In the face of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s root and branch reform agenda, which merely seeks to tackle the symptoms of the malady afflicting the Nigerian nation, there is still a need to carry out a thorough restructuring of the Nigerian state if a consolidation of any form of reform is expected. However, steeped in his own wisdom, there are no signs in sight that the type of restructuring needed to rescue the Nigerian nation from itself is being pursued, thereby raising fears that Obasanjo’s eight-year rule might turn out to be a fool’s errand, a wasted effort.
On January 20, 1775, British statesman, William Pitt, also referred to as the Elder, saw what most noble men in Britain refused to see. He saw the dangers ahead, dangers which even King George III and his counsels did not see. Although the Elder was opposed to American independence, he, however, believed that Britain’s oppressive policies of taxes and military occupation, would do nothing but alienate the American colonists - then America was a colony of Britain. Pitt delivered his speech urging the repeal of the policies just three months before fighting in the colonies - known as the Battles of Lexington and Concord - broke out.
In concluding his powerful speech, he said: “If the ministers thus persevere in misadvising and misleading the King, I will not say that they can alienate the affections of his subjects from his crown; but I will affirm that they will make the crown not worth his wearing. I will not say that the King is betrayed; but I will pronounce that the kingdom is undone.”
By the same token, the Nigeria of today, especially with the there-is-no-alternative-to-our-reform-agenda attitude of the present administration, the nation is being gradually undone. And that was the message Ndubuisi Kanu, former military governor of Lagos and Imo states, and a chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, a pro-democracy group which battled the Sani Abacha regime, brought to the 2004 edition of the Wole Soyinka Annual Lecture Series.
While some may say there is nothing new in the call, it comes with a fervency which should be honoured with a choice and decision which blends expediency with reality. In fact, the event provided some notable Nigerians with another opportunity to drum it into the ears of those in power today that Nigeria still remains a nation in grave danger of self-destruction if it continues with the present structure.
Elder William Pitt was also to add, and it is pertinent here, that: “With a dignity becoming your exalted situation, make the first advances to concord, to peace, and happiness; for that is your true dignity, to act with prudence and justice. That you should first concede is obvious, from sound and rational policy. Concession comes with better grace and more salutary effect from superior power; it reconciles superiority of power with the feelings of men, and establishes solid confidence on the foundations of affection and gratitude.”
Because of his pedigree, it was therefore not surprising that, when Kanu was called upon to deliver this august lecture, he appropriated the opportunity to re-enforce his convictions in the re-structuring of the polity as the basis of building a truly federal constituted state against the unitary formation, which the country has plunged itself in.
At the lecture that attracted the likes of Professor Ayo Banjo, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC ) President, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Eze Ndigbo of Lagos, Igwe Nwabueze Ohazulike, the Owelle of Onitsha, Dr Chukwuemeka Azikiwe, Mr Muyiwa Ige, son of former Attorney-General of the Federation, the late Bola Ige, Dr Uma Eleazu, a political scientist and former think-tank member of the Gowon Administration, Odia Ofeimun, Professor Ibidapo- Obe, Chief Guy Ikoku among many other dignitaries, Kanu brilliantly examined the political life of the country from the amalgamation date of 1914 up to the present moment and surmised that the problem of the nation, contrary to views that it emanates from bad leadership, is rather deriving from the structural imbalance of the polity.
In the course of his lecture, Kanu argued that the inability of Nigerian leaders to toe the path of true federalism and the failure of the nation’s leaders to appreciate the implication of the heterogeneous nature of the constituting members of the polity, have only resulted in the political uprisings, marginalisation, social injustices and all forms of reactionary voices that clog political and economic progress in the country today.
He said : “The wellspring of corruption in this country is precisely the corruption that stems from what should and must be
“federal” center but is de facto “unitary"... view it as you like; carry out as much analyses as you please, you will come to the conclusion that this is the source of Nigeria’s multiplying corruption; the source of all, I repeat, all our troubles. So long as it remains a unitarised center, so long shall we continue facing forward and moving backward.”
To ram his point home, if there was any form of doubt, Kanu declared: “I hold that for Nigeria to remain as a country, and for it to become prosperous, it has to revert to the status of a true federation - an entity composed of federating units.” (Read full text of his speech of Pages 18, 19 and 20). The former Military Chief therefore stressed the need for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference stating that it would provide the platform for a meaningful dialogue for the constituting members of the polity to seek for a way forward.
“On the Sovereign National Conference (NC), many have tended to make mountain not just out of mole hill, but also out of no hill” ! The NC is vital and necessary, not to invent or re-invent the wheel, but to return to the only way (federalism) that could allow Nigeria to continue to exist as a country; the only way it can have real peace and make progress; the only way that the peoples will get back a sense of belonging which leads to patriotism; the only way to revive the soul and spirit of Nigeria.”
On his own, the NLC President, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in a humour-packed comment stressed the need for the country to witness the birth of quality leaders, who would perform and deliver democratic dividends to the people. He said the issue was not bordering on power shift in geographical terms, but power shift in the mind, that would produce quality and charismatic leaders.
“It seems to me that this issue of rotation is using sentiment to appropriate tribal support in order to pursue selfish agenda. To me, it is not whether power shifted but whether the quality of life of the individual has changed.
“I have been to Shagari’s village and I heard that the people got light several years after their son was removed from the presidency. I have been to Kano in the course of organizing rallies.
I saw an army of people without the benefit of primary education, and yet, a son of Kano ruled the country for many years. I think the real rotation Nigerians need is rotation away from this decadent class, whether soldiers or civilians, we must shift from this traditional ruling class to the real working class." It is instructive to mention that Professor Soyinka, for whom the lecture was organised, had always been a proponent of a properly structured polity.
