By Lateef Adegbite
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who incidentally was a former governor of Lagos state, appears to be under intense pressure from individuals and organisations to implement the Confab 2014 report aimed at restructuring Nigeria.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan who was instrumental for the Convocation of the National Conference in 2014, barely one year to the end of his Administration had said that he did not have enough time to implement the report .
Senator Ibrahim Shekrau, a former governor of Kano state and minister of Education during Jonathan’s Administration had confirmed that the erstwhile President handed the Confab document to Muhammadu Buhari, his successor on May 29, 2015, with hopes that he will implement it but nothing was done about it as he was said to have confined the report to the dustbin of history, describing as ’’a mere papper’’.
Shekrau was said to have urged Tinubu ‘’dust up the Confab report from the dustbin where Buhari had confined it, set up Committee to review the report’’. He noted that most of the current challenges facing the country have been exhaustively discussed in the report which may have informed why the immediate past Nigerian President had refused to read it in order not to be tempted to implement it until he left office on May 29, 2023.
The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, SMBLF, who were the first to open up on the restructuring of Nigeria in the recent time were said to have urged Tinubu, to put the necessary machineries in motion towards the implementation if the 2014, National Conference report masterminded by Goodluck Jonathan, a former Bayelsa state born Nigerian President. The Leadership of the SMBLF, had said that ‘’restructuring of Nigerian which pat Administrations had failed to do is the only to mitigate myriads of challenges: banditry, terrorism, kidnapping drug and human trafficking currently bedeviling the country ‘’.
Many believe that for the Tinubu’s Administration, to implement the Confab 2014 report, a number of alterations of the 199 Constitution, enactment of new Laws and amendment of some of the existing Laws of the country, would require the involvement of the National and the state Assemblies as then Jonathan’s Administration could not have done it overnight. They had cited the state policing and restructuring of the most populous West African country that allows bottom –up structure of government’’.
Although, President Tinubu had agreed to restructure Nigeria but says he is not in a hurry to do so. The former Lagos state governor may have taken advantage of the visit to Pa Reuben Fasoranti, the National Leader of the Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, in Akure, Capital of south western state of Ondo on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, to speak out.
Given that former President Muhammadu Buhari, had said that he could not have restructured Nigeria in his eight years in office because his claims that it was an inclusive document which he has described as an ‘’Afenifere agenda’’, the incumbent Nigerian President who had consistently advocated for restructuring of Nigeria over the years on the ground that the country’s current centralized political system is no longer suitable due to its high cost , had said that it needed ‘’to be decentralized to reduce the desperation of politicians to hold political positions at the Federal level’’.
It was not surprising why he had said ‘’ that a solid Foundation needed to be laid before bringing the restructuring of Nigeria in place such that if it is done ‘’it will not collapse ’’. Tinubu may have had mindset to allocation of certain percentage of the country’s resources to the states and Local government Levels if he should be elected the nation’s president in the 2023, general election, to make the regions more attractive to the desperate politicians overcrowding the Federal level to Lobby for political office.
Tinubu has every reason to implement his electioneering Campaign promises which includes resrtucturing of Nigerian as he had made people to understand that he had ‘’prayed, danced and Campaigned to win the February 25, 2023, Presidential election’’ , where the likes of Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Peter Obi, a-one time governor of Anambra state and Candidate of the Labour Party, who was said to have won the heart of the Youths, going by the name ‘’Obidients’’had participated in the election which he had won.
Appealing to the Afenifere Leadership not to pity him but just sit down and relax to watch his actions in office , he had said that before coming out to vie for the office of President of Federal Republic of Nigeria, he knows the enormous responsibility of the office ‘’.
The former Lagos state governor who could not hide his feelings was said to have told those that cares to listen during a recent visit to the Afenifere Leadership in Akure, that the restructure he is going ‘’to put in place economically and politically would be such that would bring Nigeria back to where it was supposed to be over the years’’.
The Nigerian President had made it clear that ‘’Restructuring the country is imperative as it would discourage the governors from solely relying on the monthly Federal allocations to run the affairs their respective states but initiate ideas that will lead to greater productivity and accountability at the state Level.
The recent incident in the House of Representatives under the close watch of Tajudeen Abbas, where 60 Lawmakers , described as Tinubu’s Loyalists has initiated a move to end the current Presidential system of government and revert to the Parliamentary system previous used in Nigeria in the first Republic clearly shows the shape of the restructuring exercise of the Tinubu’s Administration will take.
Nnamdi Kanu , detained Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, by the Department of State Service, DSS, under the Leadership of Magaji Yusuf Birchi, was quoted to have said that he is not opposed ‘’ to any genuine restructuring of Nigeria along the lines of the 1963 Constitution’’.
Kanu reportedly said that the country cannot grow or make any appreciable progress under the current unworking, unitary structure political system imposed by the military and their political class Collaborators.
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