heyOn Friday, March 17, 2023, then President Muhammadu Buhari signed 16 of the 35 constitution alteration bills passed by the national legislature and at least two-thirds of the state legislatures, in line with Section 9(2). 1999 Constitution.
Section 9(2) of the Nigerian Constitution provides that: “An Act of the National Assembly altering this Constitution, not being an Act to which section 8 of this Constitution applies, shall not be passed in either House of the National Assembly Unless the proposal is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all the members of that House and is approved by a resolution of not less than two-thirds of the majority of all the Houses.
The most important bills in the Fifth Amendment Bills approved by the former President include the provision for financial independence of the State Houses of Assembly and the State Judiciary; Removing Railways from the Special Legislative List and putting it in the Concurrent Legislative List; Power to permit States to generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid; Requiring the President and Governors to submit the names of persons nominated as Ministers or Commissioners for confirmation by the Senate or House of the State Assembly within sixty days of taking the oath of office; And the government needs to direct its policy towards ensuring the right to food and food security in Nigeria.
The signing of the revolutionary bills into law marked a turning point in Nigeria's history. The demand for devolution of powers, but also true federalism, has attained deafening decibels in recent years and has become difficult to ignore. That the President's assent to all important bills went almost unnoticed by Nigerians can be interpreted as yet another case in the list of unforced errors by the previous administration. The timing coincided with endless long queues at filling stations and automated teller machines of commercial banks due to fuel shortages and severe shortage of Naira notes. What is worse, the President's assent came on the eve of the governorship and assembly elections, when the nation was engrossed in yet another make-or-break exercise.
It appears that like other patriotic groups in Nigeria, this newspaper has also begun to cry loudly for the need for devolution of powers and a return to the full federalism of the First Republic. In our various editorials, we have presented in part:
“The British Government has never been under any illusion that a country with so much land and so many ethnic nationalities with disparate backgrounds, languages and cultures could long remain under a centralized government. Thus Sir Arthur Richards, the then Governor of colonial Nigeria, raised the issue of federalism somewhat explicitly before the promulgation of the Richards Constitution of 1946: 'To create a political system … within which diverse elements, different dynamics can progress, harmoniously and smoothly, without sacrificing the principles and ideals in their different ways of life, towards a more closely integrated economic, social and political unity.'
“The federal arrangement given to Nigeria by both the Lyttelton Constitution of 1954 and the Independence Constitution of 1960 was thus a compromise between centrifugal and centripetal forces residing in the disparate regions of Nigeria. Our founding fathers like Nnamdi Azikwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello established a full federation in 1954 as the basis of our existence as a nation.
“In fact, it was the attempt to dismantle the legacy of federalism by the then military government of General Aguiyi Ironsi through Decree 34 of 1966, otherwise known as ‘The Unification Decree’, that led to the deadly riots in the North. A series of riots began. Events that culminated in a costly 30-month civil war.
“Subsequent military regimes gradually destroyed the federal principle. The current unitary structure disguised as federalism, where all roads lead to Abuja, is not sustainable. The current paradox, which ensures that the more dollars we make from the sale of crude oil, the poorer the masses, is also a product of the abandonment of federalism given to Nigeria by our founding fathers. That federalism was based on fiscal federalism that ensured that each region or state 'ate what it killed.' In fact, there was tremendous development in the regions while proper federalism was maintained.”
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