Over the past few weeks, an idea has been floating in the public sphere, which amounts to an effort to restructure or revert Nigeria from a 36-state structure to a regional structure of eight regions.
The idea is supposed to be the brainchild of one Dr Akin Fapohunda, a retired federal permanent secretary and prominent chieftain of the Afenifere, the Yoruba political and socio-cultural group.
Titled, “A bill for an act to constitute the annexure to Decree 24 of 1999 with new governance model for the Federal Republic of Nigeria,’’ the bill seeks new laws, which will read, “The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria New Governance Model for Nigeria for Nigeria Act 2024.’’
The preamble of the bill states in part, “Whereas Nigeria, its people and government have been governed under Decree 24 of 1999 that was handed down by the then military government without the express consent of the people despite the preamble of “We, the people; whereas the said constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) is not autochtonous as it does not evolve from the deliberations and consensus of the Nigerian people; whereas the people of Nigeria now desire and effectively demand for a change to a constitution based on federal/regional system of government; whereas the federal and regional governments are to operate within the provisions of this constitution, it is within the discretion of the ethnic blocs within the states that constitute a given region to aggregate or disaggregate as provinces, divisions and districts while being in control of their affairs without let or hindrance at whatever level of governance.”
Although the House of Representatives has disowned the bill and stated emphatically that the proposed legislation had not been presented before it for deliberation, it was curious that the drafter of the bill, Dr Fapohunda, claimed that he had been chosen to send the proposed law to President Tinubu, who will be expected to present it to the National Assembly as an executive bill.
Along with the bill came a map of the proposed eight regional structures complete with states and geopolitical delineations of the regions. A very interesting feature of the new proposed structure was the removal of certain areas in the present geopolitical regions to other regions they were never part of since the dawn of modern Nigerian history. Other regions, which had existed as a bloc were to be balkanised into unmanageable political units as to make a nonsense of whatever the region or regions was all about.
My initial instincts was to treat the entire thing offhand as the work of nihilists who have always proven to be bereft of deep and useful knowledge of the history and geography of the Nigeria they intend to restructure, but I was drawn to the wordings of the bill, in which its promoters claimed: “whereas the people of Nigeria now desire and effectively demand for a change to a constitution based on a federal/regional system of government.” As I really did not know when the people of Nigeria came to formally deliberate and reached a consensus on this critical structure of governance, I was at a loss how Dr Fapohunda and his associates could promote this as the opinion of Nigerians.
I was more baffled that the promoters could then think to present this to President Tinubu, to in turn present it as an executive bill to the National Assembly.
The question that naturally arose is how is President Tinubu mixed up in all of this? Is he the originator of this bill through some sleight-of- hand arrangement? Is he aware that by getting involved in this patently sectional agenda that clearly does not represent the views of majority of Nigerians, he is undermining the very constitution that he swore on and which forms the foundation of the powers he presently exercises as president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?
On this score, it has become a matter of concern that since he came to power, President Tinubu has tended to seek to achieve personal and sectional goals by attempting to short-circuit due and constitutional process.
From his trajectory of political intent, many Nigerians have now come to the belief that President Tinubu harbours an agenda to pursue a political restructuring that will make him the undisputed political figure in the country not at the political mercy of any political figure and geo-political region.
And strategically critical in the Tinubu political zero sub-game is to seek to politically decimate the formidable northern political bloc, which is the only bloc that can effectively checkmate his untoward political ambitions.
The feelers the president is receiving clearly are that he has lost the political favour of the northern political bloc and is not likely to repeat the victory he won there in the 2027 presidential election. So the next plan of action is to checkmate the rise of any potential northern political figure that will rival and wrest the presidency from him. Additionally, the next spur in the agenda is to seek to cut the influence and dominance of the northern bloc in Nigerian politics, thereby clearing the way for the total political capture of the Nigerian state by President Tinubu and his closet political associates to do as he pleases without recourse to the support of any political figures or regional groups.
Without being told, this is a desperate and dangerous political gamble fraught with uncertainties. Nigeria certainly needs a major political and economic restructuring to fit with its demand for development and growth into the future. But it should not be hijacked by opportunists seeking to advance either personal or regional advantages at the expense of other Nigerians. The process to arrive at this must be truly inclusive, representative, consensual and legal.
For this reason, the National Assembly, as it had done in the past to deny similar capers like former President Obasanjo’s third term gamble, must remain steadfastly vigilant and reject totally, the proposed regionalism bill, which is clearly lacking in the necessary merit that such a critically national legislation requires.
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