Why Nigeria MUST be restructured !

1.1 National Unity

National unity is achievable through trust and mutual respect. A true federation creates such an environment. The current structure breeds distrust, ethnicity or ethnocentrism, tribalism, discrimination and hatred, and does not assure a common purpose and goal for all.
1.2 Popular and Legitimate Governance
The current structure was imposed by the Armed Forces. It was not negotiated by the various Nigeria nationalities. The force of arms, without the consent of the people, subverted the original federation negotiated and agreed upon at independence. All other common law federations in the world have been negotiated by their peoples and the federating units were either "colonial entities" or "ethnic nationalities". The constituent units in Nigeria such as "colonial entities" or "ethnic nationalities" MUST negotiate a true federation.
1.3 Equitable Representation
Equitable representation of all ethnic nationalities in the Federal House of Assembly, Senate, and Government will be achieved. The current structure fails to allow equitable representation for many ethnic nationalities, while allowing over-representation for a few others.
1.4 Equitable Resource Distribution
Equitable distribution and management of resources will be achieved. The current structure creates disproportionate allocation of resources and dependence on the central government for such allocations; thus creating a welfare system.
1.5 Political Stability
Restructuring will eliminate political instability and a culture of military coup d' etat.
1.6 Corruption Minimization
Restructuring will considerably reduce corruption as the control of resources substantially shifts to the Federating Units who create the resources. A major reason for the scramble for power at the center is removed in the proposed structure, thus making it less attractive for those with selfish and less than noble intents. Complete control of resources and revenue at the Federal level also encourages corruption and lack of accountability. It also contributes to ethnic politics and regional sub-optimization at the expense of the entire country.
1.7 People's Wishes
Nigerians from Port Harcourt to Kaura Namoda and from Lagos to Kirenowa or Nguru want self-determination. They have expressed their wishes openly and publicly and the introduction of Sharia criminal law by some states has demonstrated the fact that different religious and ethnic groups may have different world views and perspectives that may be regionally acceptable but centrally unacceptable.
1.8 Cultural Enrichment
Restructuring will enrich the cultural heritage of the country by enhancing and developing the culture and identity of each ethnic nationality, rather than assimilate and destroy them as the current structure does.
1.9 Economic Prosperity for All
Restructuring will ensure equal participation in economic life of our people. It will encourage healthy economic competition among Federating Units or Regions and thus usher in an era of economic prosperity for all.
1.10 Patriotism
Restructuring will give Nigerians a reason to see themselves as stakeholders in the Nigeria project. This will arouse a feeling of ownership and a sense of patriotism which is a necessity for national development and growth. Citizens will be willing to safeguard the government and democracy with passion.
1.11 Justice and Fairness
Restructuring will bring relief to agitators, the oppressed, the alienated, and the marginalized. It will give a sense of justice to all.
1.12 Erosion of Values
Erosion in core values, misplacement of priorities, and economic and developmental stagnation and other maladies afflicting Nigeria are traceable to faulty structure. Restructuring is therefore necessary to address these issues.
1.13 Decentralization of Resource Control
The current arrangement where power and resource control are almost exclusively concentrated at the center is defective and does not engender stability or economic progress. This structure has been tried for more than 30 years and has not worked. So, why not effect a change and seek out more progressive structures that are indigenous to our culture and value systems?
1.14 Incentive for Creativity
Currently, there is no incentive for different states and ethnic nationalities to find creative resource generation modalities since they mainly depend on the Federal Government for subventions. When a region knows it must survive on its own, it will find creative and innovative ways to establish and maintain economic and political viability.
1.15 Discourage Intellectual Laziness
The current structure fosters a trend of intellectual laziness because it fails to explore new possibilities in other sectors of economic activity, while encouraging complete dependency on a largely single foreign exchange revenue source.
1.16 Bloated Structure
The Federal structure as currently composed is bloated and can not be run efficiently and effectively. There is need to devolve some power and control to the Regions or Federating units.

Abuja: Summer 2012

Traveling to Abuja in summer 2012 is an experience that will linger in my memory for a while. This was my first visit to Abuja and I had heard so many stories about Abuja and the idea that it was comparable to cities in the developed world. So naturally I was full of expectations on my onward journey to the capital city of the motherland.

I jetted off through the Raleigh-Durham International Airport and then through the renowned John F Kennedy International Airport with a stopover at London Heathrew Airport. As we approached Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, I thought about how different the airport would be from Murtala Mohammed Internal Airport and how I would enter Nigeria without the usual drama. As I left the aircraft and began entering the immigration area the change of temperature left me in no doubt that it was the same old country. Nothing changed. No working air conditioners and a number of pseudo officials with no visible role at the point of entry. To sum it up the environment was poignant and one got the sense that touting by government agents was now official. First of all, after the immigration officer had looked at my passport he passed it to the officer sitting by his side who quietly told me to go and claim my luggages first and then come back. I demanded to know why the unusual procedure and he told me that was the old passport which ceased to be used since the past ten years. Of course for want of a better word, I will simply state that I was very pissed because I used same passport to enter and depart Nigeria in 2009 when it was renewed. This officer who was Igbo and I have forgotten his name was not impressed but I went ahead to pick my luggages. After I had picked my luggages I then looked straight at the immigration booth and there was no one there and before I could utter a word I saw the immigration officer who called me to the side to explain things. The short of it all, he wanted me to settle the others who according to him included an SSS officer. I wondered why the reference to the SSS officer but I later learnt this immigration officer wanted to debunk the notion that SSS officers were saints. As this was going on I was eagerly looking to see if my welcome party was around because our aircraft was late in arriving. I told the officer I only had $10 on me but urged him to be patient so that I could get some more money from my people and this officer would hear none of that. He wanted the $10 so that he could get the hell out of there and I obliged. This transaction took place in the open no shame, no hiding on the part of the officer.

Anyway moving on, we drove through Abuja and a long stretch of good roads and my folks wanted to see if I was really impressed with what I had seen so far. What I couldn’t understand was the fact that drivers had no regard for stop signs. I wondered if whoever awarded the contracts for the production of the signs intended it to be so. “Oga dis na Nigeria o no be America, the driver politely and joyfully replied”. As I unpacked my luggages when I arrived my destination, the power went out as if to remind me I had arrived. Within minutes I had settled to eat my favorite oha soup and my variant of eba ( ground Quaker oats made like eba). The next day we drove to maitama and I was really impressed with beautiful edifices such as the ministries of finance, defense, justice and the central bank. I also went to the High Court and the reception area on the ground floor was quiet impressive .There was a big screen monitor hanging on the wall that displayed the court calendar of cases. But when I looked on the floor I knew right then that all I had been seeing was window dressing. I proceeded to the office of the commissioner for oaths and it was packed. Both visitors and customers were almost sharing the same seat as the office was too small and over congested. I will not talk about other stuff which is typical of Nigerian officials. There was no air-conditioning and you could get the sense that these folks were not being properly paid at least going by the unnecessary courtesies from these employees which was a dignified way of soliciting for cash handouts. I wanted to use the bathroom or toilet but didn’t know what to expect. There was just one toilet serving the entire ground floor with many employees and the general public. For me this was hard to understand because this toilet did not fit the building at least viewing from outside. My estimate is that there should be at least two large restrooms for males and females in different parts of the ground floor with each male room having at least four commodes or toilet bowls and at least four units of urinary and the female rooms with at least four toilet bowls. But with this one toilet I wondered if the building had in house janitorial staff or if the cleaning was contracted out. But why can’t folks keep their hands off the walls and to themselves? High rise buildings either had no working elevators or simply no elevators. The next office I visited was the immigration department which was not anything like the US equivalent. The hallways were overcrowded and I wondered if all the officers loitering around had permanent offices. Looking into the offices I found they were over congested but the building looked great from the outside. Security was near zero and those that supposedly were responsible for screening visitors never believed in their job. It was so pathetic and pitiful.

To be safe on the highways, one needed lots of prayer. The traffic signs and stop lights were just to please the eyes and deceive foreign nationals. Many of the roads had pavement markings but drivers generally ignored those and many drove in two lanes. One agency that was conspicuously absent on the roads was the Federal Road Safety Corps.This agency seemed to be more concerned with issuing vehicle papers, license plates, driver licenses than with highway safety. The equivalent of the federal road safety corps in the United States is the state highway patrol also known as state troopers or state police. They are not involved in issuing driver licenses, license plates or certificates of road worthiness. Their primary responsibility is highway safety and they are state government agencies and not federal. Highway safety is huge and the FRSC needs to leave these other distractions. In the past driver licenses, license plates were state concerns and how the FRSC got involved in these is difficult to justify. Emergency response on highways is pathetic and laughable in Nigeria and the existence of the FRSC as a federal agency is just difficult to explain and justify since the agency pursues a different agenda.

The organized private sector [OPS] seems to be doing great at least I can report on a great shopping experience at ShopRite. Shoprite is a South African food chain that started in 1979 and I don’t know if it has any connection with a similar US based retail food chain also known as ShopRite that started in 1947 in the northeastern US. The floor plan made shopping at ShopRite a pleasant experience because of the convenience it afforded customers. All the isles were well stocked and the employees were very professional. You would realize that was Nigeria only when you stepped outside. An evening night out was also a great experience at local bars. One thing that Nigerians can make better than Americans is beer whether lager beer or stout beer. These come in different sizes in Nigeria and truly black is beautiful. The stout produced and bottled in the US in my opinion is imitation stout. But is Abuja comparable with cities in developed countries? Abuja is still a far cry from cities in most developed countries. The absence of a public safety and emergency response system is huge and will remain scary for foreign businessmen visiting to do business in Abuja.

A lot of effort seems to have gone into making it difficult for the average Nigerian to live in Abuja and yet there is nothing in the city to justify the high cost of living. Those many Nigerians who desire a good and better life live in the outskirts of Abuja but they live by the day as they are routinely displaced from their dingy residences each time a land deal is closed. For Nigeria to make progress and grow something dramatic must happen and going by what is happening globally only Nigerians can bring the change we need.