The unfortunate and barbaric incidence of Kaduna-Abuja rail bombing that occurred on Monday, 28th March, 2022 is a gory reincarnation of the deep-seated challenges of an extremely troubled nation, which the current political class continues to nauseatingly misunderstand. Billions of dollars borrowed to finance one single infrastructural item with the potentials of triple gains in transportation-easing for Nigerians (humans, goods and services), box-ticking (legacy and to-be-seen-to-have-done-something mentality of Nigerian politicians) and spoils of contract-awarding (possible kickbacks etc.) was blown by a cheap Improvised Explosive Device (IED). If the wise must listen and add to their learning, there are instructive lessons from that singular devastating incidence. For the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari-administration and the incoming one, it warns that 2023 pre-election conversations and post-election actions focused on Federal Government-sponsored physical infrastructure would be grave indiscretions of any Presidential candidate-cum-President.
Regrettably, in place of giving the masses hints on 'how' they intend to resolve our multi-faceted challenges, almost all the Presidential aspirants are chorusing (although incorrectly in many cases) "what" the challenges are. Parochial interests of political players and primitive concerns are disappointingly dominating the 2023 polls' conversations. We all know that the penchant for power-driven and perks-dotting chats and acts are not mere suspicions in Nigeria's political context. Should you still doubt my accusation, ask that self-acclaimed politician or card-carrying member of a political party who lives with you or beside your house about the 2023 post-election agenda of governance that was 'considered' for discussion in their last party meeting. I can bet that 9 out of 10 honest ones will tell you that such conversations, let alone, actions, are scarce findings. This is because Nigerian political parties would rather discuss stomach infrastructure that can lead to 'how' to grab power than pertinent issues of governance structure, physical infrastructure, social architecture or 'what' to do with the anticipated power.
Fellow Nigerians, the 2023 elections would determine if train bombings would become the new arrival and regular face in our overburdened shop of insecurity. To avert those kinds of calamities, we need that deep-thinking aspirant, soon-to-be candidate and an eventual President who would stimulate the right talks around our disordered governance structure and disillusioned social architecture and walk these two profound issues alongside infrastructure upon assumption of office. Is it difficult to understand that a dysfunctional governance structure perpetuated by the Federal powers-that-be will continue to ostracize the States and Local Government Area (LGA) Councils from taking up the gauntlet of developing both our decrepit physical infrastructure and changing our destructive social ills? How effective has the Federal Policing system been in preventing bombings and other levels of insecurity as the Federal Government continues to ignore calls for subnational policing? So also, any 2023 Presidential aspirant who understands the depth of our challenges will agree that a rebirth of our social architecture is extremely important and urgent. Why? It's because the proverbial children (bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, ritual killers etc.) whom the parents (and/or Nigerian nation) failed to train are now grown and are selling off the family house (physical infrastructure) built at the expense of their training.
Therefore, if I was an aspirant for the Presidential seat in 2023, my campaign tagline would be "Reforming our Governance Structure; Recovering our Social Architecture; and Revamping our Physical Infrastructure". Should I win the Presidential elections and be sworn in, my administration's policies, programmes and projects would also not only rest on these three pillars but be concurrently implemented. A reform of the Power structure is as important as an overhaul of our Physical infrastructure and both cannot stand without a redemption of our lost Public demeanor. If it is to sound sequential but quite theoretical, I believe that our next President should even consider first, a constitutional devolution of the current governance structure. When we summon the courage to admit to, and resolve Nigeria's dysfunctional governance structure once and for all, it will then be easier to get the Federal, State and Local Government structures to simultaneously focus on closing Nigeria's astronomical infrastructural gap. Whilst that goes on, the three tiers would, based on the level of powers devolved to each, collectively begin addressing the country's multi-faceted social abnormalities mainly perpetrated by the large populace of idle, apathetic, despaired but energetic youths. In practical reality however, these three issues may just be simultaneously implemented. Consequently, let's examine the trio one after the other.
First is the unfair, illogical, power distribution among the three tiers of government in Nigeria that concentrates absolute powers at the center (the Federal Government). Excessive borrowings by one tier (FG) to (as claimed) fix infrastructure when the other two tiers (that are closer to 70-80% of Nigerians) either do not have sufficient economic powers (due to the constitution) to complement the former, or are mere spectators in the reversal of our faded social order, is placing the cart before the horse. To solely attempt to fix our infrastructural troubles like a Messiah, without first devolving commensurate infrastructural capabilities (in every sense of it) to the subnational units is an exceptionally poor treatment strategy. Without prejudice to, or disregard for the outcome of the ongoing constitutional amendment process embarked upon by the 9th session of the National Assembly, the pre-election calls for the restructuring of Nigeria's governance system tirelessly made by Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Gani Adams were logical.
Albeit these calls may be ignored because of unexplained exigencies, I hope it would be considered for implementation by a well-meaning President-to-be. If you do not support the regional decentralization idea (as I don't either; for numerous reasons), can you support devolution of powers to 36 States, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and 774 Local Government Area Councils (as I do)? Power means authority that is exercised based on the constitution-permitted architecture of governance. That is; Federalism or Unitary system of government and how it plays out in a Federal System. Nigeria's greatest challenge stems from the impossibility of an overtly powered central government to justly and fairly recognize, adjudicate, resolve and administer several hundreds of ethnically varying (in language, culture, values etc.) groups clustered into a Federation of over 206 million Nigerians.
Although explicitly appraised in one of my coming books centering on Federalism, restructuring Nigeria's Governance Structure involves the constitutional devolution of five forms of power to 36 States, FCT and 774 LGAs, namely;
1. Legal powers – extent of derivable powers of Federal, States & LGAs from the country's Constitution, subnational law-making parliaments, Subnational government policies etc.
2. Geographical powers – extent of powers of Federal, States and LGAs over land use, local resources (minerals, agriculture etc.) within their geographical spaces
3. Administrative powers – Decentralized bureaucracy for Government programmes' implementation, issuance of approvals, granting of licenses etc.
4. Political powers – Conduct of subnational elections by respective States' Electoral bodies, System of government (Presidential or Parliamentary etc.)
5. Economic powers – Revenue generation (taxes etc.), Wealth distribution, Jobs-creation etc.
Secondly, physical infrastructure cannot be overemphasized. All-round infrastructure calls are candid post-poll acts requiring candidates' pre-poll chats. Our President-to-be must begin to talk to us about the provision of all categories of physical infrastructure by the three tiers of government and not single out an infrastructure item as if that's all our lives depend on. He/She must recognize the importance of one or more of the spectra of infrastructure to every nook and cranny of this country, thereby refraining from deliberately or inadvertently portray the elitist and middle classes as the only ones who require for example, trains. Yes, we need all the following Physical Infrastructure across the 774 LGAs that make up Nigeria;
1. Power
2. Roads
3. Rails
4. Airports
5. Seaports
6. Telecommunications & ICT
7. Water
8. Tourism facilities
The third and the last (definitely not the least) agenda of the three is the combustible and yet grossly under-prioritized social syndrome that can conflagrate all aspects of our national life. To embark on an infrastructure-alone voyage with little or no strategic focus on major social maladies (& their perpetrators) that are capable of destroying or mocking the much-touted physical infrastructure is an unimaginable level of political short-sightedness. Therefore, our candid aspirations that override the candidates' ambition are the following elements of Social Architecture that the 2023 elections must address.
1. Insecurity
2. Population control
3. Unemployment
4. Public corruption
5. Stomach infrastructure
6. Highway carnage
7. Cybercrimes/Internet fraud
8. Money-seeking ritual killings
9. Olosho syndrome (rising incidence of teenagers-turned-commercial sex workers)
10. Merry-making extremism (Aso ebi pressure at parties, Money-spraying & Naira mutilating culture of merry-making, Petrol-in-containers souvenir syndromes at social functions)
11. Public Indiscipline (public use of marijuana, streets littering, anti-queue attitudes/refusal to take turns, road side urination, money-spraying syndrome etc.).
Clearly, the 2023 social contract is way beyond infrastructure contracts. We need a political bond that would reform our governance structure in honour of the perennial calls for decentralization/devolution/federalism through a new constitutional order. We need an electioneering pact that would revamp every facet of our physical infrastructure especially the State-bound and rural-based ones at a faster pace by empowering States and LGA Councils to be up and doing. We need a social contract that will confront head-long, our degraded social fabric in order to improve Nigeria's human capital and protect the politicians-courted infrastructure upgrade done through award of "juicy" contracts.
The copious symptoms of Nigeria's plethoric ills, if not accurately identified pre-election, can mask the underlying diagnosis and worse still, deter an effective management outline post-election. For the sake of 2023 Presidential aspirants who have openly declared intention to exercise their constitutional rights to contest the number one seat of this country across different political parties, but who either have no clue about our real challenges or are consumed by their poor judgements of same, this expose is necessary. Surely, the voters come 2023 polls require this kind of enlightenment as much as the office-seeking politicians.
Remember, a society definitely headed for destruction is one whose leaders nurse poor (or nil) acumens for ascertaining communal problems and yet lay claim to having the (best) solutions, amidst the cheers of the multitude of ignorant and ill-fated followers. Our 2023-aspiring politicians need to restructure their thinking faculties to capture governance structure, physical infrastructure and social architecture because any 2023 campaign emphasis on trains & roads along Federal routes without States-bound and rural-based roads, as well as compulsory social reordering, are dead on arrival.
Dr. Adetolu Ademujimi (@toluademujimi on twitter; @adetoluademujimi on instagram) is a medical doctor and policy expert who wrote in from Akure in Nigeria via ademujimi@yahoo.co.uk
