Now that the Evil Genius has joined the debate albeit from the Northern parts of the country, it is time for us to take a second look. Not necessarily because the Northern political elite holds the lever of power and public opinion nor because the issue is about them, but because it is they that had refused, of all the three main regions, to support the necessity of the issue. Throughout the period when their son held power, they kept mum. They kept mum because the unitarist structures as it is have always been to their benefit.
Weeks ago, former INEC Chair, Attahiru Jega also joined the crowd of advocates of Restructuring by stressing that it is now more than ever before that there is urgent need for it.
Since Jega’s intervention, the issue has developed a life of its own.
But we must admit that agitations for Restructuring the country’s geographical and political structures actually came with the annulment of the freest election in our country in 1993.
It has become a malignant tumour, pleasant to those who looked back and enjoyed the injustice which, though came in the 1966 introduction of Unitarism, became more pronounced with the 1993 presidential election annulment.
Talk of Restructuring, it’s like you wanted to wage a war against the North’s military and political elite who had since July 29, 1966, after the countercoup led by Yakubu Gowon, reversed the nation’s Federalism, and turned it into a military contraption with all its Unitarist content far more than the Late Aguiyi-Ironsi’s sudden destruction of the spirit of Federalism on May 1966 via his Unification Decree.
Since the resurgence of the debate in post-election annulment, it is curious that since then, any talk of going back to status quo pre-1966 is seen as war against the North by the South.
It is quite apparent that the North by refusing calls to return the country back to pre-1966 had had its more than fair share of governance.
The South felt the evil consequences of arrested development because of Unitarism which threw merit overboard, and parceled the country into military dominating group, political ruling group and economic dominating group.
Not even the advent of Olusegun Obasanjo, the first elected Southern civilian President, could give birth to Federalism.
He treated the clamour now led by his kinsmen in mainstream Yoruba political elite with disdain. This is obvious even when it is clear that the Federal Character and Quota System his military regime introduced have killed the spirit of competition which the First Republic Parliamentary System created for the country.
Now back to Babangida.
Why leading the debate now?
Why is it now that he is picking the gauntlet after his kinsman, Muhammadu Buhari, has left power and ran a government that in spirit and action was clannish and widened the country’s ethno-religious divide?
You ask yourself: Why is Jega, a University Professor who had presided over.the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, now leading the vilified campaign?
It is also curious that there appears to be a link between power shift to the South through a Bola Tinubu presidency and the resurgence of terrorism and armed banditry in the North.
Why were Northern leaders not crying wolf when Buhari, their son, was in power?
It is also suspect why Sharia as state religion was carried out in year 2000 when Obasanjo also a Southerner came to power.
We need to look at the connection between the introduction of Sharia starting from Zamfara in 2000 and clamour for Restructuring when another independent-minded Southerner mounted the saddle in 2023.
In retrospect ,the gradual Erosion of our values occasioned by economic decline commenced with Babangida’s regime when his military adventurists seized power in 1985.
It is also evident that the political class he created during his eight years military presidency raised a New brand of political Class which has destroyed our values and reversed by fifty years the nation’s march to modernity, civility and progress.
Yes, today Babangida has the right to clamour for Restructuring, if it will repair the damage the military and their civilian elite had inflicted; but he must first convince and galvanize the political elite from the North who in a way see Restructuring as removing the feeding bottle from their mouth.
Is Babangida crying now because of apparent economic Restructuring which the Tinubu presidency portends to be embarking upon with the Restructuring of the economy and free market enterprise which rival of fuel subsidy, the floating of the naira and removal of monopoly of certain commanding heights of the economy being enjoyed by today’s political and business elite created by Babangida and his fellow military and civilian ruling class?
Yes, the gap-toothed General often spoke about state Police, but the fact remains that without practising fiscal Federalism which will put more money in the pocket of state governments, the state Police apparatus can’t enjoy funding.
While, it is not too late for the Evil Genius to campaign for devolution of powers to the states, such would not have meaning until states control their mineral resources cornered over the years by the Federal Government.
Babangida should also carry his campaign to the National Assembly that today has the prerogative to restructure the country but it is doubtful whether the ruling political elite will be ready to adopt the Senegalese example by reducing their numbers to reduce cost of governance.
It should be clear to IBB that today’s political class, especially those in the NASS are all there for monetary gains and should not be expected to tamper with the structure which has conferred them with primitive accumulation of riches which laws governing their oversight functions have conferred them.
Except the citizenry across the country is adequately mobilized to rise up against the existing political ruling class, Restructuring the polity being clamoured for by IBB may prove difficult since the NASS is the only legitimate means of changing the status quo.
If the North’s leading political and ruling class is sincere about Restructuring, the clamour should start with their sons and daughters in the NASS who today hold the Yam and the Knife to remould Nigeria.
