THE POWER OF THE CITIZENS IN A RESTRUCTURED NIGERIA

Nigeria and what Nigerians want from her is an amazing study.

The founding fathers came together, negotiated and created a country that was largely acceptable to their people. In that country, they did not quite give up their power – the power of the citizens, rather, they gave of their resources to the federal government. While cocoa did well in the west, palm produce did well in the south, groundnut did well in the north among other agro and natural resources that were peculiar to each region. The leaders had little to fight over, they were content in the little they each had, they kept what was for each region for the regions, and they came to the table when anything involved all three/four regions. They disagreed when they needed to, and governed themselves in their regions, and jointly, by a document they all agreed to. They called it the 1958 constitution.

The military came and foisted their will on the people of the country. They came selling a more united front they called the Central government, they presented a posture that fell short of bedeviling what the elders negotiated. The people took what they offered – not like they had a choice anyway. Who would dare the guns? The military gave the people states they didn’t really ask for, and subtly, so the people would not think of it, they paid for the running of the states by allocating to them monthly. They created 12 initially and kept increasing the number as people began to enjoy the illusion of having ‘power’, (even when some of those states are not any more than glorified local governments) until the number now stands at 36. They took advantage of the greed, insufficient reasoning, and gullibility of the people they created by the system they operated – the fair weather politicians. They put them in positions to collect the allocations and use. Those politicians have a louder voice so you could raise your displeasure at their incompetence all you want, no one would hear you.

More than 50 years down the line, the people are having a rethink, the people are now more conscious of the power the leaders have that is originally theirs as citizens – the power to decide what should be theirs, and blab blab blab. But the military who are inseparable from the fair weather politicians, many of whom have transited to be fair weather politicians laugh them to scorn. What power? We paid for it every month, they say, its ours now. The military presented a picture of helping the people by interfering in governance, whether the people knew it or not, over the years, by the system they operated, power was being taken from them and paid for by allocating monthly resources to the states, allocating people from those states into positions of authority at the federal level, and allocating projects to those states to financially empower their fair-weather friends. So, while the people ask for the citizens’ power, they are claiming that the citizens have nothing to complain about, after all, they have their needs met. Who does not know that the one who owns power owns the money? Whoever doesn’t know this doesn’t know why they are powerless as citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

But the case is not hopeless, the citizens can still have the country they negotiated for.

Demand for restructuring, demand for the institutioning of your right and powers to determine things as citizens. Demand that at least some of the resolutions you reached at the national confab of 2014 be adopted. Demand that your ancestral heritage be not tampered with nor trampled on. Demand that governance be restored to the order in which it was practiced by the founding fathers or at least something similar to it. Demand that restructuring be the main determinant of the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Demand that your power as citizens be restored to you.