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A former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar has restated his calls for the
restructuring of the Nigerian federation and
the devolution of powers to the lower tiers
of government.
He also urged the country’s leaders to
follow the letter and spirit of federal
character and other affirmative action
policies to help manage distributive
conflicts until such a time when the country
has done enough to enhance production in
order to reduce the scarcity that drives the
conflicts over distribution.
In his presentation on Wednesday in Abuja
at a Symposium on Federalism, Diversity
and Nation-Building – Tackling the
Challenges of Integration in Nigeria,
organised by the Institute of Governance
and Social Research, Atiku argued that “if
we restructure our federation, make
compromises, and govern better, we will
have a greater chance of transforming our
diversity into a national asset.”
He noted that enduring changes to the
country’s structure and redistributive
systems can only come about through
negotiations and compromises by leaders of
the diverse groups and zones, adding that
with a spirit of give and take, the capacity
to empathise, to walk in the other’s shoes,
compromises will be easier.
He said the country’s “unitary federalism”
has also been characterised by too much
government involvement in economic and
other activities.
According to him, the country now has
federal roads, schools, and hospitals, in
addition to business investments that the
federal government embarked upon.
He stated that the country is a diverse,
multi-ethnic and multi-religious society with
three dominant groups in three geographic
regions each with many minority groups.
According to him, none of the three major
groups and neither of the two main religions
has overall dominance in the country.
Speaking on what should be done, the
former vice president stated that “So, we
need to step back, agree on what the centre
must do and what can and should be
devolved to the lower tiers of government
“We must devolve powers and
responsibilities to the federating states.
Much of what is currently in the exclusive
legislative list need to be moved to the
concurrent List. We don’t need federal
roads, federal hospitals, and federal
schools. They should be transferred to the
states along with the funds expended on
them. At best the federal government may
establish regional centres of excellence in
medicine and research in each of the geo-
political zones, which can act as models for
state governments. The federal government
should hands-off the administration of local
governments. States should have the power
to create as many local governments as
they wish or to not create any. With the
devolution of power to state governments,
people in each state would know who to
hold responsible if their roads are not fixed
and if their hospitals have no medication,”
he explained.
According to him, the devolution of powers
to states must extend to political parties,
adding that political parties should not
behave in a unitary manner and expect a
robust democratic federal system for
Nigeria.
“Having the party headquarters in Abuja
dictate to state (and even local government)
branches even on purely local matters is
not healthy for democracy and federalism.
Such high-handedness promotes corruption
and impedes attention to minority interests
and local peculiarities. We need to also
follow the letter and spirit of such existing
mechanisms as federal character and other
affirmative action policies to help manage
distributive conflicts until such a time when
we do enough to enhance production in
order to reduce the scarcity that drives our
conflicts over distribution. Inevitably in
federal systems, component units will
bicker over the distribution of resources,
including revenues, location of investments
and other opportunities.
