Nobel laureate,
Prof. Wole Soyinka, has lent his voice to the growing calls for the
restructuring of the Nigerian federation, saying the sovereignty of the
nation is negotiable.
Speaking during a visit to Punch Place, the
corporate headquarters of Punch Nigeria Limited, Kilometre 14,
Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State, on Tuesday, Soyinka said
decentralisation of the nation would ensure healthy rivalry among the
component units.
The laureate said it was wrong for previous
administrations in the country to say that Nigeria’s sovereignty was
non-negotiable, submitting that the position was antithetical to
development.
Soyinka added, “I am on the side of those who say we
must do everything to avoid disintegration. That language I understand. I
don’t understand (ex-President Olusegun) Obasanjo’s language. I don’t
understand (President Muhammadu) Buhari’s language and all their
predecessors, saying the sovereignty of this nation is non-negotiable.
It’s bloody well negotiable and we had better negotiate it. We better
negotiate it, not even at meetings, not at conferences, but everyday in
our conduct towards one another.
“We had better understand it too
that when people are saying ‘let’s restructure’, they have better things
to do. It’s not an idle cry; it is a perennial demand. The Pro-National
Conference Organisation was about restructuring when this same Obasanjo
said it was an act of treason for people to come together to fashion a
new constitution. Those were fighting words; that you’re saying, ‘I
commit treason because I want to sit with my fellow citizens and
negotiate the structures of staying together’ and ask the police to go
and break it up and arrest us.
“I remember that policeman, who said
if we met, that would be treason. I wasn’t a member of PRONACO at the
time. That’s when I joined PRONACO. If you’re saying to me, ‘I am a
second-class citizen; I cannot sit down and discuss the articles, the
protocols of staying together’ and you’re trying to bully me, I won’t
accept.”
He said Nigeria could not continue with a centralisation
policy, which encouraged what he described as “monkey dey work, baboon
dey chop” mentality.
Soyinka said the over centralisation of
government had resulted in resentment among constituent states, adding
that the phenomenon was insulting and promoted anti-healthy rivalry
among states.
He stated, “We cannot continue to allow a
centralisation policy which makes the constituent units of this nation
resentful; they say monkey dey work, baboon dey chop. And the idea of
centralising revenues, allocation system, whereby you dole out; the
thing is insulting and it is what I call anti-healthy rivalry. It is
against the incentives to make states viable.”
He said the
centralisation of government led to the proliferation of states during
the military era when, according to him, a state was created because the
girlfriend of a certain military leader hailed from the state.
He
said it was high time government established state police to check the
rising security challenges in the country, stressing that policing was
more effective when localised.
Soyinka added, “I know people get
nervous about that expression. If you go to a place like England, you
sometimes see two, three, four police (officers) just walking casually
unarmed, but they are observing everything.
“Now, if policing is all
of that, then I think the police are more efficient if they are based
within a smaller constituency than a larger one. Within such
constituencies, the policeman virtually knows everybody. A federal,
centralised system of police lacks that advantage.
“So, I find it
very difficult to accept that people can be nervous about the state
police. State police has been abused. Nobody is denying that; it’s
historical. Don’t tell us because we know already. But isn’t centralised
police also abused? Look at what’s been coming out from the last
elections, not just the police, but the military.”
Condemning the
killings perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen across the country, the
Professor of Comparative Literature said the phenomenon had become an
albatross that must be tackled frontally by the Federal Government.
Soyinka said the intrusive nature of Fulani herdsmen was no longer a
remote problem for him personally, alleging that some Fulani herdsmen
had invaded the privacy of his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
“It is no longer a remote problem for me. It is an actuality,” he said,
recalling that the killings carried out by suspected Fulani herdsmen in
Enugu some months ago was mismanaged by the government.
“In Enugu,
why did it take so long to investigate the killings? It’s like the case
of Ese Oruru. What is all this? What is security for? That thing should
have been addressed immediately. (In Enugu), they shouldn’t have waited
for directives from Buhari or anybody. This is a crime against humanity.
There should be no debate about it.
“The military should have been
drafted there immediately; the police, first of all, and the military –
if necessary. I found out that the victims were arrested; what’s all
that about? This menace is underestimated. If they had reached my secure
place in Abeokuta, then it is no longer a remote problem.”
He
faulted the proposal to create grazing reserves for herdsmen in the
country, saying rather than do that, ranches, where members of the
public could go to buy cows and goats, should be created.
The
octogenarian said the term “grazing reserve” would convey the meaning
that government had carved out some people’s land for herdsmen to use
for their commercial enterprise.
“The word ‘reserve’ is the problem.
If there are ranches, it doesn’t matter where they are built, ranches
are a commercial proposition, it isn’t a Fulani issue. You can create
ranches so that cows, goats could be bought there. This shouldn’t be an
instrument of politics, race or ethnicity.
“But when you talk about
reserves, it suggests that people can bring cattle from Futa Djallon,
Senegal, and if they get here, they can get reserve. If it’s a ranch,
it’s a pure commercial proposition, you want to trade. I will like to
see these cattle people go back to the position they were before in
which there was mutual collaboration between them and farmers,” he said.
Soyinka called on Buhari to consider the report of the 2014 National
Conference convened during the tenure of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan,
lamenting that the country had been moving round in circles without
direction.
“We have a habit of consigning files to the dust shelves
and then we start all over again. The (confab) report that came under
Jonathan is even more superior to the one that I participated in as a
member of PRONACO and I think that should be addressed seriously.
“The recommendations strike me as workable, practical, and in fact, as
answering some of the anxieties of this nation. This is something I
think that Buhari should tackle seriously,” he said.
-Punch
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