WHO IS AFRAID OF A RESTRUCTURED NIGERIA?

WHO IS AFRAID OF A RESTRUCTURED NIGERIA?

A man has three wives, and he chooses one, only one of them for special and preferential treatment. One of the other two enjoys some kind of privileges because she played a part in helping the Maigida to attain certain heights sometimes ago. If she didn’t help, she possibly will be as unattended as the last wife, for whom I feel a lot of pity.

That one of the wives is preferentially treated is a point that the Maigida himself has written articles to deny, this he has done through people who are paid to speak for him – workers I feel equal pity for because Maigida does not make lying easy for them anymore. Why are the other wives complaining? Why are they not reasonable enough to know that life is ‘turn-by-turn’? Why are they trying to make the house ungovernable for the Maigida? How can they complain that Maigida uses only his brothers most times when there are assignments? How can they complain that Maigida’s brothers are killing their own brothers on their farms, don’t they realize that Maigida is not ubiquitous and may not know what is happening in Ebonyi, Ondo, Benue and Abuja at the same time? Didn’t they also enjoy special privileges in the past? – questions paid workers ask house owners.

  

Maigida is not the initiator of these problems, he only added to them. The previous leaders in the home never left their seat of power without cause for concern. Most of them probably met the problems on ground too and just like Maigida, they didn’t solve them, but unlike Maigida, they did manage the problems in their own styles.

The problems these leaders created or met include, but not limited to: building flyover in the dry region of one of the wives while not providing bridge over the river in the region of the other, appointing more of the siblings of one of the wives because they are of the same language with the leader while not considering the others, using sledge hammer to kill a fly that disturbs in the region of one of the wives while spraying a deodorant on a similar fly in another region, designating an aggrieved  people in one region as terrorists while calling terrorists in another region aggrieved people, delaying in handling complains or simply pretending that there are no complains or charges or allegations brought against people from one region while moving with lightning speed and pre-empted consequences when dealing with similar circumstances involving people from other regions, impoverishing a region environmentally while using the proceeds to develop another region, directing all forms of development towards a region while neglecting other regions, subtlely categorizing one region as more important than others, applying cosmetic solutions to fundamental decay… it is this last point that interests me.

When people from a region complain about some form of marginalization, unequal treatment or any other kind of terrible experience they face, the leader simply finds a palliative approach to making them keep quiet for a while. He appoints someone from among them into a prominent office, awards some project to that region, makes move that provides succour and keeps the mouth shut… for a while. The rule book for the home called the constitution does no good either, it’s a contraption, a work of few people who had all powers to themselves and did as they liked and would not be queried. Who would dare? The contraption is bankrupt of the knowledge of the dire need of the people it is meant to serve, or would I say is simply no longer usable for the current need of the people, and when you move that it be jettisoned and/or at least reconsidered, or even an older version planned by the people for the people be reconsidered for adaptation and adoption, some of the kinsmen and obvious beneficiaries of the contraption raise eyebrows. Who is afraid of restructuring?

The issues necessitating the call for restructuring, that have made the decibels of that sound so loud they are hurtful to the ears are still unattended. Since none of the erstwhile Maigidas has been bold enough to attempt it, maybe we should console ourselves with the hope that future leaders will consider it. Break it down to devolution of power, resource control restructuring, indigene- ship and citizen dichotomy settlement,  equality and so on… attempt any of these they won’t, utterly restructure the whole arrangement of the country so that each region can harness her strength and build on what it has, they will hear none of that. Who is the current structure helping? Who is afraid of what he will lose with the new arrangement? Who is afraid of the collapse of the power at the centre? Who is afraid of restructuring?

More annoying is the fact that, when they hear of the concept, they question the intention of the promoter asking to provide blueprint of the concept as if they would even attempt to restructure without a blueprint anyway. They ask what you mean by restructuring when it was the very exact same words they used before country men and women voted for them. May we also know what they meant when they campaigned promising restructuring, or maybe now they will deny that they ever uttered such words. Who is afraid of restructuring?

Restructuring is not dismemberment. Restructuring is not separation. Restructuring is not proliferation. Restructuring is not breakage. These are perhaps what they think it is.

The second treatise follows soon. Wait for it. But as you do, bear in mind that whoever will be the next Maigida must be someone who is willing to consider restructuring.