ABUJA - EMINENT Lawyer, Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, yesterday warned that unless Nigeria returns to the path of true federalism, she may never record real growth, progress, development and harmony amongst the ethnic nationalities that make up the country, even as he blamed the country’s woes on bad leadership.
He also justified the restiveness of the people of Niger Delta region, saying “the people of the Niger Delta, whose land produce all this stolen wealth have every reason to be restive in the midst of their misery, squalor, wretchedness and extreme poverty and neglect.”
Sagay also decried the present form of government practiced in the country, saying that it is everything but undemocratic, adding that Nigeria is a unitary state.
Delivering the keynote address at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference holding in Abuja with the theme ‘Nigerian Nation: Recipe for Survival,” pointed out five major problems with the country, namely political structure of the country, leadership, corruption, indiscipline, absence of democracy and rule of law and absence of solidarity, cooperation and tolerance.”
According to him, “Nigeria is a country of many nations carrying out to be released from a strait jacket of an oppressive and suffocating unitary system, with a leviathan of a Federal Government in the driving seat. In other words, Nigeria is a unitary state masquerading as a federal state. In short, in a federal system, there is no hierarchy of authority, with the central government sitting on top of others. But Nigerian federalism contradicts all known criteria for federalism.”
“It has thus become clear that unless Nigeria returns to true federalism, there can be no real growth, progress, development and harmony amongst the ethnic nationalities that make up the country,”
He noted that democracy is yet to arrive in Nigeria, saying “part of the grave problem facing us today is our stubborn and consistent refusal to accept the practice and culture of democracy. And so, we have civilian government and no democracy.”
Further he said, “there is a clear consensus that the absence of good leadership is another major source of Nigeria’s problem. The persistence of poor human materials at the control levels of power has proved very expensive for the country.
Virtually every ruler is controlled by inordinate greed for power and wealth; the country has been consigned to the devil.”
“And yet, Nigeria is a country whose low level of development is a standing reproach to the stupendous wealth of the country and yet, the criminal misappropriation and mismanagement of our resources continues. The people of the Niger Delta, whose land produce all this stolen wealth have every reason to be restive in the midst of their misery, squalor, wretchedness and extreme poverty and neglect”.
He attributed the unending crisis that has confronted the country on the defective 1999 constitution, which according to him, has led to a fierce competition for power at the centre; mutual suspicion and fear of domination and marginalisation among ethnic nationalities leading to the rise of ethnic militia and the denial of the oil areas any right of control and management of their resources."
