after restructuring except
the pandering of utopian visages of an eldorado that Nigeria will turn
into after ‘Buhari has restructured Nigeria’.
As it is today, restructuring has become a deadly political weapon those
who find themselves holding the shorter ends of the country’s political
stick employ to get back at the country and possibly secure a firmer
hold on the politics of the country. What is amazing is that many of
these fellows were once in leadership positions where they would have
restructured Nigeria but criminalised demands for restructuring when
they were in power. Take the case of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Cumulatively, he has ruled Nigeria for 11 years, which was long enough
to restructure Nigeria to an eldorado. But Obasanjo did nothing of that.
In fact, he was known to roundly abuse those asking for restructuring
when he was civilian President. The term was practically outlawed during
his regime but today, Obasanjo has made the loud deceitful clamour for
restructuring his sole anthem!
Some have equally used the duplicitous demand for restructuring to
blackmail the north given that a northerner is in power but in our
present 21years of democratic governance, the south had been in power
for 14 years, why was it so difficult for the south to restructure
Nigeria to its taste in those 14 years? Why did those southern regimes
outlaw restructuring when they were in power and now find it so
attractive that they are blackmailing a regime that is only five years
in power? That shows the dubious, divisive and acrid political wrapping
that encases the present noisy restructuring demand.
But not to miss the essence of this report, there is little or no good
faith in the present, noisy and distracting demand for restructuring.
There is a huge dosage of mischief and political guile in the clamour.
Those that have made restructuring their sole mantra have done nothing
to give conceptual clarity to the term, what it is all about, what the
outcome holds for each and every Nigerian, who should bring it about and
how such a person should go about it. In the absence of such clear
specifics, restructuring is only a dangerous cudgel that is weilded by
ethnic irtidentists, displaced political profiteers, those who seek
political relevance or who are worsened by their placement in the
present political structure in Nigeria.
For the avoidance of doubt, Nigeria has no structural problem. The
problem lies on Nigerians deliberately sabotaging the system and using
the outcome to cause further damage to our collective purposes and
interests. Take the issue of local.government autonomy for instance, the
third tier of government that should take governance closer to the
people has been annexed and vassalled by states which end up
appropriating the humongous amounts that are allocated to this important
tier from the federation account each month and killing this tier. Under
the watch of previous regimes including the one headed by Obasanjo who
has become one of the queer apostles of deceptive restructuring, this
order worsened thus obliterating a vital third tier of government. But
the Buhari regime against whom this present dubious clamour for
restructuring targets, has boldly issued orders that will restore the
efficacy and financial autonomy of local governments and also the
judiciary and state assemblies. Curiously most of the advocates of the
present restructuring lingo, supported and urged the governors to oppose
this bold move that should take governance down the grassroots, just for
their dubious evergreen political interests. This should be a defining
move to assert the existing structural tenets of the country. This
should be a critical component of power devolution which has been one of
the snippets advocates of restructuring have been mouthing.
So silly is the demand that Buhari ‘should restructure Nigeria’. Sho? In
a democracy with clear cut division of responsibilities? Should Buhari
transmogrify into an absolute dictator to do this? This is what happens
when a people buy into what they hardly understand but which is marketed
by vile and sly politicians. I think the power to tinker with the
structure of Nigeria in a democracy should lie with the legislature. Why
demanding Buhari to give you restructuring when you have representatives
you elected to the national and state legislatures? This reprehensible
demand that Buhari should restructure Nigeria exposes the dubiousness
and ignorance of the noisy advocates of restructuring.
However, I believe if restructuring is the desire of majority of
Nigerians, it is realisable within the extent legal constitutional
framework of the country. What the agitators need to do is to develop a
buyable idea of the term; what restructuring is all about, what the
various people will benefit, how it will strengthen the country. Having
done this, they need to aggressively market it across the nooks and
crannies of Nigeria. Then, they need to approach their representatives
in the legislature to enact bills to that effect and drive those bills
through laid down legislative procedures. Anything done besides this is
mere political gimmicks deployed to satiate ulterior and murky political
interests and nothing more.
To sum my viewpoint, there is nothing wrong with the structure and laws
of the country. What is wrong is the attitude of most Nigerians to
sabotage the system and stultify the merits we stand to gain as a
multi-ethnic nation because of narrow, transient political interests.
What is wrong is the self-destructive penchant of Nigerians to sabotage
themselves and the nation for their nebulous interests. Let Nigerians
work to enforce and strengthen the structure and the laws beyond their
deadly crave for selfish political interests and the country and all
Nigerians will be the better for it.
Peter Claver Oparah
Ikeja, Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com