Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday said Nigeria is not working as it should because the centre has more power than the federating states.
Speaking at the launch of book entitled “We are all Biafrans” in Abuja, Atiku said there was the need to restructure the nation to make it stronger and more united.
He said while Nigeria must remain a united country, the unity which most Nigerians so desire should never be taken for granted or taken as evidence that Nigerians are content with the current structure of the federation.
He said: “Nigeria is not working as well as it should and part of the reason is the way we have structured our country and governance, especially since the late 1960s. The federal government is too big, and too powerful relative to the federating states. That situation needs to change, and calling for that change is patriotic.
“We must refrain from the habit of assuming that anyone calling for the restructuring of our federation is working for the breakup of the country. An excessively powerful centre does not equate with national unity. If anything, it has made our unity more fragile, our government more unstable and our country more unsafe.
“We must renegotiate our union in order to make it stronger. Greater autonomy, power and resources for states and local authorities will give the federating units greater freedom and flexibility to address local issues, priorities and peculiarities.
“It will help to unleash our people’s creative energies and spur more development. It will reduce the premium placed on capturing power at the centre. It will help with improving security. It will promote healthy rivalries among the federating units and local authorities. It will help make us richer and stronger as a nation.
“As some of you may know, I have for a long time advocated the need to restructure our federation. Our current structure and the practices it has encouraged have been a major impediment to the economic and political development of our country.
“In short it has not served Nigeria well, and at the risk of reproach it has not served my part of the country, the North, well. The call for restructuring is even more relevant today in light of the governance and economic challenges facing us. And the rising tide of agitations, some militant and violent, require a reset in our relationships as a united nation.
“Some may say that we are saddled with more urgent challenges, including rebuilding our battered economy, creating jobs, fighting corruption and securing our people from terrorism and other forms of serious crimes.
“I believe, however, that addressing the flaws in our federation will help us address some of those very economic and security challenges facing this country.
“Let me quickly acknowledge that no federal system is set for all time. There are always tensions arising from matters relating to the sharing of power, resources and responsibilities. But established democracies have developed peaceful mechanisms for resolving such conflicts among the tiers of government. They recognise that negotiations and compromises are eternal”
The former Vice President argued that the vast majority of Nigeria’s young population will be forgiven for thinking that our lives have always revolved around oil and that the federal government has always been this domineering and controlling.
The young Nigerians, he said “may not be aware that the federal system which we inherited at independence allowed the regions to retain their autonomy to raise and retain revenues, promote development, and conduct their affairs as they saw fit, while engaging in healthy competition with others.
“They may not know that it was the emergence of military rule and the intervening civil war that led to the splintering and weakening of the federating units, centralisation of resources and concentration of power at the federal level.
“The enormous revenues from oil rents encouraged the central government to play an increasingly domineering role in the economy and society. It assumed more responsibilities for infrastructure provisioning, education, social services and business investment.
“We now know that the more resources the federal government has, the more responsibilities it tends to assume. This then generates the need for ever more resources.
“As Chairman of the National Council on Privatization from 1999 to 2007, in my capacity as the Vice President, I was shocked when I saw firsthand the manner of businesses our federal government was involved in. These included not just such capital-intensive industries as steel and petrochemicals but brick-making factories and bakeries as well. These enterprises hardly made any profit. Rather they were being subsidized by the budget.
“As the government’s role continued to expand, the private sector was crowded out and private initiative, innovation and creativity suffered. Excessive dependence on oil revenues led to the collapse of our agriculture-based economy.
“It also exposed the Nigerian economy to volatile market swings, booms and bursts. And it brought with it enormous social consequences such as wealth without labour, briefcase contractors and generations of youth accustomed to aspiring to be employed by others rather than thinking of creating jobs for themselves and others.
“It also led to the neglect of internally generated revenue, especially taxation. Most of our state governments can no longer pay their workers’ wages until they collect monthly allocations from Abuja.
“Only Lagos State is currently able to generate up to 50% of its revenues internally, thereby reducing its dependence on allocations from Abuja. (And it is not because of the existence of many businesses in Lagos as some people like to point out. Businesses do not on their own send money to government).
“As we became more dependent on oil revenues we became lazier, more complacent, and our leaders became ever more unaccountable. Among the most destructive impacts of our dependence on oil is, perhaps, the corruption that it has fostered in the oil industry and society at large.
“Some of you are familiar with published reports that highlight discrepancies and opacity in data relating to the allocation of oil blocs as well as NNPC’s abuse of its duty as steward of our federation revenues.”