Any sincere observer who is passionate about Nigeria would have noticed that the richly endowed African country has over the past decades continuously deteriorated so much that it is now tipping off the edge of a precipice.
A good look at the past shows that at some point, Nigeria held so many promises and potential. Sadly, today, those potentials have turned to become problems, and Nigerians have constantly seen themselves chasing ‘Messiahs’ who seem to have a hint about what to do about their ugly situation.
Nigeria is presently being confronted by the worst period in her over six-decade-old history. Today, the country is dysfunctional, deeply divided, and faced with troubling schismatic tendencies. To be succinct, the once bubbling country is presently sitting on a ticking time bomb which will explode if efforts are not made to detonate it.
The challenges are just too many. From kidnappings, banditry, corruption, decayed infrastructure, poor healthcare to virtually every facet of her national existence, Nigeria as presently constituted, is facing heavy blows on all fronts, and this has further moved Nigerians very high up the ladder of desperation.
Many people have, as many times, ignorantly continued to heap the blames on whoever the President is. But is the problem only the President? The answer is surely a resounding, NO!
Nigerians have somehow managed to reach convenient conclusions that once they change the President and luckily manage to ship in a ‘Messiah’ of some sort into Aso Rock, then they will go back to sleep and watch their problems disappear. The harsh truth which a larger percentage of Nigerians have refused to get used to is that Nigeria’s problems are more of structure than that of personnel. A good look at the problems will show that the engine of the vehicle called Nigeria is completely knocked and no matter how skillful the driver they manage to recruit is, he or she will never get the vehicle up and running because drivers are not trained to be mechanics.
Most of the problems confronting Nigeria today go as far back as the defects which the country had at birth. The way Nigeria was ‘cobbled together’ has always meant that the governance structure was always going to be flawed if mistakes were made at the centre which was the meeting point. It is easy to recall that many centuries before anything territorial expression named Nigeria was even coined, many ethnic Nationalities where actually living peacefully on their own. This, however, changed in the mid-1880s, when a buccaneering British businessman named George Goldie invaded these nationalities with ‘Maxim guns’ and bullied them into submission to an unholy marriage which was flawed from the beginning.
After this short success, Sir Goldie constituted his newly captured territories into the Southern and Northern Protectorates which ran successfully as a business empire until he officially handed them over to the British government in the early 1900s. On behalf of the British government, Fredrick Lugard went on to amalgamate these two protectorates to form a country in 1914 for administrative convenience.
This marriage, from the beginning was bound to have compatibility issues because there was no relationship and they never courted. It didn’t take time for the British government themselves to come to terms with this reality and they started looking for ways to provide measures that could make the marriage a tad more understanding. A look at history books will show that in 1951, the British government withdrew the 1951 Macpherson Constitution which it replaced with the Lyttleton Constitution in 1954 because it felt the former kept too many powers in the center rather than the regions.
In 1960, after much struggle, the British government gave up administrative control of Nigeria to allow Nigerians rule themselves and it is not surprising that the leaders as at then, understood what the issues were which made them to resort to having strong regions and a weak but effective centre. The remnants of the fault lines were still out to create more problems and it didn’t take long for the military to react to them violenlty and rather than clean the mess, damaged the fragile nation-state further.
Upon assumption of power, the military suspended the constitution, used the Unification decree 33 to to destroy the regions, concentrated the entire power in the centre and ultimately pushed every ethnic nationality to begin a fierce competition to always be in control of that powerful centre.
It is important to set these perspectives clear so people can fully have a grasp of where some of the problems originated from. Nigeria has not been the same again ever since the military struck and to make matters worse, by the time the military were saying goodbye to Aso Rock on their way back to their barracks, they imposed an evil constitution on the country leaving the country with no opportunity to breathe.
Nigeria has struggled to witness any serious growth since then and Nigerians who are on the receiving end have continued to blame every leader in power whom they always expect to be a magicians. Sadly, none of them is a Harry Potter.
Restructuring
In the wake of 2023, many Nigerians are out again, towing the same path and seeking to replace the current ‘messiah’ – Muhammadu Buhari with another ‘messiah’. Many of them have continued to pay deaf ears to people who tell them that recruiting the best driver in the world without fixing the vehicle will not make the vehicle move.
The truth remains that Nigeria, as currently constituted, cannot work, and anyone wishing for any change in the negative growth trajectory just by changing the President is only deluding him or herself. No Nigerian President who will be oath bound to obey and defend the present 1999 Nigerian constitution will succeed in making any meaningful impact. It is rather surprising that many Nigerians know this already, yet they are out on the streets clamouring to have a new President who will operate under the same system.
It is even more troubling that politicians who understand these obvious defects are promising Nigerians El-dorado if they win. The truth remains that single mindedly chasing political power via the 2023 elections, without paying attention to the self-evident structural defects is mischievous. It is akin to dancing and entertaining visitors whilst one’s home is burning.
Jostling blindly for political power under exactly the same crippling unitary system that has left all the fault lines of the country bleeding profusely, while pretending that all is well and the only change needed is to change the President is pure hatred of the truth and such leaders should have their brains checked. It is even more absurd when some leaders even suggest constitutional amendments. The truth remains pretending that piecemeal constitutional amendments will in one way, or the other serve same purpose restructuring Nigeria would, is plain self-deceit of a disturbing streak.
Nigeria needs to be restructured and the best time to accomplish such noble task is now. The friction that has been generated by the current state of the union is tearing the country down and no meaningful progress can be achieved under such circumstances.
Rather than trying to create non-extent ‘messiahs’ out of mortal men, Nigerians must at this time jointly call for a peaceful restructuring of Nigeria.
There are several templates that have been worked on but never implemented. There has been an Aburi Accord, there has been several constitutional conferences, there has been the 2014 National Confab and above all, Nigerians can still be invited to a big table to renegotiate Nigeria’s continued existence as a corporate entity. The only reason many politicians are still making promises to Nigerians about what they will do differently in office is because they have an unhealthy greed for power, and they have a palpable disdain for the truth. Nigerians must not fall for it. The time to restructure Nigeria is now!
