OBSERVATION: Could President Tinubu Reinstate Fiscal Federalism?

BY ADEMOLA YAYA

NIGERIA is said to be a Federal Republic and this is affirmed in name by its 1999 Constitution as amended. But “Federalism is sharing of power between a national government and the states that reside within its borders, instead of one or the other having all the authority.” In a federation, there are two laws – local and national – and the citizens are expected to obey these laws and this is how Nigeria was originally designed. Before Nigeria’s 1960 independence, all constitutions were schemed to protect the interest of the colonial masters, including the 1960 constitution. 

As a matter of fact, it is only the 1963 constitution that was autochthonous as it was made and adopted by the Parliament of Nigerians elected by the Nigerians for that purpose. Since demise of the First Republic in 1966, subsequent military administrations have tampered with the constitution to weaken the regions/states powers and strengthen the centre which is in tandem with their central administrative chain of power and command. 

For instance, Section 140 (i) of 1963 Nigeria Republic Constitution states, “there shall be paid by the Federation to each Region a sum equal to fifty percent of (a) the proceeds of any royalty received by the Federation in respect of any minerals extracted in that Region and (b) any mining rents derived by the Federation from within that Region.” This implies that each Region financial advantage is a function of what it brings to Federation table and that this financial status determines Regions strength and influence within federation.

Every constitution made after 1963 till this present 1999 is a modification of 1963 Constitution – weakening federating states for a very powerful centre vis-a-vis resource sharing formula and arrogating more power and responsibilities in current and residual subjects to the centre.

In an exclusive interview with Vanguard Newspaper on March 22, 2013, Professor Ben Nwabueze, SAN, Chairman of a group of eminent personalities, The Patriots, said: “Quite frankly, there are many flaws and many errors in the content of the constitution. So many errors and I as a person was partly responsible because I was a member of the constitution drafting committee set up by the military government in 1978. I was not only a member but the chairman of one of the sub-committees that produced Chapter 2, the fundamental objectives and one of the cardinal flaws in the constitution is the concentration of power in the centre. 

“Late Chief Rotimi Williams, a close friend of mine and nearly everybody in the Constitution Drafting Committee were so overwhelmed with this feeling, this patriotic feeling that we needed unity and the most effective way to achieve unity of the country is by having a very strong central government. Then, what did we do to achieve our misguided objective? We took away 50% of the items on the concurrent list and gave it to the centre. We looked at residual matters, these are matters exclusive to the states, we took a large part of it, more than 30% and close to 50%, we took it away from states and gave it to the centre. And the result is the almighty Federal Government.

But what we discovered was that instead of producing unity, we produced disunity because of the intensity of the struggle to control the centre. The intensity is not just in the political power that was concentrated at the centre, much of the money also went to the centre and so by action, we destroyed what is called fiscal federalism. So, when people struggle and agitate for true federalism, fiscal federalism, they know what they are talking about and they are right. That must be changed and until it is changed, we might not achieve true federalism because the basis of which we did it has proved to be misguided.”

Nine years before the above interview was granted, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lagos State Governor, struck the first salvo, challenging centralisation of most basic powers by Federal Republic of Nigeria. Having conducted referendum and secured the endorsement of the House of Assembly which signed it into law, Governor Tinubu created 37 additional Local Governments in 2004.

Until then, Lagos State has 20 Local Government Areas listed in the constitution while its counterpart, Kano, has 44 Local Government Areas listed in same constitution. Interestingly, General Olusegun Obasanjo was the incumbent President at the time. Investigations revealed that Mr. President gave a directive to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mrs. Okonjo Iweala, not to release local government funds for Lagos State. It wasn’t limited to Lagos; other states that initiated similar processes like Ebonyi, Katsina, Nasarawa and Niger were affected. Eventually, other States chickened out and reverted but not Lagos.

Lagos prosecuted the matter up to the Supreme Court, asserting that Lagos has the rights to create those local governments; that they however remain inchoate until listed in the appropriate schedule of the constitution; and that the Federal Government had no rights to seize the allocation due to the original 20. Lagos state then renamed the newly created LGs as Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), and maintained the original 20 LGs. Still the funding for the 20 were never released until Tinubu left and Fashola succeeded him.

As a champion and defender of true federalism, I had thought that Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu would, in his inauguration speech on May 29, 2023 as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria say, ‘Fellow Nigerians, I have toiled for true federalism day and night and practically demonstrated it in Logos State.

Under my watch as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, we shall initiate processes that will eventually translate to genuine federalism as opposed to adulterated system we have inherited. True and genuine federalism has come to stay!’ I was not only disappointed that nothing related to federalism was said, I was delved a psychological salvo and yet to recover when Mr. President instead said, “Fuel subsidy is gone” which has made life more miserable for the people and kicked more people into poverty and starvation. While Mr. President and his spokespersons preach ‘renewed hope’ and appeal to the people to persevere harsh socio-economic situation created for a better tomorrow, people in government at all levels have been living flamboyant life and care less on tribulation that they have subjected the people.

Adulterated federalism encourages corruption and creates major setback for development as too much resources and power are allotted to the hands of a single person – President.  As Lord Action, British politician said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” But I don’t want to give up that the peck of office will make Mr. President renege his advocacy for genuine Federal Republic of Nigeria by initiating processes that will eventually lead to amend constitution that will restore the spirit and letters of 1963 constitution with fiscal federalism. 

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