Letter to President Buhari--Economic and Political Synergy

Sir,

This Letter is a response to the myriad of issues facing Nigeria under your

Presidency especially now that your efforts at curbing corruption are

really revealing the depth to which the malaise had crept into Nigeria’s

body politic. This is aggravated by the recent disclosure about top civil

servants conniving to sabotage the 2016 national budget to satisfy their

corrupt appetite and aspirations, in an emphatic revelation of the descent

of the entire state apparati into the cesspit of corruption. 

Needless to say, all of these point to the imperative of CHOICE between a maintenance

of the current political order or CHANGE of the structures of governance.

We do recall that as an aspirant as well as the leader of the party in

power, you did promise CHANGE for which reason APC is popularly referred to

as the Party of Change.

While the efforts to sanitize Nigeria’s finances and retrieve stolen monies

are commendable, Egbe Omo Oduduwa says that the simultaneous pursuit of

both the economic and the political components of Change is the surest

guarantee against a subversion of the promise of CHANGE. Your

Administration must do no less.

Nigeria’s entire political structure was and is still based on an economy

which is no longer able to support that structure. All of the efforts by

your administration at economic diversification will come to naught if a

substantial part of its dividends are applied towards the maintenance of

those structures. The central issue has to do with the raison d’etre of the

STRUCTURE and not the slashing of salaries and allowances. 

Today’s global economic reality clearly show that a country’s economic buoyancy is

determined by her ability to not only compete within the global space, but

also her ability to determine the content and context of her economic

activities. Thus, when the economic aspirations are not in tune with the

political architecture, the synergy for development will be lacking.

Egbe Omo Oduduwa posits that Nigeria’s economic diversification will be

meaningful only if it proceeds from the standpoint of combined political

and economic reordering as a fundamental necessity.

While all the world’s geo-political territories are one way or the other

engaged in redefining their global positioning, Africa is still stuck in

maintaining its colonial legacies, primarily based on the negation of the

Peoples as drivers of their economic destinies thus making Africa a

developmental dump-site where all sorts of experimentation that cannot

support any form of development are carried out, all based on aspirations

to accumulate foreign reserves or attract foreign investments with

political structures that are fundamentally at variance with the real

developmental needs of the Peoples.

This you can see from the pressures being piled on the NAIRA, which has

been on-going for the past 30 years without a respite in sight. Our ability

to manage financial resources without regard to the ends of development

becomes a pursuit of an end in itself. All your noble efforts to ensure

prudence, savings, sanitation of the economy and “diversification” without

corresponding political coordinates will become mere statistics that do not

reflect on the lives of our peoples.

The relationship between the political and the economic can be seen in the

abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade because of its continuous

economic unviability culminating politically in direct colonialism which

itself succumbed to the anti-colonial “Wind of Change” in order to avoid

the economic collapse of the colonizing countries. It is also clearly

indicated in the coming into being of Nigeria vide the 1914 Amalgamation

which was informed by economic necessity. In each of these instances, the

political and economic solutions were simultaneously engaged where one

became a consequence of the other.

Can we act differently in today’s Nigeria? When the country “diversifies”

through any economic activity, and assuming that it succeeds, would its

proceeds go toward sustaining the extant political structures? Doing so

would defeat the purpose of diversification, more so when these political

structures have become so entrenched in corrupting the State Apparatus and

becoming clogs in the wheels of our desire for Development.

Nigeria is now faced with two choices: Your Administration can proceed on

its anti-corruption/diversification course while

utilizing/maintaining/challenging the corrupt and corruptive structures of

the State, resulting in your Administration’s continuous political fights,

with all of its uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the emergence

of new political formations, alliances or tendencies anchored on perceived

political lapses and/or manipulations, the end result being neither

economic nor political freedom, which the pursuit of Change demands. On the

other hand, diversification, as an economic necessity must involve

“diversification” of the political system; meaning, economic proceeds

cannot be used to sustain extant structures but must create its own

political structures for the necessary synergy to apply.

There is no room for a military attempt at consolidating or promoting any

change process, either in the form of fighting corruption or economic

diversification, not in the least because the military, as an institution,

was and is directly responsible for Nigeria’s current state of affairs and

cannot be expected to provide any solution as the problem cannot be the

solution. You and some members of your Administration had, at one time or

the other, participated in the Institution’s incursions and it is our

belief that lessons have been learnt. This does not imply that a “military

solution” may not be attempted but we are certain that it will only

compound the problem rather than resolve it.

The question your Administration faces thus becomes the Constitutionality

of any political action you may want to take. Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution,

with a preamble falsely anchored on “We, the People” cannot operate outside

the manifest interest of the Peoples of Nigeria. Accepted that this

Preamble does not, by itself, grant any powers and rights not specified in

the Constitution; its being a statement of the principles in this

Constitution means it cannot also be based on a false premise. That such a

premise as “We The People” is false implies that the entire principles,

powers and rights it purports to embody are also false since “We, The

People” had no hand in its making, directly or indirectly, being a product

of military fiat which was not acting and did not act on behalf of “We, The

People”, even as by so doing, the producers of the Constitution unwittingly

affirmed the Peoples’ sovereignty.

This false preamble only means, on the one hand, not binding on “We, The

People” on whose behalf such an assumption was made. On the other hand,

“We, The People” need to exercise our right to correct this anomaly by

ensuring that the Constitution is indeed a product of “We, The People”, the

only guarantee of its legitimacy.

Since no such authority was delegated to the military, it implies that at

any and all times, only “We, The People” have the power and the right to

make, amend or change the Constitution, partially or in its entirety and

such powers and rights cannot be circumscribed by whatever provisions

contained therein once the “We, The People”, on our own initiative, decide

to express ourselves and make any changes, to the extent of overriding

whatever provisions that had been provided for any changes at any time,

based on the exclusivity of the rights of “We, The People” to always have

the ability and the need to make such decisions, partially or wholly, and

at any point in time, thus voiding all the two-thirds of states and

National Assembly provisions for its amendment; especially when the

National Assembly itself has serially abused the Constitution.

Consequently any effort at political changes cannot be limited or

circumscribed by the provisions of this Constitution and your

Administration’s way out of the quagmire is the enablement of Peoples

Constituent Assemblies among the various Peoples and Nationalities within

Nigeria organized along Regional or Zonal geo-political lines. The outcome

of their deliberations and proceedings would be tabled for acceptance or

rejection at Regional Referenda which must have been enabled by Executive

Order.

This would lead to the replacement of the National Assembly with a single

House of Representatives and creation of a National Federal Council, with

equal representation from the Federating Regions, regardless of size,

entrusted with choosing/electing/selecting a Head of State/Head of

Government.

Furthermore, your Administration’s current attempt at retrieving stolen

monies would gain more traction when those who have partaken in the sharing

of our monies and have so far refused to refund same would be handed over

to their Federating Regions with the shared monies becoming the Region’s

debt to the Federation, which can be either in totality or as a negotiated

percentage. It will be left for the Region to find any means necessary to

retrieve or choose to pay the debt; with the Federal Government empowered

to collect its debt from the Federating Region by any means at its disposal.

For the Peoples Constituent Assemblies, the Movement for National

Re-Formation(MNR) has what can serve as a template, a Federation of 18

Regions out of which 12 would be mono-nationality with 6 being

multi-nationality based on the equality of all the nationalities,

regardless of size, as well as being autonomous federating units of equal

value to the whole.

Mono-nationality Federation Ibibio

Federation,Ijaw,Igbo,Urhobo,Edo,Yoruba,Nupe,Tiv,Gbagyi,Hausa,Fulah,Kanuri.

Multi-nationality regions: (i) A federation comprising minority

nationalities in Cross River and Akwa Ibom states (i.e. Eket, Annang, Oron,

Ibeno, Efik, Ejagbam, Korop, Boki, Bakwara, Yakurr, Yala). (ii) A

federation comprising the minority nationalities in Rivers and Bayelsa

states (i.e. Ikwerre, Etchei, Ekpeeye, Engeni, Ogba, Eleme, Ndoni, Ogoni,

and Andoni). (iii) A federation comprising the minority nationalities in

Delta State (i.e. Ika, Ndokwa, Warri, Isoko). (iv) A federation comprising

the minority nationalities in West Middle Belt, i.e. Zuru, Kambari, Bariba,

Bussa, Karekare, Ngizim, Angamo, Bola, Funne, etc. (v) A federation

comprising the minority nationalities in Central Middle Belt, i.e.: (a)

Ebira Group: Ebira, Uku, Ebira-Ugu, Ebira-Panda, Etuno-Igarra, Ebira Mozun,

Bassa-Nge. (b) Igala Group (c) Upper Benue Group: Alago Eggon, Gwandara,

Mada, Kakanda, Mighili, Bassa-Komu, Ninzom, Arum etc. (vi) A federation

comprising the minority nationalities in East Middle Belt, i.e. (a) Plateau

Group: Ngas, Berom, Afezere Taroh, Goemai, Nmavo – Jukun, Amu, Pyem, Youn

etc. (b) Taraba Group: Chamba, Jukun, Kuteb, Mambila, Kona, Kunni, Kaanab,

Ndoro, Abakwa, Mumuye, Yububen, etc. (c) Savanna Group: Bura, Tangale –

Waja, Bachama, Manghi, Kilba, Yungu, Mwanna, Bwazza Mbula, etc.

The quest to redeem Nigeria deserves and demands no less.

Thank you, Sir.

Shenge Rahman Akanbi, Femi Odedeyi

For and on behalf of Egbe Omo Oduduwa

(egbeomooduduwa1945@gmail.com)