Prof Rufa’i Ahmed Alkali, former Political Adviser to former President Goodluck Ebele, has thrown his weight behind the clamour for restructuring of the country.
In a Convocation Lecture delivered at Taraba State University, Jalingo, titled Democracy, Good Governance and Leadership Challenges in Nigeria: Lessons for Africa, Prof Alkali declared that the issue of restructuring started from the pre-colonial era and this was one of the issues that gave birth to various federal constitutions in Nigeria from 1946.
Alkali, a Professor of Political Science and Visiting Professor National Universities Commission, Abuja and former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, stressed that the latter-day apostles of restructuring are ethnic and regional political elites who are now championing agitations for restructuring to divert attention from their own failures when they had opportunities to make life better for their people.
“Aware and conscious of their collective and individual failure to bring about economic development, improved welfare conditions for Nigerians, peace and political stability, the very essence of good governance, regional factions of the Nigerian political elites turned round to accuse each other, in order to divert attention and distance themselves from their own leadership failures.
“The concept of marginalisation became the popular shield behind which political elites sought refuge from the anger of their own people. Given the disparities and uneven character of economic development in Nigeria, this also became attractive and popular among the masses of the people.
“In the absence of any ideological focus or direction, regional power elites now exploit these social structural weaknesses to advance forward primordial interests including ethnicity, religion, regionalism and even racism. It became common and even fashionable to hear of groups and individuals championing the cause of the Yoruba Race, the lgbo Race, or the Fulani Race.
“We all know, it is not in the interests of the ruling elites to allow Nigerians to be united because they do know and are acutely aware that if and when the masses of Nigeria become conscious of the fact it is the ruling class as a whole that is dominating and exploiting them, the ruling class will not know peace even in their own villages. As history has shown, once people are mobilised for a cause, in defence of their rights and freedom, it is much more difficult to demobilise them without adverse consequences.
“To escape from this, the ruling class in Nigeria therefore adopted what is popularly called the politics of divide and rule. The result of all this was that instead of owning up responsibility for their collective failure and make amends, social groups mostly made up of the peasant farmers, religious organisations and the urban unemployed youths are mobilised by the same people who played and continue to play important roles in ruining their country and their lives. Thus, misguided ethnic militias sprouted all over the country ostensibly in defence of their tribal and ethnic interests.
“Thus, since the events of the 1960s and following the end of the civil war, the political class adopted politics of brinkmanship as part of their strategies to capture and retain political power. One of the characteristics of politics of brinkmanship is the tendency and practice of the Nigerian ruling elites to push Nigeria to the point of abyss as a strategy to gain recognition and concession from the Nigerian State. This has been so at least on a number of different occasions since 1970s”
He added that in the last few years, voices from Nigeria have been getting louder and louder with acerbic and non flattering language calling Nigeria a failed State.
“In fact, various self appointed groups hiding behind ethnicity, religion and sub-regional interests have been calling for not only restructuring of the Nigerian Federation but are calling for the division of the country into various Republics.”
Prof Alkali, however, called on all Nigerians to open their hearts and minds and explore all legal and constitutional options for achieving enduring democracy, good governance and tackling leadership challenges in Nigeria.
“Let me also join the good people of Nigeria who have been calling for the restructuring of the Federation, to say I fully support the restructuring of this country.
“Indeed, there is no contradiction here. In fact, if truth must be told, Nigeria has been a baby of restructuring right from pre-colonial period to the colonial period and up to the post independence period of today.
“We must therefore move beyond fantasy and face reality. We must learn from the mistakes of other nations.
“We must use and adopt any and every strategy that will give us the best results with minimum collateral damage to the peaceful coexistence and prosperity of our peoples.
“We should look forward to the emergence of a new and powerful United States of Nigeria (USN) with the various Federal Units in full charge of their resources, with a provision for secession if they so wish.
“We should move away from the politics of brinkmanship. No part of this country should be blackmailed or intimidated.
“In fact as I speak to you now, Nigeria is already going through a silent process of restructuring but the results and consequences will become much clear after the 2023 General Elections.
“It is also important to remind us that restructuring of the Federation should only be the first and perhaps essential step towards a greater future.
“We must also acknowledge the pitfalls of the structuralists arguments because they often fell short of addressing the very social conditions under which Nigerians, indeed Africans live today. Issues of poverty, illiteracy, hunger and underdevelopment are common variables shared by all Africans irrespective of their ethnic and religious orientations.
“That, even if we were to transform this country into a new United States of Nigeria, or even break the country into various small Republics, there will still be the need for effective and visionary leadership for the various Republics.
“We should therefore move away from the pandering of the Western European ideologues who suffer from the romanticism of structural functionalism”. Alkali said.
