Restructuring Nigeria: Let Every Region Build on Its Own Strength
Nigeria urgently needs a fundamental restructuring of its federation. The country needs a genuine realignment that brings government closer to the people and makes each level of government more responsible for its own development.
Every state should have greater fiscal and political autonomy to generate and manage its own resources, while determining its development priorities according to its human, natural and economic resources. A state blessed with agriculture should be able to build around agriculture. One with mineral resources should develop its mining sector responsibly. Another with a strong human-capital base may choose to prioritise education, technology and services.
The principle should be simple: the more responsibility you have for your development, the more responsibility you must accept for generating the resources to achieve it.
Where two or more states individually lack the population, economic base or resources to remain viable, the Constitution should provide a democratic and voluntary mechanism for them to merge. The same principle should apply to local governments. We should not preserve administrative structures merely because they already exist if they are no longer economically or administratively viable.
The Federal Government, in turn, should concentrate on matters that genuinely require a national authority such as defence, foreign affairs, monetary policy and other constitutionally assigned responsibilities. Each federating unit should contribute an agreed percentage of its internally generated revenue to the Federal Government to finance these shared national responsibilities. This is be back by the constitution.
This would fundamentally change the relationship between the centre and the federating units. Instead of constantly looking to Abuja for allocations, states and local governments would have stronger incentives to develop their economies, expand their tax base, attract investment, create jobs and make better use of their own resources.
It would also encourage healthy diversity in development. Not every state has to develop in exactly the same way or at exactly the same pace. What matters is that each has the freedom and responsibility to make the best use of what it possesses.
Most importantly, such a restructuring would reduce the tendency to blame the Federal Government for virtually every social, security and economic problem within a state or local government.
When responsibility, resources and decision-making are brought closer to the people, those who govern at each level can be held more directly accountable for the outcomes within their jurisdiction.
Nigeria does not necessarily need every part of the country to have equal resources. It needs a system that gives every part a fair opportunity to develop the resources it has and the responsibility to account for how those resources are used.
The ultimate goal should be a federation in which power is closer to the people, responsibility is matched with resources, accountability is closer to the point of service, and development is driven from the bottom up rather than depending overwhelmingly on the centre.
Every state should have greater fiscal and political autonomy to generate and manage its own resources, while determining its development priorities according to its human, natural and economic resources. A state blessed with agriculture should be able to build around agriculture. One with mineral resources should develop its mining sector responsibly. Another with a strong human-capital base may choose to prioritise education, technology and services.
The principle should be simple: the more responsibility you have for your development, the more responsibility you must accept for generating the resources to achieve it.
Where two or more states individually lack the population, economic base or resources to remain viable, the Constitution should provide a democratic and voluntary mechanism for them to merge. The same principle should apply to local governments. We should not preserve administrative structures merely because they already exist if they are no longer economically or administratively viable.
The Federal Government, in turn, should concentrate on matters that genuinely require a national authority such as defence, foreign affairs, monetary policy and other constitutionally assigned responsibilities. Each federating unit should contribute an agreed percentage of its internally generated revenue to the Federal Government to finance these shared national responsibilities. This is be back by the constitution.
This would fundamentally change the relationship between the centre and the federating units. Instead of constantly looking to Abuja for allocations, states and local governments would have stronger incentives to develop their economies, expand their tax base, attract investment, create jobs and make better use of their own resources.
It would also encourage healthy diversity in development. Not every state has to develop in exactly the same way or at exactly the same pace. What matters is that each has the freedom and responsibility to make the best use of what it possesses.
Most importantly, such a restructuring would reduce the tendency to blame the Federal Government for virtually every social, security and economic problem within a state or local government.
When responsibility, resources and decision-making are brought closer to the people, those who govern at each level can be held more directly accountable for the outcomes within their jurisdiction.
Nigeria does not necessarily need every part of the country to have equal resources. It needs a system that gives every part a fair opportunity to develop the resources it has and the responsibility to account for how those resources are used.
The ultimate goal should be a federation in which power is closer to the people, responsibility is matched with resources, accountability is closer to the point of service, and development is driven from the bottom up rather than depending overwhelmingly on the centre.
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