By Opeyemi Agbaje
The House of
Representatives recently released what it called outcomes of public hearings
held in respect of its process of amending the 1999 Constitution. If those
touted outcomes become law, they will mean de facto and de jure end of the
concept and practice of federalism under Nigeria’s constitution.
In virtually
every instance, the Representatives voted against federalism! It is shocking,
given the agitation for a return to some semblance of a federalist constitution
from our current unitary-federalism that the House chose to further erode the
last vestiges of federalism left in Nigeria’s constitutional order.
Item 16 of the House
platform endorses the amendment of section 197 (1) (b) of the 1999 Constitution
to abolish state election commissions and have all elections conducted by the
national electoral commission, INEC. If this provision becomes law, INEC will
conduct future local government elections!
This follows the effective
nationalization of the judiciary through the National Judicial Commission;
transfer of virtually all important legislative matters to the exclusive
legislative list controlled by the federal government; nationalization of
policing and security; and other federalist aberrations in the constitution. It
is unbelievable that our Representatives believe the way to go is to further
worsen the constitutional balance in favour of the federal government!
If you thought the
House’ inclination to increase rather than reduce federal powers, and reduce
rather than increase state powers, at a time most enlightened Nigerians call
for devolution of powers to subsidiary levels of government, (and even unitary
nations such as the United Kingdom are devolving powers to sub-national
levels!) was an innocent mistake, you would be wrong given other decisions
taken!
Item 15 was a modest attempt to move some sinecure items (fingerprints,
identification and criminal records; insurance, labour, prisons, public
holidays, railways, bankruptcy and insolvency and registration of births and
deaths from the federal government’s exclusive legislative list to the
concurrent list. This would not have prevented federal legislation on those
matters.
Rather any federal law would still over-ride state laws as every
student of constitutional law knows! But our anti-federalist House of
Representatives platform rejected even this small step towards redressing our
defective federal structure!
The worst assault on
the federal principle was in respect of local government administration. In a
series of positions contained in items 10 to 14 of the House platform, the
Representatives systemically seek to make local governments accountable to the
federal rather than state governments. In item 10, the House adopts the
position that local government funding should be transferred direct to them by
the federal administration, bypassing states; item 11 categorically and
overwhelmingly rejected a sensible attempt to make local government creation an
exclusive affair of state governments as they are in other federal systems;
item 12 demonstrates in unmistakable terms the intent of the House by voting
explicitly to make local government a third tier of government with its own
legislative list! And item 14 seeks to prescribe in the national constitution
the tenure of local governments!
These positions are
shocking and aberrant and show that our representatives do not understand the imperative of the nation for federalism!
It is sad that rather than redress the erosion of our federal constitution, the
House would rather seek its final destruction by further weakening the states
and centralizing additional powers.
There are several
other indicators of the House’s abhorrence for the concept and practice of
federalism in the recently published platform. The House rejected both a modest
proposal in item 4 for recognition of the six geo-political zones “for
administrative purposes only” and a more ambitious proposal in item 5 that they
be treated as “another tier of government”.
Evidently in the view
of our Representatives, Nigeria is just perfect the way it is! Some cynics will
say, “Why wouldn’t they think so? They are just fine the way they
are-allowances, constituency projects, “oversight” and all!!!” Not surprisingly
given its other preferences the House in items 35 and 36 rejects entrenchment
of the principle of derivation, and in items 19-21 overwhelmingly rejected the
establishment of state police and unambiguously affirmed that the current
police system and structure should be retained completing the rout of the
federalist principle at least in the opinion of our current members of the
House of Representatives!
I am aware that House
members will argue that these obnoxious outcomes do not represent their
personal opinions or House resolutions, but are decisions reached by their
constituents in the public sessions conducted by them. I do not accept this
position! From reports I have received, those public sessions were so poorly
and shabbily organized, publicized and attended that they cannot represent the
views of Nigerians.
My suspicion is that
these positions reflect the personal and preconceived views of the
Representatives and their consultants, rather than popular positions!!! Those
outcomes certainly appear perverse and are unlikely to reflect the views of
many constituencies in Nigeria. Certainly not mine!!!
Nigeria needs
federalism both as a political and economic imperative. The evidence is
overwhelming that the strategy of centralization and unitary prebendalism is
already destroying the nation. By the time you centralize all elections,
police, armed forces, security, judiciary, all important legislation, local
government, and most resources under one national leader, Nigeria would be
ready for full civilian or fascist dictatorship!
The House of Representatives must
not be allowed to drive the final nail in the coffin of Nigerian federalism and
democracy.
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