The perception of uniting diverse political communities to form a national government is a primordial one, patented from the era of ancient Greeks, assembles to fortify national security and common objectives. In a federal political arrangement, multi-layered governance model becomes imperative to allow each level of government perform its statutory political functions in accordance with the constitutional provisions. Each level of government is empowered to design suitable political technique, depending on the nature of political environment; to incorporate diverse ethnic groups in the political structure while maintaining their socio-political identity. Federalism through regional distribution of economic and political power has been adopted to accelerate sustainable peace in a multi-ethnic society. Numerous countries of the world have espoused it as a magic wand to reconcile ethnic chauvinism in the political organism. Paradoxically, there are many challenges associated with the federal political arrangement. These include ethnic agitation for resource control, minority campaign for secession, political rivalry among others. In Nigeria, federalism has been hoodwinked and contrived by the political bourgeoisies. Thus, enlivening secession by the Biafran nation which is gaining momentum, animated towards addressing ethnic, religious, economic and political quandaries that permeated Nigerian political architecture in the tempestuous epoch of Nigerian burgeoning democracy. Conversely, a challenge associated with this type of political system is the pluralistic socio-political rhetoric that enforces ethnic agitation for political control at the centre. The ethnic hegemonic peculiarity to rule the centre and excessive fragmentation of convoluted political system usually threatening the corporate existence of the political union; the operationalization and synchronization of the political system enthrall unending rivalry among the diverse ethnic groups, which endangers the security, development and peace of the nation.
True federalism cannot be measured on a platform of the current political arrangement in Nigeria. This is because the system has not been properly entrenched. It can be noted that federalism has been manipulated by the various successive regimes including autocratic and civilians; exploiting the system to foster ethnic and religious tension as well as personal gains. The existing structure has been manipulated to centralize resources while starving the components units. Corroboratively, the endemic corruption that encircles Nigeria’s political system has destabilized a supposed functional federal political arrangement; thereby paving way for ethnic altercation to control the national government so as to be safe and secured within the political structure.
The primacy of Biafra’s secessionists’ movement in Nigeria’s political history cannot be disregarded. The abortive secessionists’ struggle between 1967 and 1970 formed a crucial account of Nigeria’s political record. The then military President, General Yakubu Gowon described the war as a “tragic and painful conflict” and highlights that his objectives were to “crush the rebellion, maintain the territorial integrity of our nation, to assert the ability of the black man to build a strong, progressive and prosperous modern state and to ensure respect, dignity and equality in the comity of nations for our posterity”.
However, despite all efforts to sign the peace treaty and bring back all the ethnic groups affected by the war into the political fold, the chronicles of the war are still lingering in the memories of the people of Biafran nation. Evidently, the resurgence of Biafra’s agitation under the democratic regime of President Muhammadu Buhari substantiates the perpetual reminiscences of the Biafra’s heroes who have fought to liberate their people under the rubric of self-determination. Nevertheless, the new paradigm of these secessionists is detrimental to the political good of the country especially for Nigerian nascent democracy. The cacophony of secession move is as a result of a shift in presidential power from the South to the North, ascribed in the 2015 electoral faceoff between former President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari. To avoid the resuscitation of another civil war in Nigeria, I therefore advocate for true federalism through a regional autonomous political configuration as an alternative strategy to quench the yearning and aspiration of secessionists in order to ensure sustainable peace in Nigeria. The rationale behind this system is to allow each region composed of homogenous ethnic group to exploit their resources for sustainable development. This opportunity will provide alternative political template to extinguish the ember of secession in Nigeria’s polity. The existing 36 states should be jettisoned by replacing the six geo-political zones to form regional governments by conceding autonomy to allow each region valve from their unexploited natural resources and reimburse the necessary approved revenue formulae to the national government.
Over concentration on crude oil has been a major imbroglio while abandoning other untapped natural resources such as cocoa, palm-oil, groundnut, rubber and other agricultural products that are wasting away in other regions with no serious attention by the federal government contributes to the current economic predicament of the nation. It is important to note that there are many states that cannot survive to pay their staff salaries under the existing federal arrangement.
Under the new arrangement, each regional government or geo-political zone should be allowed to manage its resources to foster development for the benefit of its people. To achieve regional breakthrough, total overhauling of Nigerian 1999 Constitution through a legitimate and genuine Sovereign National Conference is a sine-qua-non.
Therefore, the outcomes of the conference should engender a people’s constitution for the sustenance of true federal political construction in Nigeria. The subterfuge behind this proposition is to make the centre unappealing to ethnic cronies, political elites and resolving incessant Biafra’s secessionists’ movement.
* John is a student of School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, UK
(Source: The Nation)
