YES, NIGERIA'S CORPORATE EXISTENCE IS NEGOTIABLE

The very prospect of Nigeria’s survival depends on renegotiating the terms of the union. This has been restated over and over again by many commentators. What we have now is essentially the union of Jonah and the whale. Nobody likes that. Unless he is the whale. It is commendable that The Punch has chosen to take a strong position on this issue at this point in our national debate.

Commenting on the inequities of the fiscal regime in the strange federal system practised by Nigeria, The Punch wrote, "It is only appropriate for Buhari to appreciate this, and kick-start the process that will allow states to control their resources as it is done in other federal climes. Honestly, without fiscal federalism, the injustice will not abate. . "

Allow states to control their resources? No. This sounds like proposing a new and strange idea. We have been there before some 50years ago and beyond. The real issue is to urgently return, without further ado, to the constitutional statusquo of January 14, 1966. The Regions, (states, if you like) collected all major revenue as listed, and GAVE a percentage, 50%, to the Federal Government. They did not GET or RECIEVE revenue from the Federal. The states gave! That's the way it was.

I cannot then understand why the Phillip Asiodus and Ahmed Jodas of Nigeria, who led the country into the uncivil war with their devious advice post-Aburi, suddenly become... 
dumb when this matter comes up for discussion. Even people like Chief Alfred Diete-Spiff, now a tradition ruler, are supposed have learnt enough these past several turbulent decades to have found their proper voice. It kills me listening to Niger Delta activists apologetically and unconvincingly demanding for what is their own.

There was never a bunch of military officers enlightened enough to understand the rigours of the many raucous constitutional conferences attended by Awolowo,  Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello and others. Perhaps Odumegwu Ojukwu was an exception, if we recall how he drew circles around his colleagues at Aburi. 

It was most unlikely for them to be able to sanely consider overturning the provisions during the long years of military rule. So, for anyone to depend on the martial decision on these most legally-illiterate misfits as justification for expropriating natural resources belonging to others is to stand logic on its head. The strangest thing is when some political activists on the northern side of the divide, especially inpecunious state governors, go back say 20yrs ago to the Abacha era and remind all who would listen, that THEY granted the oil-producing states the notoriously huge 13% of oil revenues derived therefrom. Why stop there? What stops them from going as far back as January 14, 1966, when Nigerians for good or ill, were operating the one and only constitution that they ever agreed on, even if reluctantly? But agree they did. Even the wily British can testify to that. 

Since then, any other systems tried here has been an imposition, which obviously cannot stand forever. We do not need any reference to the outrage that is The IBB clan, the T Y Danjuma, Abacha, Indimi, Abdusalam Abubakar, Mai Deribe clans and many others, with fingers in the Niger Delta and offshore oil pie, to prove the point so clearly made recently by many commentators including Chief Arthur Nwankwo. The injustice reeks to high heavens. The worst part is that those other Nigerians, who are or pretend to be apolitical, unperturbed by the brigandage, can still not avoid being caught in the crossfire. We definitely need a peaceful resolution now.

The editorial writers at The Punch added, "Therefore, Buhari should hold a broad view of Nigeria. . " They just don't  get it. General Buhari as president is clearly incapable any such thing. All that most of both his admirers and critics alike, imagined to be his intellectual limitations, have panned out correctly. His world view is so narrow. The mild insult "dinosaur" routinely thrown his way may turn out actually to be an understatement. I often wish that it was an Aliko Dangote that we have to deal with. . Honestly.

HAVE THE CHICKEN COME HOME TO ROOST? 

OPC‎ leader, Gani Adams, speaking two days ago in Ondo at an occassion marking the 2016 Democracy Day, claimed that the OPC can no longer protect Yorubas. This is alarming to say the least. On the 2014 Constitutional Conference he had this to say, " . . the report deals extensively with how to eradicate the herdsmen/farmers’ clashes. Other recommendations of the Confab that require urgent implementation include the introduction of State Police, control of Solid Mineral by states where they are domicile(d), control of the Supreme Court by States, adoption of the French Presidential system of government, voluntary merger of states that so desire, Creation of Zonal Constitution, creation of more local government by states , federating units to participate in resource extraction and reduction of items on (the) exclusive list.

He continued, "More fundamentally, it points the way forward for Nigeria. And that way forward is federalism. Let us go back to what we had in the First Republic, a system whereby the component units of this country would control their own resources and determine how to live their lives and what form of government to operate. . "

I clearly recall‎ Nkem‎ Ossai writing in The Guardian some twenty years ago bemoaning the recurring situation whereby frustrated non-Igbo Nigerians borrow liberally, chapter and verse, from The Aburi Accord while adamantly refusing to identify the historic document. It is instructive that, although we know the answer full well, we refuse to acknowledge publicly at which point this terrible rain started beating us. I wish to stress again, only the truth will set us Nigerians free