Untrue Federalism

“It is ridiculous for hunters to argue about the skin of the lion when they have not killed it.” Tanzanian Proverb

There is a popular fiction in Nigerian political language which is covered under a generic term, true federalism. It is built around the claim that there are true federal systems in the world, and the one we operate in Nigeria is not one of them. It says that if Nigeria operates a true federal system, most of its short and long term political and economic problems will disappear. It claims that we can move from this untrue to true federal system if we allow an unfettered and all-inclusive conclave of ethnic groups (or their polite name, “nationalities”) to agree and adopt a federal system of our choice.

In the past few months, the demand for revisiting the nature and limitation of our federal system has been manifested in the clamour for political space by powerful interests. The demand for state police, borne out of the claim by governors that they have responsibility but not power for law and order and security is at the heart of the debate over what type of federal system best suits Nigeria. The potentially explosive, yet unavoidable arguments over revenue derivation and allocation  which is widening the gulf between federating units to dangerous levels is also a key element in the arguments over our federal system. Then you have raging arguments over the nature and size of the federating units, and claims by some elements in the turbulent Ogoni community that they can secede from the federation. The report of the Justice Alfa Belgore Committee on Review of the Constitution is full of observations and recommendations on improving the nature and quality of our federal system. It addresses the issues of local governments’ autonomy, state-federal relations and issues around fiscal federalism. The JASLIWAJ (a.ka. Boko Haram) insurgency is setting its own agenda for a nation that will have to fight to preserve its multi-religious nature, or live under Islamic law. There are fringe groups who think that is what muslims generally want; so let them have it in a nation of their own. The Biafra spirit flickers on and off, and Igbo leaders appear comfortable with a situation in which they both live with it, and remain distant from it. There are ominous signals that Ijaws could trigger an effort to pull the south south, or parts of it out of the federation if they feel hard done by around 2015. Many people among Yoruba think the idea of a Yoruba nation is more and more a feasible option in the long run.

The fiction that a “true” federal system will resolve these multiple challenges in our nation is one of the many liabilities we carry as we deal with serious threats to our future as a stable, united and prosperous nation. In the first place, there is no “true” federal system. All federal systems are different, products of unique historical circumstances and struggles, and none is perfect in the sense that it satisfies all citizens’ desire to share values and preserve uniqueness. Federalism is a government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units. It contrasts with a unitary system in which power is located in a single central government. Every federation faces unique challenges, but also shares many common problems: un-answerable questions about the right balance between and federating units and central powers; constantly-shifting determinants and elements which inform the basis of the federation; stresses and strains triggered by conflicting demands from federating units, centrifugal forces or threats to the entire arrangement. A federal system is fundamentally a dynamic and institutionalized compromise, and one of its intrinsic characteristics is that its value, nature and operation are constantly questioned and altered.

The vast majority of complaints against our “unture” federal system comes from people whose interests will be best served if they have their own versions of what our federal system should be. Starting from those who argue that the best Nigerian federal arrangement is one which does not exist (that is, those who believe that the nation has no business continuing to exist as one), you have those who think we should federate as ethnic groups; or as clusters of groups based on an agreement by tribal leaders; or those who think the six geo-political zones should form federating units; or those who think there is room only for Muslims and Christians, each in their own nation, or sub-nations.

Those who want “true” federalism will argue that ours is a bastard born out of violence and duress, a colonial creation which can only be cured by re-submitting it to a holistic repudiation and re-invention by the people it has tainted for 100 years. Once our leaders exercise a purging process over the present arrangement, a new federal system will emerge which will address bad governance, corruption, impunity, systemic violence, crimes and all the structural limitations to our unhindered growth and development. This purging and rebuilding process, however, must be total, free and open-ended. Nothing short of a sovereign conclave can do this, and if delegates decide that even a federation is no good for us, so be it. They can decide that the colonial creation should come to an end; Nigerians should regain their God-given rights to self-determination, and each tribe should go its own way. That, the conclave could argue, will be the best redress to the injustice of a century ago; and no one would have the powers to disagree.

There is a lot wrong with our federal system, but blaming its genesis for them is a waste of time. All systems are born of conflicts and struggles, and generations build on them, try to improve them, or fail to do so. Nations do fail, and they do so because leaders and citizens fail to address their most challenging problems. Pluralism has to be systematically tackled by systems built to accommodate inclusion and diversity, or the system will break down.

At this stage, we are at our usual crossroads, where acute problems trigger calls for reviews of the basic framework and elements of our national existence. Basic unifying political institutions such as political parties and governance structures are weakening. In spite of its dominance of the political terrain, the PDP’s contribution to national unity and cohesion, and the creation of a sense of pride and faith in a united Nigeria is in deficit. It has serially abused its own formula for ensuring cohesion to a point where it represent a major source of political instability and insecurity. Its commitment to the electoral process has been at best questionable, and at worst pre-eminently subversive, to the point where few Nigerians believe elections have any value for them. Leaders and governments have been so far removed from people to whom they are supposed to be accountable, that impunity and abuse of the rule of law are more the norms than exceptions. The judiciary has been so compromised and corrupted that justice is literary available only to those who can afford it. Corruption has deprived citizens of hundred of trillions of their resources which should improve the quality of life; and has created a thin layer of fabulous rich which treats public funds as private assets. Citizens do not trust leaders. Leaders live in fear of citizens, or treat them with contempt. The state and the citizens have drifted so far apart that the remedy cannot be found in tinkering with our modes of co-existence. This penchant for demanding for changes in our political arrangements every time our political elite fail us is akin to football players demanding for the right to change the rules of the game every time they lose or fail to score.

If Nigeria is governed well, by people genuinely elected, and governments which will use resources well, disputes over our systems of government will not take the pride of place in current debates as they do. No form of federal system will mitigate the damage which corrupt and incompetent leadership does to a nation. Corrupt leaders impoverish Nigerians from Bayelsa to Sokoto, from Kwara to Adamawa. If we submit to the demands for a radical review of our federal system, it should not be because some of the same leaders who brought our nation to its knees want it. Let us first improve on the quality of our election; on the capacity of state institutions of provide justice to all; roll back corruption; deal with many threats to our security; and remove other structural limits to the development of our nation. The only true federalism for Nigeria should be one which allows all citizens to live free, productive and secure existence. No ethnic or religious group wants this more than others. This is why the debate should move away from the fiction over true federalism to the real limitations in our bid to grow and develop as a nation, or at least lay the foundations for it for this and the next generations.