On True Federalism:

On True Federalism:

Could BolaTinubu be on the path of history again ?.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a shinning example of this political dispensation and Akinwunmi Ambode could be set again to take Nigeria through another historical course of real and sustainable independence. Amidst current various and diverse agitations in Nigeria, which many politicians are already turning into a box of seeking political relevance and reintegration, expectedly,  most of the politicians who are currently lending their voices to people's agitations such as restructuring and true federalism, are merely using that as a tool of gaining popularity amongst Nigerians. Most of these political gladiators, as we had witnessed in the past and very recently want to simply ride on the back of people's popular demands by pretending to be in support of the people on their agitations only to get to power and abandon the people and their demands.

Topping the list of these popular agitations is True Federalism. As controversial as it's being made to appear, True Federalism remains one of the viable and sustainable panacea to many of the problems facing our country,  which if properly addressed will not only return the lost glory of the country but revive the great potentials of the country which has been locked in between mediocrity and political shenanigans.

The unitary system of government was brought about by the criminal elements in the military who truncated the civil rule under the pretence of coming to power to rescue the nation from political turmoil. It was imposed on the country to override the existing political structure in order to muscle all oppositions and control the entire machineries of government.
The overbearing influences and absolute powers given to the government at the centre was solely to make whoever becomes the head of government under this retrogressive system absolutely powerful, uncontrollable and ultimately un-questionable.
Apart from the absolute powers of the head of government, too much responsibilities are given to the federal government which is making visible development across the country an impossible task. There are various deplorable and abandoned roads across the country in the name of belonging to the federal government, which is hindering enhanced business relationship and development across the states, I still wonder how the federal government sitting in Abuja,  with numerous tasks can efficiently attend to federal roads in Ebonyi and Abeokuta.
This is one out of numerous deficiencies in our constitution which are stalling our rapid development as a country. 

THE CONSPIRACY THEORY
The irony of our current democracy, which can be conveniently called a pseudo democracy is that, the foremost component of every meaningful democracy across the globe, which is the constitution, unfortunately, our own constitution still has its roots within the orchids of the military cabals who are hell bent on dominating our political sphere and institutions as long as we the citizens of this country continue to engage in the civil conspiracy of allowing a suppossed civil and democratic society to be ruled with an authoritarian military constitution.
The constitution with which we are running our democracy today will continue to allow motions without movement situations we are witnessing in our democracy today, where absolutely nothing works. We will continue to deal with ineptitude and inefficiencies, politicians will continue to plunder our resources and not getting caught, even if they're facing a thousand count charges of corruption, as long as we continue to operate the military 1999 constitution which was concocted for Abacha's failed self succession plan,  which was haphazardly and cosmetically modified and offered by the military to run a democracy.
Probably due to the despiration of our politicians to take over the reign of government in 1999, they simply played into the hands of the military who prepared and handed to us their kind of preset gazzetted civil rule in the name of democracy without proper assessment and overhaul of the military constitution.
We can never get anything right in this country if we continue to operate the military constitution. All the politicians are aware of the several loopholes in the military constitution we are operating, they knew the military drafted the constitution to support their acts of corruption and insubordination, that is why no one can ever be convicted of any crime of official corruption.
(See James Ibori's seventy count charges).
The recent request by the former Nigerian minister for petroleum, Dieziani Allison Madueke to be brought to Nigeria to face trial of her alleged offenses on corruption, if granted will further expose the lacunas deliberately left in our constitution to make corrupt politicians escape justice. Dieziani Allinson Madueke can never escape justice in the U.K. but if she is brought to Nigeria to stand trial, she will not only escape justice but she will also be awarded compensation by the court of law.This is the type of constitution the military handed over to us to run a democracy, rather than politicians, civil societies and elder statesmen to reject the military constitution and insist on convening a sovereign national conference which should give birth to a genuine brand new people's constitution but Nigerian politicians are engaging in what I call civil conspiracy,  by accepting to run a democracy with a fraudulent military constitution which can never bring about any meaningful achievement or development to our country. We will continue to witness the vicious cycle.

A Nigerian, Ireland based lawyer while reacting to some of my submissions on constitutional review was of the opinion that drafting a New constitution for Nigeria will be damn too expensive and time consuming for any government to dabble into and I asked him what sacrifice can be too much in order to properly put our house in order as to entrench good governance rather than the political rascalilties and shenanigans across board.
The constitution of a heterogeneous country such as Nigeria can not be written by a tiny few and expect such document to be watertight and prevent corruption.
According to the late legal luminary and one of the best constitutional lawyers to ever emerge from Nigeria, Chief Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams, once referred to the military constitution of Nigeria as a constitution which lied against itself.
FRA Williams was referencing the statement in the constitution which says : "We the people of Nigeria.... " but as far as FRA Williams and many genuine statesmen are concerned, there's no "We.. " as far as the Nigerian constitution is concerned, it is merely a written expression by the tiny fraudulent few for themselves by themselves.
In 2015, many Nigerians including my very self were swimming in an erroneous thoughts and euphoria. We had a very wrong perceptive notion that an individual can change the template and deface corruption in Nigeria, not taking into cognizance thed restrictive factors of the constitution which can not be bypassed to get persons facing corruption charges   convicted in any court of law in Nigeria.
This clearly indicates that we still have the strangulating grip of the military on our democracy which must be disengaged by replacing the military constitution.

Back to True Federalism.
This is how True
Federalism will put things in shape in Nigeria. It is a system government which will compel every state in Nigeria to find a way of generating their own revenue to run and maintain their states and also allows them to exercise every right of ownership on every natural resources within their territories. The states will be contributing certain percentage of the revenue generated in their states into the federal government's account, these contributed revenues from all the states into the federal government's purse will then be used by the federal government to protect our territorial integrity and finance our military amongst other fiscal responsibilities.
What this will do is put an end to the idea of many states in Nigeria, going cap in hand to the federal government in Abuja to collect free money, which most of the states never merited, all in the name of federal allocation.
There will not be the idea of sharing federal allocation again, all the states will be generating the money they need from their states and every state can develop at their own pace.
This will also enable every state government to think out of the box by becoming more proactively ingenious.
What the current system of government is doing is generating huge revenue from some few states across the country and sharing them to sustain amongst many other states which contributes little or nothing to the federal purse. This has made the governments of many states to be lazy, unproductive and unconcerned on how to make their states self sustainable and economically viable.
Whooping 50% of Value Added Tax (VAT) generated in Lagos is what the federal government of Nigeria collects monthly as revenue which is then shared amongst the States as their monthly allocation.
This idea is what the former Lagos state governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the current governor of Lagos, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode are both currently frowning against and looking for ways of putting an end to. Going by the antecedents of this political heavyweight, the issue of True Federalism in Nigeria might the seeing the light of the day.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu has always been in the forefront of liberating our politically hoodwinked minds in Nigeria and he has every capacity to do it again. That is why Lagos is called the Centre of Excellence.
We will recall his glorious battle with the federal government when he created more LCDAs in Lagos during his tenure as the executive governor of Lagos state between 1999-2007.
The move which made the federal government headed by General Matthew Obasanjo to withhold the Lagos state allocation for several months which necessitated the state to devise several other means of sustaining itself. Necessities they say are the mothers of all inventions, today, Tinubu is out of office as the Lagos state governor but those legacies of financial autonomy and self sustainability he left behind still holds and keeps our  Lagos as the darling of all states in the entire west Africa.
The battle of Lagos between 1999 -2007 has distinguished  the Asiwaju of Lagos. He was confronted with numerous obstacles which ought to had made him jump the ship to join the rulling party at the Centre... but for whatever reason, he stood his ground and gallantly won the battle by putting to rest the issues of inequalities in the creation of local government areas in the country. Other states are beginning to create LCDAs across the country, the question on the sustainability of the LCDA will be addressed with time. The military oligachy and interest which the Asiwaju of Lagos defeated during the LCDA saga is out and revving again.
General Mathew Obasanjo  recently resurfaced stating why he was and is still against True Federalism, whether his opinion will drown the desires of the majority of Nigerians who are getting more politically liberated by the minute, only time can tell.

Deji Ogundimu is working 2Wwards Responsive and Responsible Governance.