In this interview, Dr Akin Fapohunda, a retired director in the federal civil service and proponent of return to regional government, said Nigeria could no longer afford to service the paraphernalia of the present presidential system of government.
What do you think a return to regionalism would achieve?
The issues are economic and political. Economically, Nigeria is no longer solvent to maintaining the paraphernalia of governance we have set up. This was set up during the time when oil money was flowing like river. We created 36 states, have 36 governors and 36 state assembly members, each one, 25. There are 774 local government areas, which have chairmen, deputy chairmen and councillors, all collecting money from the only source of revenue, which is crude oil.
Crude oil is about two million barrels per day. In 1952, we were about 55 million, now we are over 220 million and we are still living, not only on the two million barrels any more, it is now 1.2m to 1.3m barrels. So, our income has contracted, our population has quadrupled.
In fact, the money coming in now is geared towards servicing debt. We are borrowing money to even do recurrent. We are bankrupt, we cannot do anything. For the power problem, we need an upward of $20 billion to solve it, but nobody is talking about it. The lifespan of all the dams built during the time of Audu Bako in Kano State is already expiring. I served in Kano State in 1975, so I can tell you that all the dams were built 50 years ago.
The universities are restless. If you see the way students are living in the universities, you would feel bad.
We don’t have the money to maintain what we have now, so we need to cut down the cost of governance, and the way to do it is to reduce the number of political entities.
We already know that we have six zones, so, for regionalism, instead of 36 governors, we are now supposed to have between eight and 12. In fact, in 1967, Nigeria was split into 12 states; and that would have been the best system. We had 12 states, 12 governors, 12 assemblies, and there were less than 200 local governments at that time. It was the Dasuki Committee that increased local governments to 774. We cannot sustain it at all. That is on an economic basis. On a political basis, Nigeria is no longer one the way we used to say it. We have been deceiving ourselves. We know that a Yoruba person is different, an Igbo person is different, just like the Ijaw, people from the Middle Belt, the Gbagyi, Hausa etc; so why are we deceiving ourselves?
Let’s regionalise based on our ethnic diversity. We should not suppress it. If we say we have 600 tribes in Nigeria, let’s know them. Why are we sitting on them? Why are we saying only Wa Zo Bia? You cannot have justice when you sit on some other people. So, there is the need for us to regionalise so that there would be an expression of self-determination. We are going to be united as one country.
But the present political officeholders appear to be comfortable with the current arrangement; how do we push this call for regionalism through?
It takes a very reasonable statesman to say that you don’t have to wait until the roof has collapsed over your head to know that you need to fix it. I know it is very difficult because a Senator once said that each of them collected about N29 million every month. They also bought cars for themselves, not minding the financial state of the country. A jet was also bought for the president when we are living on World Bank loan that we would repay in 30 years to 40 years. These loans are not to be paid in the next 10 years. They have a moratorium, so you would start paying after 10 years, and you have 40 years to pay them. So, they are mortgaging the future of children yet unborn. We cannot stop talking about it. Somebody might advocate some extra legal means. I would not advocate war or military coup, but the political class should know that the country is leaking very badly. The competition for the resources available is very stiff.
The political class should know that things are not working well. We need to continue saying that things are not right. We need to cut down the cost of governance drastically.
In the whole western region, where the Yoruba belong, for instance, we need just one lawmaking body in Ibadan. Thirty persons can make laws for the region. In the North-West, the Yoruba can make laws to regulate all Sharia matters.
If we decentralise Nigeria’s education, health, sports, even infrastructure and each region does it on its own, Nigeria will progress more. In the South-West, we are supposed to produce cocoa, but nobody is doing that, we all wait for Abuja.
But cries of marginalisation have persisted despite having 36 states, and there are still agitations for more; how sure are you that these would stop if Nigeria returns to regionalism?
It is because everything we are doing is wrong. In Yoruba land, there are 26 groups of people, including the Ijebu, Egba, Ilaje, Igbomina, Ekun, so if we decentralise now, the South-West would be a federation of 26 bodies. We are going to have a federal constitution, even in the regions. In fact, my take is: If there are 600 ethnic nationalities, let each one become a full-fledged local government to manage its affairs.
I am from Osun State and I can tell you that Ijesha, Ife and Ikirun are different. The thing is to reorganise the federal system in Abuja and each region would also have its own constitution, which would be written by them and they would specify the system of rotation of offices. There would be a local constitution where people would negotiate and ask for their right. But as it is now, we are operating on only one federal constitution, which doesn’t allow each of the regions to have their own sub-constitution, where they can express themselves properly. But we are running a unitary government from Abuja; and in the states, if your member becomes governor, you would lord it over everybody.
In a true federal constitution, there will be proportional representation. If you score 10 per cent of the votes, you are entitled to a seat in the parliament and there would be proportional representation at the local level. If there are three parties and let’s say one party scored 50 per cent, as it is now, it is the winner-takes-all until a four-year term.
Supposing there is proportional representation, do you know that Tinubu would not be the one to form the government alone because he scored less than 30 per cent of the votes? Other parties that scored 20/25 per cent would be entitled constitutionally to be part of the government, not as a favour. It is not a government of unity.
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