DEVOLUTION OF POWERS' BILL FAILURE IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT: A REJECTION OF RESTRUCTURING!
DEVOLUTION OF POWERS' BILL FAILURE IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT: A REJECTION OF RESTRUCTURING!
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
July 31,2017
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Parts of the bills rejected by both the chambers of the National Assembly is the bill on Devolution of powers. So then What is Devolution of powers? Devolution of powers in simple term means the transfer of certain powers from the federal government to the states and local governments. More so, Devolution of powers is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to subnational level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. So then, what are these powers?
Basically, we have three lists of powers; namely: (1) Exclusive legislative list in which only the federal government has those powers which include: Natural Resources(crude oil and Solid minerals), Defence(all security agencies), Foreign Affairs matters, Currency matters and Migration (Emigration and Immigration) matters etc.,(2) Concurrent Legislative list: these are shared powers between the federal and states; such as: Education, Health, Agriculture, Roads etc., and (3) Residual Legislative list which are purely powers of local governments.
The advocates of devolution of powers are of the opinion that the powers of federal government are too much as such there is a need to reduce its powers and give it to states and local governments. They equally argue that by reducing the powers of the federal government it will make the office of the President less attractive. However, the advocates of devolution of powers are mostly the advocates of restructuring. So then, what is restructuring?
Restructuring means differently to different people. There is no consensus amongst Nigerians on the meaning of restructuring. To begin with, permit me to ask some pertinent questions thus: Is the problem of Nigeria that of “Structure” or “Leadership” or “Both”?
The concept of “Re-structuring” In my understanding means differently to different people. To the South- Southerners it means “Resource Control" which means that the Niger Delta states should have ownership of their “Resources as against the Federal Government and be paying tax to the federal government. To South- Easterners it means Con-federalism which is a system of Government that allows “Secession” at will as canvassed by the late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu. To the South-Westerners it means going back to the Regional Government with total autonomy as well as state Police which means Federalism with a relatively weak centre as in the first Republic.
Furthermore, to some professionals it means making Government “Lean” or small by scraping some Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies and institutions in order to free more resources for development as against recurrent expenditures. The call for restructuring seems not to have a serious reckoning amongst Northerners as such they are mostly indifferent, except of course, some few politicians.
However, in the present arrangement as we all know “Natural or Mineral Resources are under the “Exclusive Legislative List” and the Revenue Allocation Formula for the country is 54% for Federal Government, 26% for state Governments, 20% for Local Governments. In addition, 13% of the total Revenue before sharing goes to the eight(8) Oil producing states of: (1)Akwa-Ibom,(2)Rivers ,(3)Beyelsa,(4)Delta, (5)Edo,(6)Ondo,(7)and Abia states with the exception of Cross Rivers. Cross River state was an oil producing state but with the ceding of Bakassi Peninsular and the supreme court judgment that confirmed the “eight” oil wells that they once had falls under the territory of Akwa-Ibom they are no longer an oil producing state.
Restructuring or no restructuring, devolution of powers or no devolution of powers, In my modest view, we do not have an economy. If we must develop then we must have an economy. For me single commodity economy is not an economy. Our economy is mono- cultural. If there is anything that needs restructuring in Nigeria is our economy. We need to diversify it. Reducing federal powers to more states powers will only be meaningful if the economy of states and local governments improve. More powers without viable economy is more of the same thing. We must stop or minimize corruption. We must have Good Governance at all levels.
We must stop corruption! In my understanding,
For both states and local government administrations to develop we must focus on Internally Generated Revenue, IGR. We must have manageable government personnel. We must stop wastages at both states and local governments. We must eliminate ghost workers. We must use technology to block leakages in both states and local government. Both states and local governments should give less priority to federal allocations and pursue IGR. Let's woo Investors to grow our states and local governments economies. Let's pursue states and local governments taxes and use it prudently.
In my observation some power seeking politicians have now resorted to using restructuring and devolution of powers as a means of garnering political support ahead of 2019 General elections. Permit me to ask. Who has the power to restructure Nigeria? Is it realistic? Can all the six geopolitical zones or regions have a consensus on what a restructuring is all about? Only time will tell!
May God bless Nigeria!