Posted by Mr. Osita Okechukwu, a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has criticized state governors for failing to enact the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
In the midst of the ongoing clamor for restructuring, Okechukwu spoke. Prof. Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate, further pushed restructuring to the back burner this past weekend during a talk at an event hosted by Punch Newspaper.
“When the word restructuring is booted around, we often have the challenge, what do you mean by restructuring?” Soyinka stated at the Punch’s 50th anniversary. In fact, I much prefer the terms reconfiguration and decentralization to the phrase restructuring. Furthermore, people in positions of leadership understand the value of decentralization and how practically inevitable it is to occur until they achieve power.
Chief Emeka Anyaoku, a former Commonwealth Secretary General, also contributed his honorable voice. “I have stated publicly that the current constitution and governance structure are insufficient to appropriately handle these issues.
“We are unable to adequately tackle these issues that have taken on a national scope, particularly the insecurity that has engulfed the country’s north and other areas,” he said.
The Voice of Nigeria’s immediate past director general, Okechukwu, addressed journalists on Sunday and stated that while he was not opposed to restructuring, if restructuring is a patriotic quest for a flourishing society and the welfare of the greatest number of Nigerians, then he was.
“Do governors need restructuring before implementing the 4th and 5th amendments of the country’s constitution if restructuring is for a prosperous society and the good of the greatest number of Nigerians?” Okechukwu shot back.
It should be remembered that numerous governors have been dragging their feet in implementing the 4th Amendment’s full budgetary autonomy for state Houses of Assembly and the judiciary.
In response to the revived calls for restructuring, Okechukwu issued a warning, stating that “our zeal to advocate for concession of more powers to Governors cum Emperors; is dampened by the lukewarm attitude of majority of the governors to adherence to the rule of law, welfare and security of our citizenry.”
While restructuring or reconfiguration is not inherently bad, he emphasized, “do our dear governors need restructuring before they implement the 4th and 5th amendments of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?” This is especially important given the necessity of devolution of powers to sub-national units.
“To put it simply, isn’t the financial independence of state legislatures and the judiciary a fundamental step toward the strengthening and restructuring of our democracy?” Okechukwu enquired.
“It is the truism because he was an advocate and apostle of restructuring before he assumed presidential powers; that to whom much is given much is expected,” Okechukwu said when asked why the movement for restructuring gathered strength and President Tinubu’s attention was being attracted to it.
While acknowledging that agitation is a fundamental component of democracy, he cautioned those who are placing the blame squarely at Tinubu’s door, saying that “Mr. President cannot restructure single handedly under our rigid constitution, thus re-echoing the pessimism and cynicism of some patriots over devolving more powers to governors who are emperors with their authoritarian antics.”
When informed that any authoritarian state governor will be overthrown by the natives of the sub-nationals, they will naturally react to restructuring.
The APC chairman refuted such a naive premise, pointing out that the governors had solidified and entrenched dictatorship during the previous 24 years.
He cited the governors’ partisan unholy alliance, for instance, in their repeated votes against the first line charge funding for local councils, their disarray of State Independent Electoral Commissions, and their outright refusal to enact the Fourth Amendment’s first line charge funding for state legislatures and the judiciaries.
“And since the passage of the Fifth Amendment, we have not yet witnessed the state governments of any prospective regional bloc or geopolitical zone working together to launch a regional railway project or electricity chain?”
One may wonder if we have forgotten the reasons behind the failure of problems like region in the 1978/9, 1988/9, 1995/6, 2005, and 2014 constitutional conferences. In a word, the reason is a fear of local hegemony.
“Where were the barriers, protectors, or strong men who would force governors/emperors to step down when they were violating our civil rights, our commonwealth, and all of the previously mentioned, still-in-force clauses of the constitution?
Or are we going to go to heaven after reforming in order to earnestly implore Almighty God to send our holy ones down from heaven? Okechukwu made a joke.