BAYO'S PERISCOPE

Samuel Bayo ArowolajuFriday, March 6, 2015
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NIGERIA 2015: THE CHANGE WE NEED (PART 1)

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"We promise that you will no more be ashamed to say that you are a Nigerian." Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, January 15, 1966

have been an unrepentant advocate and commentator on the need for a Sovereign National Conference where all the stakeholders in Nigeria, will sit together and decide the best way to live together in true peace, progress and prosperity as the only way of correcting the mistakes of 1914." That was the long sentence introducing a three-part series, titled "Sovereign National Conference - The Peoples Right Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 written by this writer and published by the time tested NigerianWorld.com on Sunday, February 20, 2005; Tuesday, March 1, 2005 and Wednesday, March 16, 2005 respectively.

Exactly ten years after, I find it expedient to revisit these articles on a topic that remains dear to my heart and still very germane to the Nigerian political development and in particular, the general elections of 2015. Please permit me, where most appropriate, to merely make reference(s) to this 16 page write up. I will however recommend a fresh perusal that may enriched more relevant contributions to the issue of conveying a Sovereign National Conference and the implementation of the outcomes; as an inevitable provider of a superstructure upon which the foundation of a New Nigeria must be laid.

Since October 1, 1960, the date for our flag Independence till now has been 55 years. Within this period, Nigeria and Nigerians have under gone too many changes under too many pseudo Messiahs, which unfortunately have had little to show in changing the lives of the common man. The greatest misfortune has been that 45 out of these 55 years of independence were variously messed up by one type of military or semi military dictatorship or the other. Another tragedy of this same period is the growth in our commonwealth because of the geometric progression from our earnings from Crude Oil but which unfortunately brought about growth without developments. The only known effect of the increase wealth from the Black Gold is the growth of the kleptomaniacs. Our commonwealth only made billionaires of few people who would have otherwise been humble fishermen and women; plank sellers and laborers in cocoa and groundnut farms. It has produced governors who are 100% richer than the state they governed, and without corresponding developments in the economic, social and political lives of Nigerians.

The first noticeable change was that of January 15, 1966 when from the cold but dry harmattan air of that morning, came the Voice of Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, one of the five young Majors that struck early that morning; announcing the change of the first post independent government through a military coup. The coup, the first in Nigeria failed but the broadcast by Nzeogwu in Kaduna that morning provided some inklings into what was going on in the minds of the young military officers who attempted to seize power and rule. Their aim was stated was "to establish a strong united and prosperous nation, free from corruption and internal strife���.."

After 50 years of many changes through coups, counter-coups, military rules and a painful wasteful but needless and avoidable civil war; after the coming and fading away of many messiahs; the primary needs of Nigeria and Nigerians as encapsulated in the aim of the January 15 Revolution remain evergreen today. And most unfortunately and indeed agonizingly, a strong united and prosperous nation, free from corruption and internal strife remain a mirage and a fleeting illusion waiting to be honestly and vigorously pursued and achieved in Nigeria. Yes and indeed, the labors and the blood of our heroes past must not be in vain!

The greatest negative change that the military coup of January 1966 brought was the overthrown of not only the Federal Government of Nigeria but also and most painfully the regional governments. Under the Republican Constitution of 1963, each Region had a Republican status. I remember vividly that the Western Region had its own Coat of Arms, its Constitution, bicameral legislature with powers to make law and order for good government. Any law passed in Lagos must have a concurrent approval in Ibadan before it was judicially enforceable. British and American among other countries had their diplomatic missions in Ibadan.

This was the finest moment of Nigeria and the Western Region, when the people of the region enjoyed the first in virtually everything from - TV in Africa, football stadium, Industrial and Housing Estates, free education and free health. Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a Christian established the first Muslim Pilgrim Welfare Board in the region. Christians and Muslims celebrated their festivals and holidays together without bitterness. Unlike now when Abuja can and often appoint those not known to states as Ministers, each Region appointed Ministers to represent its interests in the Federal Cabinet. The Western Region and indeed the country were peaceful and prosperous to the limit of available resources and without any strife.

The Western Region was not alone on the path of rapid social and economic development. The Eastern and Northern Regions also followed suit but each at its own pace using the available human and natural resources. The North relied heavily on its Groundnut and Cotton pyramids; the East on Palm Oil, its kernels, Coal and others. The Western Region relied heavily on Cocoa, Timber, Rubber and others. In spite of the absence of PetroDollar, Nigeria developed in such a way that some remember those times as the golden era of Nigeria political and economic development.

If each region of Nigeria made such giant developmental strides in the face of very limited resources because of its semi-autonomous republican status, it could only be imagined where the country and her peoples would have been today if we had stayed and gradually perfected our republican Union from then. Surely and definitely we would have been a very "strong, united and prosperous nation, free from corruption and internal strife���.."

But all our leaders since then, most of them self-serving military adventurists completely forgot the sweats and labors of our heroes past. They completely learned nothing from the aches and pains of the three year civil war the genesis of which was from internal strife related to the command and control unitary system of government foisted on Nigeria by the military rulers. The military erroneously believed that creation of more states was the correct solution to our problems. Unfortunately, the more states they created the more strife they generated for the same reason of command and control unitary system of government.

A Presidential system of Government was introduced after finding faults with the British system of Government that has been working for the British peoples for centuries without end. Some say it was the American Presidentialism that was later introduced as an alternative. I still find it very difficult to believe this as I cannot reconcile the big differences between the American and Nigerian Presidentialism. I am being modest; otherwise I would have tagged the Nigerian 'Fake Presidentialism and Federalism' as most of the structures and features of Nigerian system are completely alien to the American system.

For instance, the American Senate doesn't have the all the powerfully superfluously rich Senate President and Senators as we have in Nigeria. What the honorable Congressmen and women earn in America is less than the allowances of the least member of the National Assembly in Nigeria. Only the security vote of the Governor of the poorest state in Nigeria is more than the salary and allowances of President Barack Obama of the United States of America. An average American is more concerned in how his/her city or town is governed than even the state and at the very least the Federal government in Washington DC. This is unlike in Nigeria where Abuja may even be involved in what a poor farmer in Omuo Ekiti will have for dinner. In America, no government, federal, state, country or city has anything to do with the pump price of petrol but dictated by the costs of the logistics of supply chain management. I have been to a town with just about 100 in populations in the US, yet, it has its police and fire departments, mayor and every other structure and function of a government; all managed according to the available resources.

Talking about the pump price of petrol products; as old as I am and as educated and enlightened as I think I am, I am yet to be educated on the logic and economic reasons why the pump price of petrol products should be the same in Port Harcourt or Warri and in the remote villages of Sokoto and Katsina states. In the US, two gas (petrol) stations may be side by side on the same street yet, selling two different prices per gallon. I have experienced pumping gas and the prices were being changed. Not because of demonstrations and strikes or through radio and TV broadcast by the President. It's purely governed by the ancient economic law of supply and demand. This is not to talk about the spurious 'Fuel Subsidies' and the billions of dollars going into it or the other billions of dollars the government has confessed being lost daily to 'Oil Thieves' as if crude oil has become like cookies and candies than can be pocketed by these so-called thieves. If armed robbers can be arrested, while not 'Oil Thieves' Common men!

This takes us to resource control. While the state of Texas in the US depends heavily on its Oil and Gas natural resources, the state of Illinois depends on her corn and Soy Beans fields while the state of Idaho continue to specialize in her potato farming without shame, envy or strife. But not in Nigeria; from Sokoto to Port Harcourt and Maiduguri to Lagos, we must all depend on Oil from the South-South for a living. Another tragic irony is that those villages in Sokoto and Katsina states have better roads, schools, water supply and health care facilities than those in South-South states that produce the wealth that fund those projects. Something must be wrong.

Nigerians every morning and night must hook on to Network news on TV and Radio even when powered by their "Better Pass My Neighbor" noise and air pollutant generators. Otherwise, they will miss the order from Abuja on their routine for the day or next. All religious holidays, even for IFA priests, must be observed nationally without counting the man/hour costs. These are my very definition and characterization of 'Fake Federalism or Presidentialism'. Sometimes, these days, one wonders if Nigeria is indeed a Federation at all how much more of being a True Federation. The reality is that True Federalism has become a mirage and faded away from the Nigerian Constitution. This is where I think our problems began.

����To be Continued in Part II����.

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