Federal character and Nigeria’s faulty foundation

BY KELVIN EMMANUEL

The mission of the Federal Character Commission according to section 14, sub section 3 of the 1999 constitution states that “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to the effect of the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote National unity, and also command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.

Looking very closely at the culture of Nigerians has brought me to conclude fairly safely that we actually prefer to be equally represented at the centre than we actually care about systems and utilities working. The idea of the Federal Character is not entirely a demon to the developmental challenges we face as a nation, but like a builder will say, how you lay your foundation, determines to the largest extent, the height, load, texture, structure of the whole building. The foundation on which we have based the recruitment, assessment, appointment, performance of the human resources we require to succeed as a people was based on a faulty foundation of federal character.

Take for example, the Federal Character structure is the main reason why you have 36 redundant ministries or federal government parastatals that do nothing but suck like a demon that scarce meagre finances of the Federal Government. Is it better to have your uncle, brother or town’s man representing your constituency, state, or local government than to have running water, stable electricity, smooth roads, modern schools, etc? Well, time and culture have shown that in Nigeria, we actually do prefer the former.

The reason why it would be impossible for now without a legislative backing and amendment for the President to cut down the number of Ministries and Parastatals is because he would be violating the constitution if he does so. Let me explain how this chain plays out, the president needs a majority vote from both the House of Representatives and the Senate to propose and pass an amendment to section 14, subsection 3 of the Federal Character Act of 1999 that compels equal representation at the centre, to make any change. Now the members of the National Assembly are mostly controlled & loyal to their State Governors, these State Governors need someone from his state that would most likely be recommended by him, heading a top ministry from where he expects to dictate Federal Agenda, get project proposals approved and negotiate a soft landing, should there be any mistakes in office. So any attempt to change and amend this law will only cause an uproar and major pushback, and like one senior member of the Senate once said in private “a physical fight in the red chamber”

The Question is, how do we reset the structure to represent the true federalism that many elite politicians, economists, academics, believe is the foundation for any economic development in Nigeria? How do we ensure that we get a 50% capital expenditure and reduce the size of our national debt and consequently the debt servicing of this national debt from the capital expenditure, which is the foundation for any real infrastructural and project development? How do we ensure that the President has the constitutional backing to appoint and retain essential and functional ministries and parastatals without causing agitation and crises to the law that is the foundation for the rule of law?

The 8^th Assembly stands at the confluence of history and is uniquely placed with a sound majority in both lower and upper house of Assembly to alter the trajectory that has only defined strife, complain, fights and redundancy for 55 years. It can begin to rework the foundation on which Nigeria emerge to become not just the number one nation in Africa, but also one of the top 15 economies of the world, based on per capita income, infrastructure, ease of doing business, Gross Domestic Product, etc.

We have to be bold enough to make changes to the structures and foundations that hvea only hindered our development, over the last five decades. Enough with the era of my people, my people and stomach infrastructure, the era where white elephant projects, power point slides and billboard ads that are sometimes more or as much expensive as the cost of the project itself is more important than real governance. We need an inclusive, grassroot and representative governance that advocates for performance and effectiveness over pomp and polish.

And for Christ sake, like a wise philosopher said: “Insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect to get a different result.”