Political Restructuring and Devolution of Powers and National Development
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objective of the study is to investigate the impact of political restructuring and devolution of powers and national development in Nigeria, to aid the completion of the study, the researcher intends to achieve the following specific objective:
- To investigate the impact of political restructuring in the national development of Nigeria
- To ascertain the effect of devolution of powers on National unity
- To investigate if there is any relationship between political restructuring and national development in Nigeria
- To examine the role of devolution of powers on the economic development of Nigeria
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
The clamor for the restructuring of Nigeria is quite gaining momentum. In fact, the call has become a national appeal to the All Progressives Congress, APC led government of Muhammadu Buhari. Prominent Nigerians have strongly argued that restructuring the country will not only douse the various agitations and disenchantments, but also will give the various regions a sense of belonging politically and economically. Since the beginning of this year, the clamour for restructuring has occupied the front burner of our national discourse. The need to restructure the country so as to address the current political and economic imbalance in the system has been reiterated and re-echoed again and again. Interestingly, many sociocultural groups across the country have lend their voice and support to this persistent call for restructuring. Only few dissenting voices from the North are kicking against restructuring. Unfortunately, amidst all these hues and cries, President Buhari does not believe in restructuring. He even described the recommendations of the 2014 confab report as being fit for the shelf. Of course, this is an indication that the APC led government has no plans of restructuring Nigeria despite the fact that it is well stated in its manifesto. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed recently disclosed that the priority of government now is to fight corruption, insecurity and fix the economy. The minister stressed that given what the administration inherited, restructuring could not have been its priority. He explained that with the high level of corruption, economy downturn, insecurity, the government could not have contemplated restructuring. The minister said the focus of the government for now is to fight corruption, insecurity and fix the economy. Even the spokesman of the APC, Bolaji Abdullahi expressed similar sentiments that the issue of restructuring was not in its priority list. He said it may not be placed on the front burner before 2019. According to him, “My own take is that every government has its own priority and you will agree with me that if you have to deal with the issue of Boko Haram or you need to deal with the issue of the economy that has gone into recession and all that, you have to get your priorities right. “I don’t think it would be a wise move to add the challenges of restructuring if you have not dealt with the problems that affect the average Nigerian. “So when people are hungry, when people are losing jobs, when people’s salaries are not being paid I think any responsible government would consider this to be a priority even while it still believes in the restructuring of the country.” Many Nigerians believe that the 2014 National Conference report could be used as basis to restructure the country since all the regions, stakeholders, ethnic groups, civil societies were well represented. But lo and behold, this has been politicised on the grounds that the conference and its deliberation were lopsided and those selected to participate in the conference did not reflect the demographics and diversity of Nigeria. As a matter of fact, there is nothing that can possibly occupy the attention of any responsible and responsive government now more than these agitations, quit notice and threat of cessation. Obviously, this is capable of snowballing into a war situation where several lives and property could be lost if it is not well addressed now. On it first chapter of its manifesto, the party states that: “it will initiate action to amend our constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to states and local governments in order to entrench true federalism and the federal spirit.” After two years, it becomes a course of concern that the party has not deemed it fit to devolve powers, duties and responsibilities to states and local governments in order to entrench true federalism and the federal spirit. In practice, Nigeria is supposed to be operating a federal system of government where the federating units use their wealth and endowment to develop at their own pace, but in reality, what the country practices is a unitary system of government where the entire resources of the country is at the centre.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter deals with the method used in collecting data required in carrying out this research work it explains the procedures that were followed and the instrument used in collecting data.
SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION
Data were collected from two main sources namely
-Primary source and
secondary source
primary source: These are materials of statistical investigation, which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment, the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary data: These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher in interested in getting information from for the study political restructuring and devolution of powers and national development 200 members of the legislators was randomly selected by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
DATA ANALYSIS
The data collected from the respondents were analyzed in tabular form with simple percentage for easy understanding.
A total of 133(one hundred and thirty three) questionnaires were distributed and 133 questionnaires were returned.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY CONCLUSION RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to investigate the impact of political restructuring and devolution of powers and national development.
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of restructuring and power devolution in Nigeria to aid national development
Summary
The Nation has always been sufficiently orientated to the realities and struggles in and of Nigeria. Yoruba people arrived in Nigeria, as a strong urban civilization that had predisposed us to much openness – in political life, to free discourse, free contests, free choices, societal independence, the individual‘s pride in his worth what the Western world calls democratic‘ behavior and Yoruba people call Omoluabi. Part of that openness is that people concede the right of individuals to practice the religion of their choice we do not quarrel or fight over religion. Nigerian people accept foreigners and non-indigenes into our midst and are hospitable to them and, if they desire to live with us or stay longer, to absorb them into our communities. Yoruba people are sympathetic towards, and supportive of enterprise and the enterprising person – irrespective of their ethnic nationality. As a nation and a people, Nigerian is confident and fearless, and possess an acute sense of justice with clear definition of vision and leadership. These were the value system southern race came with into the amalgamated Nigeria and these are the values the southerners aim to retain and sustain in a truly federal Nigeria. This is why Eastern people empathize with the submission in the Northern publication, when it states that; …Nigeria and especially the Northern states need leaders that are knowledgeable that have vision and have the ability to think of the future; in terms of what needs to be done now to cope successfully with what the future might bring; Leaders that are fearless and are prepared to persevere and that are responsive and sensitive to the feelings and perceptions of its followers. Nigeria, especially the Northern states need a leadership that is nationally accepted regardless of ethnicity, Region, religion, and where he/she comes from. Nigeria needs a leader that could promote good governance, forge national integration through deliberate and articulated policies. Whilst the focus of the North should be on developing this new form of required leadership hopefully with less focus on dependency on oil revenue and the quest to perpetually rule Nigeria – the focus of Yoruba people continues to be the development of a people and a nation, upholding our core values and the strength to defend ourselves, whilst continuously seeking ways to be cohesive and focused as a nation so as to keep advancing in prosperity.
Conclusion
The researcher concludes that the issue of restructuring of Nigeria should not only be a legal cum constitutional matter; it must go beyond it as important as legality and constitutionalism may be. To start with, Nigeria is not working because there are administrative practices that have become an albatross to efficiency and the development of the country. No matter how much restructuring is done in constitutional and structural terms, if the basic ingredients and values of development administration – such as honesty of purpose, dedication to duty, absence of corrupt practices, discipline, decisiveness in taking and implementing acceptable options, etc. – are still absent and/or are not cultivated, it is saying the obvious that one could have the best structural arrangement in a federal setting, but it is the same thing or same result that one would harvest. Better results are more likely to be achieved if the aforementioned positive values have been imbibed and have become ingrained in the psyche and practice of government officials. To reiterate, if what some analysts may call “true federalism” (which actually does not exist anywhere; we can have a functional federalism instead) can be structured out, corruption can still kill it, just as it is generally accepted that it is killing the quasi- or unified-federal system that is being practiced in the country at the moment.
Recommendations
The researcher therefore recommends that positive values can work wonders even in unitary system of government, and also in heterogeneous societies, just as in homogeneous ones, if only they can become the articles of faith of the government employees. The major problem one has observed in the style of the Buhari Administration is its sluggishness. Issues of governance are allowed to incubate for too long without any time limit. Nigeria, as an underdeveloped country, does not have the luxury of time. What is more, the world is undergoing rapid changes as a result of ever increasing and rapid changes in information and communications technology. Therefore, the regime should learn to move with time or even faster than it, as time is never prepared to wait for anyone. The paper is for a sound and functional federal system, which is, at the same time, accompanied by values of positive administrative practices.
Reference
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