CHIEF OLU FALAE SPOKE THE MINDS OF HONEST AND PROGRESSIVE NIGERIANS – THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT RESTRUCTURING NIGERIA IS ALL ABOUT!
This beautiful piece by Chief Olu Falae is for those who pretend that they do not understand what restructuring is all about.
FOR THOSE STILL GREEKED BY THE TERM, THIS IS THE MEANING OF RESTRUCTURING AS CANVASSED BY SOUTHERN NIGERIA BY Chief Olu Falae
You know I am a leader in the South West and at the National convention, I was elected as the leader of the Yoruba delegation. So, I am central to the Yoruba position. The Yoruba position is my position and it is the same position I canvassed in my book, ‘The way forward for Nigeria’ which I launched since 2005 in Lagos. What we mean by restructuring is going back to the Independence Constitution which our leaders negotiated with the British between 1957 and 1959. It was on that basis that the three regions agreed to go to Independence as one united country. So, it was a negotiated constitution. This is because, if the three regions were not able to agree, there would not have been one united independent Nigeria. But because the three regions at that time negotiated and agreed to package a constitution, that is why they agreed to go to Independence together. When the military came in 1966 and threw away the constitution, they threw away the negotiated agreement among the three regions, which was the foundation of a united Nigeria.
So, the military did not only throw away the constitution but a political consensus negotiated and agreed by our leaders of the three regions in those days. When we say restructuring now, we are saying let us go back substantially to that constitution which gave considerable autonomy to the regions. For example, each region at that time collected its revenue and contributed the agreed proportion to the centre. But when the military came, they turned it round and took everything to the centre. That could not have been accepted by Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikiwe or Obafemi Awolowo.
This constitution we are using was made by late Gen Sani Abacha and the military; and Abacha came from only one part of Nigeria, so he wrote a constitution that favoured his own part of Nigeria. That is why I am saying, let us restructure and go back to what all of us agreed before. That is the meaning of restructuring. The regions used to be federating units, but in today’s Nigeria, they would now be called federal regions because states have been created in the regions. So in the West, you now have federation of Yoruba states which would belong to the Nigerian union at the centre. So, it is not like the region of old with all the powers. No. It is now going to be a coordinator of the states in the zone. That is what we mean by restructuring. And the regions would have a considerable autonomy as they used to have. For example, for the younger people, they may not know that every region then had its own constitution.
There were four constitutions at independence –the Federal constitution, Western constitution, Eastern constitution and Northern constitution. That was how independent they were and every region had an ambassador in London. The ambassadors for the regions were called Agent General so that you do not confuse them with that of Nigeria then called High Commissioner. So, Nigeria had four ambassadors in London. The ambassador for Nigeria then called a High Commissioner was M.T Mbu. The ambassador for Eastern Nigeria then was Mr Jonah Chinyere Achara, Western Nigeria was Mr Omolodun and for Northern Nigeria, it was Alhaji Abdulmalik. There were four of them. That was the kind of arrangement we agreed to, but the military threw it away and gave us this over-centralised unitary constitution. So, we said this is not acceptable any more; we must go back to the negotiated constitution which gave considerable autonomy to the regions, so that they can compete in a healthy manner. For example, Chief Obafemi Awolowo wanted to introduce free education in the West and other regions said they could not afford it, but he went ahead to introduce it in the Western region. He said he wanted to pay a minimum of five shillings a day, while others were paying two and three shillings. He went ahead and passed the law, making five shillings the minimum wage in Western Nigeria.
There was no problem with that. In Western Nigeria, the constitution provided for a House of Assembly and the House of Chiefs. In Eastern Nigeria, there was no House of Chiefs because they did not think they needed one. There was no problem with that and that is the kind of Nigeria we negotiated in London, but that is different from what we have today. So, we are saying let us go back to that arrangement which all of us agreed at independence and not what Abacha imposed on us, which is very partial, unfair and one-sided. That is the meaning of restructuring; it is to restructure unfairness and give semi-autonomy to the federating units.*
*Chief Olu False is a leading Yoruba leader and was Head of the Southwest Delegation to the Jonathan National Constitutional Conference.
This RESTRUCTURING is no longer tenable or necessary. It will not solve the problems of Nigeria, which is why Nigeria failed from 1960-1966, for the following reasons:
1. There was no water-tight stipulations on how the National President, Prime Minister and Ministers would be chosen: adoption of competitive elections led to violence, hostilities, rigging, connivance plots, betrayals, and wetie wetie, and finally the treasonable trial, verdict and IMPRISONMENT of Obafemi Awolowo, which set the Southwest Yoruba land on fire.
2. whilst the South looked towards development and modernization, the North was more interested in the DOMINATION of the South, by the Fulanis and the imposition of Islam and the creation of a Caliphate, using the betrayal of the Yorubas by Samuel Akintola, to impose the political will of the North, and the achievement of the goal to islamize Nigeria, which gave rise to wetie wetie wetie, which was the use of social violence by the Yorubas to counter and stop the domination of the Yorubas on their own aboriginal territories by Northerners: this was what prompted the Military coup of January 15, 1966, inspired by Majors Banjo, Adegboyega, both Yorubas who were very bitter on the hatred against Awolowo by the North, supported by Majors Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna, leading to the coup in which the major protagonists of Northern DOMINATION were killed, prompting the July 14-15,1966 Northern military coup that massacred perceived Igbo dominators within the military, essentially Ironsi, who Fajuyi protected as an innocent, and so Fajuyi paid for this protection with his own life: it is critical to note that despite the independence of each region, in1960, center domination and Islamization were factors that the Constitution of 1960 did not envisage, leading to the events of 1967-1970, the war against Biafra.
3. Biafra and the initial plan for Oduduwa Republic, which Awolowo was made to jettison upon being released from prison in Calabar, and being made Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council, second in command to Gowon, the question of center dominance rose again as Gowon failed in governance and Murtala Mohammed took over, and the North took charge again, until Dimka killed Murtala Mohammed, and the weakness of the system became apparent again: after Shagari, Buhari took over, and ever since Northerners using the positions of Babangida, Abacha, Abubakar and Yar’Adua, putting down Jonathan, to instal Buhari again, who planned to instal another Northerner to replace himself but failed in 2023.
It is not only about Regional independence, Nigeria cannot overcome the problems of ethnic Fulani DOMINATION AND ISLAMIZATION, which warrants and necessitates the Constitutional Dissolution of Nigeria, without rancor, quarrels or bloodshed, and to grant the 383 other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, to survive, remain independent and preserve their aboriginal heritage, and patrimony, by setting up their own political entities, without the interference of other ethnic nationalities. Until 1914 when Luggard amalgamated Southern areas of what later became Nigeria, the Southern ethnic nationalities were on their own, protected by distance, tse-tse flies that eliminated horses used Fulanis to invade the South, and by the thick forests from the invasion of the ethnic Fulanis whose quest for a Muslim Caliphate was un-achievable due to the long distance from the North. Now only the nurturing and continuation of Nigeria, and the preservation of a political entity called Nigeria, would enable them (the Fulani Muslims), to CONQUER those they were not able to conquer through Usman Dan Fodio.
Unless Nigeria is Constitutionally Dissolved now, the problems will remain. Oil money, through CORRUPTION, printing fresh Naira currency to provide funding for election victories, (which makes skyrocketing inflation unstoppable), negotiating US Dollar loans, and stealing the loan money to provide for elite DOMINATION, and funding Islamic banditry to achieve the same goals will continue to destabilize, impoverish and disunite Nigeria. Without rancor, quarrels or shedding of innocent blood, efforts to restructure Nigeria will not work. The North has more votes, at the National Assembly, and the State Assemblies, to thwart and stop any restructuring: best to set a Negotiation Time Table, and peacefully constitutionally dissolve the Nigerian entity.
