“Thus, I oppose talk of break-up and all other exotic political arrangements tantamount to it. That I am a foe of disunity does not mean I have blinded myself to the truth that our nation is in need of great repair. We all see the nation for what it is. Some look further to see the nation for what it is not and they rush to condemn it.
“I choose to see the nation for what it can be and thus seek to nurture and cultivate it so that this Nigeria may bring forth the fullest blossoming of its riches, resources and ingenuity of its diverse people. We need a better Nigeria and we must move toward it with speed. Once an ally, time no longer is on our side.
“ It would be better to restructure things to attain the correct balance between our collective purpose on one hand and our separate grassroots realities on the other.” He added: “Sadly, the Federal Government is now doing things the states can perform with equal dexterity and which detract the Federal Government from the key missions only it can perform.
This imbalance between the roles of the federal and state governments lies at the root of our difficulties.
To achieve better levels of overall governance, we need to re-balance the duties of the federal and state governments. The legacy of undemocratic rule has arrogated too much power and resources to the federal at the expense of state governments. The quest to correct the imbalance is the essence of federalism I have advocated for so many years.
Due to our particular political history and its military legacy, the quality of our federalism and the quality of our democracy are intertwined. The more we repair federalism, is the more we improve democracy.
In my mind, federalism denotes a division of labour between the federal and state governments that functions to maximise the benefits of governance to the people.
“True federalism is that brand which provides that the Federal Government should focus on those few but essential things only it can provide such as foreign policy, defense, and national economic policy. Additionally, in those matters where uniform standards and requirements are appropriate, the Federal Government must take the lead.
All other matters should be left to the states. If there is doubt over a particular issue, the presumption should be that the states, not the Federal Government, should take the lead.
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He continued: “Constitutionally, we are a federation of 36 states. However, the vestiges of past military rule continue to haunt the democratic road we hew. We function like a unitary state in many ways.
We cannot become a better Nigeria with an undue concentration of power at the federal level. Many of the 68 items on the Exclusive Federal List should be transferred to the Residual List. This would be in harmony with the 1963 Constitution, again an instance of reaching back to revive something old yet more likely to give us a better Nigeria.
That prior constitution granted vast powers to the regions enabling them to carry out their immense responsibilities as they saw fit.
By virtue of the clear fact that regional governments were closer to the people, they had a better feel for the material and intangible priorities of their populations. We must return to this ideal.”
SUNDAY SUN
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