OBSERVATION: Centralised Federalism

I applied for a renewal of my Drivers Licence in November 2023 and was captured on 13th December and immediately issued a temporary Licence that would expire by 12th February 2024. From that 12th February, I had visited the Finance Building in Osun State Secretariat, Abeere, where to pick the Licence several times with same reply, “It’s not yet arrived.”

Meanwhile, policemen on the road would continue to harass, saying one’s driving with expired Licence which is no driver’s fault. Anyway, I gave up and didn’t bother checking whether it was ready or not for long until 7th August 2024 when I had another encounter with the police along Ilesa/Osogbo road and made up my mind to go and protest against those who were to deliver my Licence. To my surprise, it had arrived from ‘Almighty Abuja’. The Federal Road Safety Corps is the issuing authority and has State Headquarters in all the 36 States of Nigeria. I reside in Osun where FRSC has its State Headquarters; why should my Licence be issued in Abuja instead of Osun?

Why should the centre in Abuja be stuffed with Licence issuance for all the 36 states? If the payment is made in the state and the state headquarters could do capturing and immediately printout temporary Licence, why not for the plastic Licence? Same for Corporate Affairs Commission; while it has state headquarters in all the 36 states, business registrations and other core businesses of the commission have to pass through Abuja, rendering the state offices almost useless while over bothering the Abuja office. Why should I live in Osogbo, drill water there and treat it to produce my “pure water” but have to travel to far away Abuja to register my Osogbo water business? Does it make sense? Can’t these agencies learn from the Ministry of Interior vis-a-vis decentralised issuance of Nigeria Passport?

This is not in consonance with federalism we claim to be practising. Federalism is a system of government with a central government and a number of component units with autonomous power to conduct their affairs without interference from others.  Put differently, federalism divides power between central authority and federating units which could be regions or states horizontally. Under this arrangement, states or regions enjoy their independent power side by side with central government. It is a system where power is shared between the national and state governments as stipulated in the constitution. It is a system that accommodates ethnic, language, and religious differences; it is a system that thrives on democracy and can hardly survive without democracy.

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By 1960 Independence, Nigeria had had a federal constitution but since the British government was still having political influence which was not in tandem with federal principle, with extensive consultation and public input, the Nigeria parliament instituted and adopted an autochthonous constitution named 1963 Republican Constitution which replaced the British Monarch with elected President as the head of state, Supreme Court as final court of appeal and rights of citizens fully entrenched. Under this 1963 Republican Constitution, the three regions had their own constitutions, which didn’t threaten the federation. There were Exclusive legislative list, the items with which the federal government has powers like defence and security, foreign relations, banking and currency with States having power on education, transportation, healthcare and land administration, among others within their constituents. The regional government had a distinctive provision in 1963 constitution. Local government had authority over primary education, sanitation, water supply among others.

But this could not endure as military took over in 1966 and continued to engage in coup after coup and by 1975, the military set up 50-man Constitutional Drafting Committee, headed by Chief Rotimi Alade Williams and Alhaji Gidado Idris as the Secretary, inaugurated on 18th October, 1975 at Nigeria Institute of International Affairs headed by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi. These eminent scholars gave good account of themselves in giving Nigeria 1979 constitution but made centre to be more powerful by taking so much from the federating units to it. This is understandable as the military that gave them the assignment could only operate on central command. And this seems to be the origin of our centralised federalism as federalism and military rule are incompatible; hence, quasi-federal rather than true federal system obtains from then till now. For instance, there was list of powers reserved for different levels of government in 1963 Constitution – Federal, States, regional and local governments. Federal had 45 items in the Exclusive Legislative List but increased to 66 in 1979 and to 68 in 1999 Constitutions respectively.

Under 1963 Constitution, the four regions – east, north, west and mid-west – had independent structures that reflect the peculiarities of each. Section 140(1) under this Constitution provides, “There shall be paid to each region a sum equal to fifty percent of the proceeds of any royalty received by the federation in respect of any minerals extracted in that region and any mining rents derived by the federation from that region.” But the 1979 and 1999 Constitutions, initiated by the military administrations, altered the autonomy of federating states and rendered them to be beggars with cap at hands every month, awaiting monthly allocation from the centre. Section 44 and Section 162(2) of 1999 Constitution provides, “The President shall table before the National Assembly proposals for revenue allocation from the federation account and in determining formula…” and the formula became 52.68% for the federal, 26.72% for the states (with 13% derivation revenue to the oil producing states) and 20.60% for the local governments.

And this is where we have stuck–operating a unitary system but labelled it federalism. It was this trend, among others, that Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni activists were campaigning against when the military permanently silenced them via death by hanging on November 10, 1995. Except we return to genuine federalism that will allow every state to rapidly develop at its own pace based on its peculiarity and creativity of its leadership that will result to accountable, stable and democratic government and respect for human rights and dignity, this centralised “federalism” will not bring forth any meaningful developments  but make super power of a president with stupendous resources to throw around, which encourages mega corruption from the top to the bottom as “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not represent the opinions or views of OSUN DEFENDER.