By Jide Ojo.
Last Friday, Nigeria celebrated her 61st independence anniversary having got freedom from British colonialists on October 1, 1960. I have the privilege of discussing the import of that independence and the President’s Independence Day speech on a number of media platforms, both radio and television. I also listened and read other people’s opinions on Nigeria at 61. There is a unanimity of views that though we are not where we used to be, at the same time, we are not where we ought to be. The President in his broadcast said: “I fully understand the anxiety of many Nigerians on the inability of this country to go beyond a never-ending potential for becoming a great nation to an actually great one.” What then is the missing link to our national development? I dare say a part of it is lack of equity, justice and fairness.
There are some pointers to this. Right now, there is a raging controversy over the issue of power shift or rotational presidency between the North and South, the same as the issue of Value Added Tax, separatist agitation, herders-farmers clashes, fiscal federalism and clamour for restructuring. Why are these issues controversial? It’s largely because of perceived marginalisation and discrimination as well as attempt to dominate and exploit one tribe, ethnic group or region by another.
Take for instance the clamour for power shift from Northern Nigeria to Southern Nigeria in 2023. The Southern governors at their last meeting issued a communiqué that, “The Forum reiterates its commitment to the politics of equity, fairness and unanimously agrees that the presidency of Nigeria be rotated between Southern and Northern Nigeria and resolved that the next president of Nigeria should emerge from the Southern Region.” Various Northern groups namely the Northern Governors’ Forum and Northern Elders’ Forum openly disagreed with this call. They said it is unconstitutional and has no merit. Some Northern leaders even said the Southern leaders were threatening and blackmailing them to support power shift and that they have the numerical strength to determine presidential election victory in the country.
Well, what does the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended say about this issue? While power rotation may not have been expressly written in the constitution, Section 14 (1) of the grundnurm says, “The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a State based on the principles of democracy and SOCIAL JUSTICE (emphasis mine). Section 14 (3) says, “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity and also to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.”
Sub-section 4 of that Section 14 also says, “The composition of the government of a State, a Local Government council, or any of the agencies of such Government or council, and the conduct of the affairs of the Government or council or such agencies shall be carried out in such manner as to recognise the diversity of the people within its area of authority and the need to promote a sense of belonging and loyalty among all the peoples of the Federation.”
The issue of federal character is not limited to governance. That is why Section 223 (1) (b) of the Constitution says, “The constitution and rules of a political party shall ensure that the members of the executive committee or other governing body of the political party reflect the federal character of Nigeria while sub-section 2(b) says … The federal character is reflected only if the members belong to different states.
How does all of these copious constitutional provisions relate to issue of equity, fairness and justice? The framers of Nigeria’s constitution deliberately made provision for federal character in order to promote, national unity, social justice, national loyalty and sense of belonging among others. If the Northern leaders do not want power shift or rotational presidency and decided continually to rule the country, will that not be in breach of the provisions of the aforementioned sections of the supreme law of the country? The real fact is that the North cannot do without the South and vice versa. Even in the determination of presidential victory, a candidate to that seat must in addition to scoring a majority of lawful votes cast also have 25 per cent of votes in at least two-thirds of the country, plus, the Federal Capital Territory.
That is 24 out of the 36 states and Abuja. Administratively speaking, there are 19 states in the North, thus any presidential candidate still needs 25 per cent of the votes in five of the 17 southern states. Since 1999, Northern Nigeria has produced both President Umaru Yar’Adua and the incumbent, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the same way the Southern Nigeria has produced Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. I am reliably informed that the Constitutions of the Peoples Democratic Party and that of the All Progressives Congress prescribe zoning of political offices. Be that as it may, where lies the illegality or unconstitutionality of zoning and power shift arrangements?
On the issue of VAT, I learnt it was previously a consumption tax collected by the states but the collection was centralised by one of the military for easier collection. The agitation that first made Lagos State and more recently Rivers State to challenge the collection of the VAT by the Federal Inland Revenue Service in court was borne out of lack of equity in the distribution of the collected sum. On September 8, 2021, while addressing a shareholders’ meeting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike “lamented the injustice in the country”, saying Rivers State generated N15bn VAT revenue in June this year, but got N4.7bn in return, while Kano generated N2.8bn in the same month and got the same N2.8bn back. The governor also said N46.4bn was collected from Lagos State in the same month but the Federal Government gave Lagos N9.3bn. Is this an equitable distribution of this tax? I am of the considered view that if only the FIRS or the Federal Government will evolve an equitable sharing formula for the distribution of this controversial tax, then all the litigation surrounding the issue can be settled out of court.
One of the key highlights in the May 11, 2021 communiqué of the Southern Governors’ Forum was that in deference to the sensitivities of our various peoples, there is a need to review appointments into Federal Government agencies (including security agencies) to reflect federal character as Nigeria’s overall population is heterogeneous. What could have necessitated this recommendation? It’s borne out of the fact that there is no fair representation of all the major ethnic groups in the appointments into these positions especially the military or security agencies. For instance, a preponderance of the heads of security agencies are from Northern Nigeria while the Igbo are not even represented in the top six, namely, Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the Department of State Security. Do you blame the Indigenous People of Biafra if they want out of Nigeria when the South-East is alienated from key government positions and projects?
While the Federal Government was quick to declare IPOB as a terrorist organisation and arrested Nnamdi Kanu who is the leader of the group and also hounded Sunday Igboho to Beninese jail, it ignored the resolution of the National Assembly to declare bandits and killer herdsmen as terrorists. Does that portray equity, justice and fairness?
The three pillars of rule of law, according to Prof. A.V. Dicey, are supremacy of the law, equality before the law and fundamental human rights. If we continue to play by George Orwell’s catchphrase in his classic book, Animal Farm, where he said: “All animals are equal but some are more equal than the others”, then there will be no sustainable peace, progress and development in Nigeria. Inclusive governance based on equity, justice and fairness are the core values we need to apply to resolve many of our national challenges. Strict observance of the federal character principles at all tiers of government is the gateway to achieving national cohesion, peace and stability.