‘Towards A New Nigerian Federal System Of Miyetti Allah, NBA And #End SARS’

From the on-going debate on Nigeria’s future, you learn a lot about what is wrong with us as Nigerians.
Seems many of us don’t understand what we support with much enthusiasm, nor do we understand what we oppose with great show of emotion!
Even worse, the oppressed majority tends to sit and murmur while allowing our country to repeat the same negative inclination that has worsened our conditions over the years.
I argue in this discussion that we should highlight new ideas about our social condition and boldly reject the lies behind our repeated failures.
Here I wish to show how the prominent voices of Miyetti Allah, NBA (Nigerian Bar Association) and “#End Sars” protest, are the only new developments that hold any meaningful hope of Nigeria’s emergence as a better nation. Our country can make our citizens proud again and on a higher scale. But it will only happen when citizen groups work to pursue by collective action the urgent task to regain the great destiny of our nation and restore her capacity to be competitive and exemplary, in order to lead the Black World to sustainable dignity and respect for the African on a global scale.
This discussion is coming as an alternative view to what is emerging as a national chorus. It is the loud cry for what people call “restructuring”.
When you ask what is restructuring and what do we want it for?
The usual answer is let us return to old regional structure and more devolution of powers from the centre. But these things will not turn Nigeria to greatness.
We should not allow ourselves and others to be conned into accepting that lie .
We had a regional structure before and it led us to progressive chaos and finally a Civil War.
Over 2 million died during the war, as some people claim. But nobody has bothered to imagine or count even at the smallest unit of government how many Nigerians suffered a life of misery and avoidable death due to bad government at Local government, regional or federal levels in the 20 years between 1946 -1966!
How many didn’t go to college because they couldn’t afford to?
How many didnt get a decent job to be able to live well?
How many were sent to jail or left there one day longer than should have been the case because they couldn’t afford legal services or where identified by the ruling party as opponents?
In typical Nigerian manner, we do not count citizens who become victims of our misgovernance.
They don’t count.
Even the living don’t count too.
You wouldn’t think that the stakeholders that dominated
Nigeria’s political landscape from 1946-1966 when bad things happened to many Nigerian Citizens will be increasingly squeezed out of circulation.
But it is not true.
From 1999 every election cycle has witnessed the emergence of same pattern of prominence for ethnic- based stakeholder groups. Their role had been to stampede Nigerian citizens into political decisions that either seemed to support what was the status quo or led the nation further backwards.
It is either Arewa Yoths or Northern Elders Forum, Oduduwa Movement or Yoruba Leaders of Thought,
Umunna Igbo or Oha- Ne -Eze.
You find the rapid -fire manufacture of “Associations” of various ethnic minorities such as Akweya, Annang, Bini, Edo, Efik, Etche, Idoma, Ijaw, Ikwerre, Ibibio, Itsekiri, Ogoni and Tiv, who claim to speak for themselves or for their notional “region”.
The religious associations are not too far behind.
But these kinds of stakeholders have not helped Nigeria in the past 21 years to focus energy on building a budget culture to promote productivity and industrial competitiveness at national or state level.
As reflected in three eras of quantum crash in exchange rate of Naira to US Dollar, arising from each new federal administration in 1999-2021, the pattern of stakeholder role on the nation’s political landscape as suggested above, seem to have encouraged Nigeria’s progressive economic decline ie from 1999-2006 ( N100= $1), 2007-2014 ( N150=$1),and 2015-2021 ( N350-N500=$1).
But why do such stakeholder groups hold sway?
It is because they tend to operate largely as their “Master’s voice,” in line with old grammaphone records of old that had HMV printed on them.
That was until Miyetti Allah surfaced. They are the first stakeholder group to represent the interest of a productive sector of the economy on the political landscape.
By their effort Nigeria’s Federal Government has offered to invest ( please mark the word invest) billions of Naira to create RUGA or cattle settlement in target states. Now each settlement is expected to accommodate livestock and Fulani herdsmen as well as likely “unknown gun men” who are largely reported to be giving innocent and much abused peasant Fulani labourers, a nation-wide bad name, since 2015.
Miyetti Allah or those who claim to speak for them have also gone ahead to confront state governments to make provisions for cattle readers and their livestock.
This could be one President Buhari’s legacy to Nigeria’s policy dialogue.
Imagine if every productive labour group came forward to demand that states and Federal governments make adequate budget arrangements to modernise production in their respective sectors to meet commercial scale?
If Obasanjo’s era had encouraged such productivity-based stakeholder role even if they were led by Yoruba Cocoa farmers, those who produce yam, millet, rice, beans, Maize and soybean would have secured an increasing percentage of national budget as annual investment in expanding the agro Sector and supply chain.
Nigeria could have become a competitive participant , in the $29b annual global Maize market!
So imagine that Jonathan’s era also anticipated the Miyetti Allah playbook, even if led by Ijaw fishermen and Native Gin traders.
Nigeria could have invested in commercializing sea food processing and manufacturing of local gin for the export market.
Kentucky State is said to own a huge chunk of the global gin market ( Bourbon) which raises about $15b a year in the US alone.
Can you imagine the quality of life of Niger Delta people if they invested in business with a global market that generates for each state a percentage of $15b?
Add another percentage from $9b annual market sales of Lobster and prawns shipment to Asia. This can easily come from Sea food processing business in Niger Delta.
See why we must learn from Miyetti Allah to pressure governments in Nigeria to become engaged with productivity -driven stakeholder groups such as business groups and professional associations on budget development each year?
Now look at NBA. It is the only professional body that has taken action each time to defend its purpose in society along with the Constitution of our country.
Imagine if other professional bodies followed the Miyetti Allah and NBA way: by working together to identify and propose reasonable alternatives to existing unproductive policy directions, organizations such as Nigerian Society of Engineers ( NSE), Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) NUJ ( Nigerian Union of Journalists) ASUU ( Academic Staff Union of Universities) and NIPR ( Nigerian Institute of Public Relations) can change Nigeria.
Why does “#End SARS” qualify for mention?
It is because Nigerian citizens stood up to say enough was enough. It was sad that the protest was misunderstood by law enforcement agencies leading to unnecessary and oppressive bloodshed.
But like George Floyd did in the United States, the blood of our heroes should make those of us living to reject the option of letting the National and State Assemblies remain an expensive auditorium for “sleeping dogs”!
No we should peacefully but strongly mobilizer to occupy those places that have betrayed the Nigerian people and made us poorer.
Now let us discuss some falsehoods about the call for restructuring that seeks to send us back to regional or Parliamentary system.
First, the Parliamentary system evolved in Nigeria gradually ( 1920s, 1946, 1951 & 1958-63).
Each constitution that emerged and its practice, became a glaring failure. That was why each constitution was replaced, even at “baby step” stage.
We should stop pretending that the Parliamentary constitutions & regional governments were success stories.
No, they were often social disasters.
For instance from 1946 the tendency for ethnic domination had become prominent in each region. Prof Eyo Ita who was elected by Eastern Region Parliament as Leader of Govt Business (ie the Premier), was pressured to surrender leadership of Eastern Region to Zik by what was seen as an Igbo drive to dominate the region. When he refused to do so, a new election was organised to favour certain ethnic interests, in the name of party politics.
In preparation for 1951, Zik and National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) went to contest to win Lagos and the Western Region. So Prof Eyo Ita was elected to run the Eastern Region since Zik and NCNC expected victory in the West, in order to make Zik the Leader of the Federal Parliament under the new constitution. When Awo’s Action Group (AG) won in the West and Lagos, the NCNC turned around to ask Prof Eyo Ita to hand over to Zik in the East. This was seen as an Igbo decision, not a party resolution.

It forced ethnic minorities in the Eastern Parliament to form a minority movement against Igbo domination that was doing enjoying a robust “press up” and outing under the guise of NCNC.
Secondly, the practice of the independence and Republican constitutions 1959- 1963, produced a national crisis with Agbekoya riots in the West and Tiv riots in the North.
The toxic relationship between politicians who were fighting to dominate their regions as a premise to negotiate political power and attendant positions at the Federal centre, left Nigeria in tension from regional hot spots as follows :
Awo and his top AG supporters landed in jail, convicted for Treasonable Felony.
Aminu Kano and his Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) supporters, found themselves under arbitrary arrests in Kano and other Hausa parts of the North as allegedly directed by the Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC) in charge of the region.
Joseph Tarka leader of United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) and his supporters, were on the run in the Middle Belt.
At the same time Harold Dappa Biriye’s Niger Delta agitation and those behind Calabar- Ogoja -Rivers (COR State) Movement, became unofficially “persona non grata” in Eastern Region from 1958.
Thirdly, it took only two years 1963-1965 for the explosive situation from Nigeria’s Parliamentary consitutions and serial constitutional malpractices, to lead Nigerians to the first military coup in Jan 1966, a counter coup that was a raging Sea of blood backed by revenge killings and mass pogrom of Southerners in the North in 1966. Finally we were dragged into Civil War in July 1967.
More fundamentally, Nigerians seem to forget that the Parliamentary constitutions from 1946 came into being by a large dose of colonial imposition designed for a primitive population.
Just like the present era since 1999 which treats our diaspora population with suspicion, if not outright exclusion, the Parliamentary constitutions from 1946-66 didn’t have room for citizen participation outside political parties. It was a democracy that subjected citizens to the dictatorship of the political party.
Today there is strictly speaking no party system. Most states run as one party states.
The National Assembly is a place where the ruling party swaggers around because it faces only Senator Enyinna Abaribe as the national Opposition.
Our politicians don’t take their party identity seriously because there are really no ethical or operational differences between them.
Since 1999 political parties have become the private property of those who can pay. Any leading politician can vie for governorship ticket of one political party on Friday and get the Governorship flag of another party on Monday!
If I’m the primaries is holding in Port Harcourt you only require a trusted taxi driver who knows Niger Street to courier enough dollars and change them to Naira over the weekend.
We seem to forget something about our first time with regional structure.
We came close to being sent to jail because your Premier or his agents suspected that you as a corporate executive, showed no “total loyalty” to the half- baked party leader in your village.
It was a crime!
Another point, is about indirect voting in the Parliamentary constitution. It made a Prime Minister or Premier to emerge from the party majority at the Federal or regional level, by the choice of the party caucus in Parliament and not the general electorate.
In addition the Prime Minister or Premier could keep office indefinitely as long as he or she could raise a majority in Parliament.
This was rejected by Nigerians and replaced with the 1979 Constitution that adopted an amended version of the American Presidential System.
It empowers Nigerians to choose their national leader at each election cycle by direct voting and no LG Chairman, Governor or President can do more than two terms.
Another issue that has been thrown into contention is Federalism.
Contrary to what Nigerians are told, we do not have anything like “true federalism” in the world.
We have many federal systems of government across the world. From the American, to Russian, Canadian, Australian, German, Brazil, India, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Ethiopia among over 20 federal countries.
No one has the same constitution with another.
Every Federal constitution reflects the preference of political agitators and other stakehokder groups in a particular country as to how power sharing is conducted by different levels of government.
So what should Nigerians be focused on at this point in 2021?
This is a question politicians do not want us to address. It is because they want to retain benefits of the present system.
We must recognise what is wrong with our politics and society.
The injury is felt not only in the relationship between Federal and States. But also between States and Local Governments. But it is not every citizen that suffers. There are those who enjoy while others are suffering.
There are two key things about present Nigerian society.
First is that we run a Feudal System that rewards unproductivity because the system itself is unproductive and logicially cannot invest to make the citizens competitive .
This is happening in LGAs and states, not only Federal government.
The system wants to share what is available ( ie revenue from resources that it does invest to grow or expand).
So it does not encourage the citizenry to be more productive and to create more public wealth.
As a matter of fact and business reality here, those who try to stay in production are punished by the system with high and multiple taxation along with a few thugs messing with you, if you are not jumping high enough to salute the Master!
All the attention is for a few to take what is available. They use all tricks and often deploy open force to achieve what they want, whenever tricks don’t work.
Secondly, the Feudal System puts the monopoly of public revenue and opportunities in the hands of a few who have political power. They indulge in private accumumation of wealth, instead of public wealth creation.
At the same time, the overwhelming population of the masses and middle class, are gradually but steadily impoverished by the Feudal System through lack of investment of public wealth in industrialization, competitive education, health care and democratisation of access to investment capital and opportunities.
So we end up with a “democracy” that creates dictators and a political process where only one Strong man is on top in each state, surrounded by cronies.
Those who have power also have public revenue to quickly make themselves “Masters” at LGA, State and Federal levels, while the rest of the people are reduced to Slaves to obey every directive of the “Masters”.
To change Nigeria we need to dismantle the Feudal System at LG, State and Federal levels of government. Every level of government must commit to producing more public wealth. This will make our society more competitive and place integration of all ethnic groups as priority. Each budget to be announced must declare what percentage of increase to public wealth is to be the target for the year and in what Sectors and locations.
Nigeria is among the backward countries where States read budgets but do not show what Sectors would be made more productive or announce new target of public wealth to be achieved each year. In South Africa and Ghana, even LGAs announce what productivity targets they want to meet in each Sector!
Now to dismantle present Feudal System, we also need Nigerian governments to announce milestone of democratising access to investment funds and target opportunities in every budget proposal as well as equal access for public participation in developing the budget. Also we must demand eqaul access to justice and fairness to all ethnic groups and relevant business Sectors in policy focus and implementation .
In addition we can take away monopoly power of those who hold political offices at LG, State and Federal levels of government by stating specific improvement in services and quality of life that citizens must expect in each LGA and State as well as the Federal Government, by business, professional and ethnic groups that must participate in budget discussion each year.
We must also insist that citizens be accorded dignity by implementation of rules to show that all citizens have equal rights for career building , equal pay for equal work, duty of care for quality education and health, equal opportunity and respect for ethnic identity.
Brown is former National President, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations.

By: Amaopusenibo Bobo Sofiri Brown