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Lack of good constitution, true federation bane of Nigeria - Williams
sakibu olokojobi,
Social critic and former Chief of Defence, Training, Operation
and Planning in the Nigerian Army, Gen. Ishola Williams, has blamed the poor
social and economic development of the country on the lack of a good constitution
and desire to practise true federalism.
Williams, who was speaking with Saturday
Independent in
an interview on Nigeria’s 44th Independence anniversary, said unless the
federal government retraced its steps, Nigeria might continue to wallow in its
multifaceted problems, even at the age of 50.
He said the lack of a good constitution had made it
difficult for the country to develop, as it could not operate on a common
political philosophy and orientation.
“When you look at Nigeria, especially from the
period of 1963 to the present day, one would discover that politically, we have
not evolved, in terms of economic developments, yes, we can see some
infrastructure, but these infrastructure are doomed…
“If we have got the appropriate constitutional
framework, the appropriate political orientation and philosophy, in terms of
accepting that we want to practise federalism as we started in 1960 up till
1966, we wouldn’t have had these problems we are having in Nigeria
now,” he said.
The former military chief, who advised that the
country should revert to the 1960 or 1963 constitution, said their took care of
the aspiration of the people.
According to him, the constitution encouraged true
federalism where the constituting states or regions enjoyed autonomy and could
control their resources.
He added that a true federalismwould also enable the
states to develop at their own pace without inhibitions of any sort.
Williams said, given the provision of the 1963
constitution, which preached true federalism, the agitations by various
ethno-cultural groups would have been unnecessary.
In his opinion, once the states had autonomous power
and controlled their resources, there would not have been the sort of agitation
the country was witnessing.
“I am telling you, if for example, they allow
all states to control their resources, MASSOB will disappear. I can bet with
anybody. MASSOB will disappear very quickly. And if we practise true
federalism, MASSOB will disappear”.
He said with their independence, the different levels
of government would develop at their own pace, and there would be less problems
for the federal government.
He said in the circumstance, the government only
needed to worry about the defence of the country among a few other things.
Williams said the failure of the federal government
to ensure that true federalism was practised was as a result of corrupt
tendencies.
“In fact, the sort of situation we have now
encourages corruption, and makes corruption very difficult to tackle. But if we
break it down, it will be easy to tackle corruption,” he said.
assistant editor, politics
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