Restructuring: The unyielding climate and the necessity of reforms
Issues revolving around the politico-economic character of the Nigerian Federation have been on the floor of contest over time. The reverberation of expression of arguments have recently taken the force of reoccurrence with the worsening profile of economic situation, to which political economists have rested the reality of recommended solution to the need for fiscal federalism and power devolution – the summing of which have been rounded up into the course of what has been the call for “restructuring.”
However, while the notations to the calls have been justified with arguments that the plausible course towards the plethora metabiotic strings of deformities brewing from the insistence of a centralised system where much concentration is posed in the Federal Government is to devolve power and coordinate the framework of the economy along the reality of a workable fiscal federal structure, it is evident that the forces that the surrounding climate which the political gladiators pose, have stationed forces drawing the political formations farther from, than closer to the reality.
The division of thoughts along regional lines have been a bone of disparities which itself constitute strings of departure and distractions from the radar of moving closer to the desideratum. The calls for fiscal federalism, as averred, would constitute the basis for healthy developmental competition, responsiveness, creative economic strategies and exploration, forming the ground for specialisation on the basis of comparative advantage of each State, zone and/or region as applicable. Under such system where States would have to be largely in charge of revenue generation through harnessing of resources within their respective jurisdiction while making quota contributions to the central government as required by established principles, the subordinating units (States) would be brought to the forefront of responsiveness to internally generated revenue, since the idea of dependence on the Federal Government, would not be the case. Hence, the dependence orientation of many States would be eroded to spur them to the front of creative disposition to economic realities of productivity – which serves well to lay the foundation for industrialisation and creative economic estates.
The question of devolution of powers of the Federal Government has formed a coupling arm of concern, particularly as it borders on matters on the exclusive preserve, which as argued, poses the Federation closer to a unitary system than what a Federal system calls for. As socio-economic realities recently continue to present strains of unsavoury narratives with such issues as heightening of insecurity challenges, calls on the devolution of power to give States more leveraging institutional instruments to legislate on peculiar localised matters of immediate concern has been on the top burner. Ondo State Governor and Chairman, Southern Governors Forum (SGF), Rotimi Akeredolu had on Wednesday attributed the clogs of agitation in the Country to the over-centralisation of structures of governance in the Federal Government. In Akeredolu’s argument, the unity of the Country is feasible by sustainable true federalism. Akeredolu who argued this in Akure while playing host to officials of the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) was quoted: “The hue and cry about restructuring which has pervaded the entire country is about devolving power to the states to make them function effectively. The fiscal policy and over-centralisation of power in the hands of the Federal Government have turned the Country into a unitary nation. Over centralisation of structures of governance is a major reason for the unending agitations for restructuring. There should be devolution of powers to enable the states to function effectively as federating units within the federation.”
The need for political gladiators within the corridor of the Federal Government to give thought to the interest of the Country has become sacrosanct. This is particularly essential, given the turbulence which the deformities of the prevailing order have premised – with ugly outcomes which have continued to compound the complexities of strains of discomfort in the Country. It is now evident that the Federation is threatened with various dissenting voices of secession. It has therefore become pertinent that against cleaving to a subsisting order which by prevailing circumstances has proven unsustainable in the long run, it has become necessary that the right steps to take be not postponed to the corridor of hopeless end where the collision of destabilising rots compound to ravage the Country irreparably.
