There would hardly be any doubt that Nigeria is passing through a trying time currently. From the political angle, there is a call for “restructuring “ as a possible means of averting more serious problems in the future. There are some Nigerians who regard such call as unnecessary or misplaced. But, definitely, the spreading agitation for some drastic change in the polity cannot be swept away as unnecessary.
While the need or meaning may be unclear to some people, “restructuring” is synonymous with changing the system or institution upon which political arrangements considered unfair are based. This would also include revisiting some policies that give support to such existing lopsided arrangements or practices.
What makes a system, structure or institutional arrangement unfair would include the absence of mutual confidence which breeds disharmony and instability in a polity. A lopsided arrangement is one that is extractive and exclusive in nature, whereby some sections of the people feel excluded or marginalized. A situation where a few political elite expropriate and extract the good things of life for themselves would always create division and agitation in such arrangement.
Any structure, institutionalized arrangement or system which is extractive in nature can be described as operating on the principles of gangsterism.
In the words of F.D. Roosevelt, the 31st President of USA, “There is no such thing as security for any nation or any individual in a world ruled by the principles of gangsterism”.
In political or economic practices, such gangsterist principles extract and exploit the labour and wealth generated for the collective good of a nation to service and satisfy the appetite of a few strong people.
Therefore, any system or policy which gives some semblance of legitimacy to such a clever gangsterim is an exploitative and extractive structure. Like a ruthless rent or tax collector, an extractive political system not only devalues the people but also excludes them in the sharing and use of the collective revenues. Thus, extractive polity promotes and perpetuates poverty and division in society, which does not create incentives for productivity and patriotism. Those who benefit from such system fight for its survival.
In developing countries, political parties usually operate on the principles of gangsterim. They create and perpetuate a power-base that cares little about the well-being of the masses. Rather, survival of the power structure at all cost becomes a priority project. They point accusing fingers at each other as being corrupt and uncaring as mere diversionary gambits, covering up the game of expropriation and deceit of the masses.
Ethnicity and religious differences are often used to create division and keep the unsuspecting masses from knowing who their exploiters are. So, the clamour for real change through removal of structural imbalances can hardly be taken seriously by the power holders. At best, they can resort to some “safety-value” measures in order to reduce tensions, even though temporarily. But the basic extractive and exploitative nature of the polity would hardly be removed.
What the ordinary Nigerian can do is to remain calm and watch, as power holders soon become their own enemies. They would always live in fear of the masses who will certainly become aware of the game of deceit and mendacity. Usually, a vicious circle leaves many loopholes which expose the hypocrisy of clever gangsters posing as patriots. If they do not prey upon themselves, then their collaborators will soon betray and expose them.  Now we know of “unarmed robbers” .
The Nigerian situation is both pathetic and instructive because there have been foreign collaborators all along, whose interest in the Nigerian project begins and ends with economic gains. Key players in the project of keeping Nigeria one have benefited adequately in the past 50 years at the expense of the Nigerian masses.
That project of keeping Nigeria one was followed by a predatory project of privatization of the commonwealth and the polity. This is the nucleus or crux of the clamour for a “restructuring” of the Nigerian polity which key stakeholders and their cooperating partners would do everything to resist.
Dr. Amirize is of the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt. e-mail:bamirize@yahoo.com

Bright Amirize