Is Devolution of Powers the Solution to Nigeri'a Problems? - The Platform

“The Platform” had its May 1, 2021 Edition at The Covenant Place, Iganmu, Lagos, Nigeria with high calibre participations.

Speaking at the one-day event were the Convener, Pastor Poju Oyemade, The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, The Director General, Nigreian Institute of International Affairs, Professor Eghosa, Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, Chair of the Editorial Board of Thisday Newspaper, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, Executive Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, Former Minister of Aviation, Chief Osita Chidioka, and the International Legal Scholar and Consultant, Dr. Charles Omole among others.

The Platform Nigeria event is designed to facilitate growth in the areas of personal capacity, productivity and national development within Nigeria.

With over 10.4k followers on Instagram and still counting, this year’s edition with the theme “Is Devolution of Powers the Solution to Nigeria’s Problems?” had many in attendance.

At the event a variety of very notable and valuable opinions, submissions and recommendations were advanced by the speakers and these have been captured and reported by the platform as shown below:

The Bishop started by explaining why he was dressing differently and not in his usual priestly habit. He stated that in 1955, the Catholic church also dedicated this day to workers as proof that labour is of God.

The Bishop stated that he would be approaching the discourse from a different perspective because the toxicity around our environment shows that we have inhaled so much that it is time for Nigeria to exhale.

The dividends of democracy can only be realized when we get good leaders who will govern us. He illustrated his title from the movie titled “Waiting To Exhale” and he said most women would identify with the characters in the movie and that is the place where Nigeria is at the moment.

He stated that he was happy when he saw a video of the president in 2015 where he stated that he would make sure that he gives his best to this nation once he gets into power as it showed us that memory is very important. This goes to show that politicians will always make promises but the question remains that from time to time, we need to go back to the drawing board and ask ourselves, “where are we in the promises we made?”

If these questions are not asked , the distrust will keep being propagated and you have more and more people not trusting anything the politicians are sharing.

The topic is not about devolving power, it is about devolving responsibilities. This is what citizens should be interrogating because just as Dr. Charles Omole said earlier, changing the system without changing the players will make little or no impact in the polity.

Our country is at a point where we need to ask questions and not just pray. This is not about paddling blames but someone needs to take responsibility and answer the questions being asked. The truth remains that no one foresaw a nation like what we are seeing today, therefore, it is important that we ask ourselves, “how did we get here?”

The problem in Nigeria is that our cultural tendencies taint our commitment to democracy. We believe that young people cannot ask older people questions, so politicians feel that whenever you are asking questions, you are there to cause problems.

He referenced the book titled “Dude, Where Is My Country?” by Michael Moore. He said he is at ap point where he wants to ask the president the same question.

The fine ingredient of democracy is to claim the loyalty of your citizens not commissioning contracts. This is where we are missing it in Nigeria at the moment. The reason everybody wants to break out on their own is because there’s nothing making the citizens feel like the nation is worth fighting for or standing up for so everyone wants to go home. In any government, instability is inevitable but there should be systems put in place to make people feel as included as possible.

He shared the story of Patricia Etteh and how the North grumbled about having a Southern President, a Southern Senate President and a Southern Speaker. The politicians were smart enough to give the Speaker some corruption charges to push her away and replace her with a Northerner so that the North would be appeased. However, what do we have in these sectors today?

The government needs to understand that we all have a responsibility to make our contributions but that contribution must be treated with the respect it deserves. But citizens should not be made to feel that they should lie prostrate and not talk.

He summarised by sharing what he learned on the subject of identity. He stated that everyone wants to be recognised and when they don’t feel recognised, they begin to revolt. People need to feel the empathy of their leaders. It will not heal the hurt but it would make them feel better.

Nigerians are dying but the leadership is not saying anything to soothe these hurts or make them feel better. It is important that the government becomes a lot more sensitive to the plight of the citizens.

The Bishop ended his session by saying that it behoves on the government to send out specific instructions to different constituencies and what they are expected to do or else we would have a group of directionless people.

Governor Kayode Fayemi, Executive Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman Governors Forum.

Welcoming Governor Fayemi to The Platform Nigeria, Pastor Poju Oyemade who anchored the session started with a question for the Governor on the issue of insecurity in the country.

Pastor Poju posed his first question to him: seeing that the citizens of the country have a perception of the collapse of the security architecture in the country, what steps have the governors taken to combat that?

Answering, Governor Fayemi revealed the Governors are equally agitated with the security situation in the country. He stated that there is no Governor that is not committed to protecting his citizens, however there are certain challenges limiting that, including some constitutional limitations and practical challenges.

Theoretically you are in charge of your state and you can engage with the military commanders, commissioner of police and indeed all the security body, but then surprisingly, sometimes that he noted that sometimes the commissioner of police may not take your directive into account until he has cleared it with higher authority. In essence, he noted that Governors can’t secure the states, but they have to look at a range of policing arrangements to do so.

Making a case for devolution of power as regards to security, he says there is no country in the world which has a unitary Police system; not even countries like Australia, Canada, United State, India etc….they all have devolved policing arrangements, sometimes down to the campus police arrangement.

The speaker noted how the Federal unitary system we operate in Nigeria has its own limitations.

He revealed that even as a sitting Governor, he had been harassed by security agents. However, that is why we have a Police Council, it is like the National Judicial Council which is chaired by the president and has the IG and all governors as members. The police council is supposed to ensure that whatever issues concerns Police and policing, especially as regards accountability can be handled by the council.

He mentioned that there is no excuse for the ineffective security architecture we have in the country.

Answering to if devolution is way forward in Nigeria? In his words, Governor Fayemi answered ‘yes and no’, stating that we must address the way the structure we cannot address the personalities operating under the structure. This is because it is systemic, he stated that once you address this, we would notice that there is a self-eliminating structure that will not allow people who would not let the system to be accountable come through. He believes it is not a one size-fits-all situation, but the right structure needs to be put in place.

Question – Despite the call for reconstruction there is a school of thought that believes that this is not the solution to our problems because the same problems manifesting at the national level, e.g. ethnicity, security also happens at state and local levels. What is your take on this?

Answering – Governor Fayemi says ‘you can devolve responsibilities, but you can also devolve corruption. The difference between dealing with corruption at a level that is much closer to the citizen is that they can hold your feet to fire if the consciousness level is raised’.

He says, as a one time Federal Minister, the truth of the matter is that ‘’when you are there, you are almost totally disconnected with what is happening at the local level. It is power without responsibility’’

At this level of leadership, a person has enormous power he may not be totally accountable for. Accountability at this level will largely depend on self-discipline.

State governors can find a way round protecting the country without necessarily going against the constitution.

Question – As a one time Minister and now Governor, what do you think are the three biggest challenges the country is facing now and how do we get out of it?

Answering Governor Fayemi named the first challenge as laid back citizenry. We need citizens that will hold the feet of people in office to fire. Apart from social media fire, go to the wards and communities and hold them accountable. It is either you are so effective that you are co-opted into the political class, or you win the heart of the people to represent them.

Second is the Civil Service. It is the engine room of governance. People focus too much on politicians, particularly at the federal level. He urged people to focus on what is happening in the civil service and bring those committed professionals back into the civil service as they will help those in politics who may not necessarily have the expertise to deliver on their promise to the people.

Third is on Capacity to deliver. It is capacity that makes sure that before people get into public service, they are prepared and knowledgeable and ready to learn in order to make that difference. He says there has to be an intimidating mechanism that allows that, pointing out the central role of the church in making this work through encouraging people of faith to be active in politics and not run away from it. He applauded Pastor Poju on his bit in this cause but noted that this needs to be taken to another level. Talking on the issue of financing political ambition, he dissuaded the mind of the people on the belief that going into politics must cost a fortune.

He emphasized that intentions are great but not good enough. Some have good intentions but get there and get overwhelmed and throw away their good intentions. The fact that there are also political vultures in the system can cause power holders to get carried away.

At this point Pastor Poju announced the ongoing plan to inaugurate the Platform Institute for Governance, starting with four modules which will start running this year. This received a loud applause from the congregation.

Question – Moving on, a question about Devolution of power from the digital ecosystem point of view. From a devolution of power perspective what do we need to do to ensure states have digital incubation centres and talents to drive Nigeria.

He praised the fact that social media has become an arena for engagement generally, saying that one of the ways to best demystify power is to use technology, especially digital technology. This is also good because it helps to drive accountability, using the payroll as an example, where the digitized payroll system has helped to eliminate ghost workers and in several other good areas.

However, there are implications to this, which involves having the need fewer people onboard because of technology. Although the energy can be diverted into other areas like Agriculture.

Question- As part of the insider think-tank that bought this government to stay, people voted in the APC with certain expectations, especially of change. If you are going to score the government over 10, what will you rate your performance?

Governor Fayemi jokingly tried to evade the question by responding that ‘you cannot be judge and jury in your own case’, to which Pastor Poju countered biblically by stating that when God finished up his creation work, he saw that it was good. This exchange erupted a laugh from the congregants.

Governor Fayemi began answering the question by saying that the most attractive promise that people bought into more than other promises was integrity – to deliver on the issues they were most agitated about, which included security, economy, anti-corruption all encapsulated in the change agenda. He stated that though arguable, they have put in a lot of efforts in that direction, but the efforts have not been effective as expected.

He agreed that truly we still have insecurity in the land, and though many may disagree, but he would argue that there has been a decline in insecurity since the start of their administration. He recalled the house, church bombings that the nation experienced prominently around year 2015. Stating that those incidences went into decline in the first three to four years of the beginning of Buhari’s tenure. He noted that the same is resurfacing now, unfortunately so.

Governor Fayemi agreed that the administration can do a lot better than they have done, putting it out there that they need to do more in order to earn the trust and confidence of the people, because everyone is living in fear. In his words, ‘I don’t know anyone in APC who is committed to public good who is not worried about the situation we have found ourselves in’.

The speaker noted that all the various challenges faced in the country is what speaks to the fundamental issue of restructuring and devolution. In his words, “Nigeria is too big to fail, but Nigeria cannot be managed unitarily. Nigeria has to be restructured in such a manner that more responsibility, more revenue and more accountability must issue from the national to lower levels”.

Pointing out insecurity as a major victory that must happen in the immediate. He said the nation must do all within its power to ensure its people are secured, using the tools of increased personnel, technology and going after the evil merchants and take them out and put an end to insecurity.

All these must be done as a short term goal, as the nation must deal with the long term goal which is the root cause of our challenges as a nation. ‘’It’s good to be tough on crime’’, he says ‘’but we must also be tough on the root causes of these things we are dealing with.’’

Questions – On End Sars, the Youths feel that the government didn’t listen to them but the genuinely want change, and the hope they have is to leave this country, what do you have to say to that.

In his words “far from me to say anyone should not leave the country”. He says this because he stayed out of the country himself for 15 years before coming back. The five points agenda the youths fought for was well recognized by not just Ekiti state but at the federal government level.

Instead of agonizing, organize if you don’t want a regime, not create a situation of anarchy. Organize yourself against the next election to vote for the leader you want. There may be frustration along the way, but it is definitely the way forward. He noted that yes, there is a lot to give up on in this country stating that while Canada looks like a great option, there is a glass ceiling in Canada. This is a place where there is no glass ceiling, let’s work towards a better Nigeria.

Chief Osita Chidoka started his session with a solemn appeal to the Federal President of Nigeria to speak to Nigerians over the recent death tolls recorded in various parts of the country as a result of assaults by suspected herdsmen. He cited an incident which involved family members of one of his staff and cautioned those at the root of the assault to desist from starting violence which they cannot stop. He then appealed once more saying “Mr President save our lives.”

On the topic of the day’s discussion – Is devolution of powers the solution to Nigeria’s problems – he said he had a fresh dimension to add. He explained that Devolution occurs in a Unitary system of government which is not the kind of government system implemented in Nigeria. He stated that according to the constitution, the Federal government cannot take away the rights given to the State government. Devolution is not the answer to Nigeria’s problem, he said, pointing to the 1999 constitution which he explained has given the Federal government more access to meddle in the affairs of the State government.

He went on to say that the more important fact is that the State government has also abdicated its responsibilities. The State government should not be asking the Federal government to create federal presence, rather it should create it itself. What is holding the State government back he described as work avoidance. The State governments or governors are not ready to do their work. They should stop avoiding work and making excuses he admonished.

He then gave what should be the solution to Nigeria’s problem as infusing the “Naija” spirit into Nigeria. The Naija spirit is the spirit that allows for innovation, consensus, freedom and non dependency on federal capital. Culture is more important than structure, he affirmed. Our cabinet should reflect our diversity. We should not be deceived by structuralists who only think of themselves. Chief Osita ended his session on this note encouraging all to embrace the spirit of Naija that will bring about change to reflect the diversity of Nigeria.

Dr Agbakoba started by defining devolution and went straight into the subject matter. He was of the opinion that devolving power is a good idea. However, the real question should be; Is devolution of powers the solution to our problems for now? He said no to this. We should be talking about hunger and how to help people feed, not power devolution. He also noted that the biggest problem we have in Nigeria is exclusion. People are poor and hungry. Therefore, we are not at a stage where devolution makes sense.

The second problem is that we need to resolve disorder before constitutional order. He pointed out that the whole country is in disarray. So, we need to first of all discuss peace and order before any other thing meaningful can take place. A pertinent question to ask, he said is: How did we all come together as a country Nigeria? He asked two questions as posed by Bola Ige of  blessed memory. Do we want to be in a country called Nigeria? If we do want to be in a country called Nigeria, by what political arrangement? Olisa opined that we need to sit down as people who have agreed to be in one country and discuss the way forward for us. This will solve a lot more than devolution though devolution is a good thing.

There is a lot more to a good country than constitution. Dr Olisa said he thinks Nigeria’s foundational structure is not strong enough and needs to be addressed. Devolution makes sense actually. There is too much power in Abuja that needs to be spread. Technically speaking, he said he supports devolution if power will be spread. But the question is will it solve our problems? If yes, then we should go. If not, we have to look for other ways to solve our problems. There is a lot more than devolution. We have governance and leadership as real issues not the constitution. A lot depends on accountability and leadership qualities coming out of our governors. There is also the issue of followership which should be resolved. However, the problem of exclusion and poverty have to be taken care of and followership will fall in place.

Nigerians must be involved in constitution making. The National assembly can convene the process but must allow Nigerians vet it. The geo political zones can form the basis of a new Nigeria. The leaders are uninterested in diminishing their powers so devolution may be near impossible. So where are we going to make the change from and how? This is a sad reality facing us. If we can bring in the excluded people, we may begin to head somewhere. This country is far from where it should be. It can’t achieve anything if the actors are the same. The governors have to play more roles and the media should focus more on the governors than the president. The governors have more powers than they use. They don’t exercise the given powers by the constitution.

In conclusion, Dr Agbakoba said devolution is not just a concept; it’s the energy you have to utilize what you have. Devolution won’t solve anything if we all abandon our powers.

Stating how he is excited about the topic of the platform, Dr Charles Omole a security expert and third speaker at The Platform Nigeria defined devolution as  ‘administrative decentralization’. He stated his intent to tell  briefly 3 stories that will conceptualize the whole idea behind his message. In 1960 Nigeria had three levels of security, National Police, Regional Police and Local Police. There were so many allegations and  reports written against the police with respect to their wrong practices. These reports are still valid today.

The President was advised to centralise the Police force. We moved from three tiers of police to centralised system but the allegations didn’t stop. We changed the system but didn’t change people. “Unless there is citizen engagement, there will never be any laudable change”, he pointed out.

His second story was about some Harvard Professors who were brought to deliberate on economic practices and stop communism in order to embrace the market system and get rid of state monopoly. State enterprises were sold off to destroy state monopoly yet the outcome didn’t change.

The third story he told was about South Sudan, who fought war for many years requesting a separation between the Christian clan (South Sudan) and the Muslim Clan (North Sudan). They fought war for many years to get rid of the northern sudanese who are Muslims and eventually won. However, amongst the christain independent nation there is still war of the different factions.

Systems are less important compared to the people who eventually control them, he reiterated. As long as the people are wrong the system cannot be effective.

He continued by saying that devolution of power gets decision making closer to the people. In theory, devolution of power can be beneficial. There is no point changing a system if the players don’t change. An unchanged people will mess up any good system, Dr Omole further emphasised.

He pointed out that the issue isn’t the system but the nature of the people left to manage it. The current constitution has an element of devolution. But, how well are we using it? True citizen participation doesn’t exist without reflective refresh of leadership. True citizen participation is reflected in change of leadership not in the number of people who go to vote. When we keep having a constant pool of choice of leaders to choose from, there is no true citizen participation.

To further drive home his point, Dr. Omole explained how Nigerians don’t get involved in politics and the cheapest place to get involved is the local level. We must be involved in politics to ensure that our outcry for devolution doesn’t end up with us having the same set of leaders entrusted with powers.

We must see beyond headlines and embrace details. the devil is in the details, Nigerians focus on headlines only, unbeknownst to them that it goes beyond a single individual.

Devolution doesn’t mean better governance if we don’t get into the details. if devolution will become successful we must move beyond headline culture. We need competency and capacity at the lowest end of the government. The calibre of people at the grassroots are thugs at touts and it ought not be. We the youths must ask ourselves how many of us are involved in politics at the grassroot level.

We must start engaging from grassroot level. He noted that to be a councillor, you require only 500 votes, but people won’t embrace that; all they are fighting for is a seat at the presidency. For devolution to work, we need more competent people at the grassroot and local level. And that is easier to achieve. In Nigeria, local political power directorates have failed to itemise solutions they are providing to the commoners.

Speaking about the governors, he said that those who make the local government moribund cannot claim to support ethnic separation. They can’t claim they want devolution as they haven’t even devolved power in their states.

It’s important we understand that if we don’t ask these detailed questions, we will be repeating monopoly. It’s better to fight one powerful devil than 37 powerful devils. Those clamouring for devolution of powers should practise it first.

Nigerians can’t ask for devolution of power and focus all effort on national politics. All our interests must move from centre to local level. Know your ward councillors who are the house of assembly at local level. Devolution is bringing power to the lowest level.

For it to work in Nigeria it’s not about transfer of control of power to the state but having our best of minds at the local level. There are lots of differences we can make at the local level. It’s a goal for better governance and a means of achieving it.

He pointed out that the effect of devolution is participation. We need to stop standing by the arena and allow current players to run the show. The only way this can work is for us to be effectively engaged.

Our goal cannot be the devolution of power but the evolution of a new crew of players, new politicians, new kinds of people in the arena. Unless those clamouring for devolution are ready to play at local level, they are only ticking time bombs.

Europe has a centralised police system and the USA has a decentralised system. Both are working, hence there is no good or bad system, only bad players. Focusing only on the president is misdirection. The razzmatazz around politics in Nigeria is to distract people from the core which is the local level.

Devolution is a long term project and must be done the right way. It’s not easy to change people’s mind. Playing the politics of difference isn’t the way to go as it will continue at every level and there will be no peace. He concluded.

Finally, he revealed that the real problem of Nigeria is not the politicians but the civil servants as they are ones with the capacity to turn a good politician to a very bad one. However people don’t know and so they are focusing on the politicians. It’s those in civil service who hate modernization and will truncate every effort of anyone to change their system. He closed.

Mr Segun Adeniyi commenced his speech with the story of the proverbial cows he is known for sharing over the years at The Platform. This got everyone giggling to set the mood on a calm state.

He then went on to quote Acts Two verse Thirty-seven from where he got the title of his discussion: “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

He said that a realization of the fact that the road we are currently travelling as Nigerians will not work for the solution of our problems. Hence, we as Nigerians need to change the road we are travelling on, as well as accept responsibility for the change. He cited the current issues such as the lack of electricity, violent disruptions in the country’s agrarian economy, state governments using national resources, paying bandits; all run through the very fabrics of the nation.

He explained that the devolution of power in its ordinary sense means taking power and resources closer to the people at the local level. He asked if the devolution of powers is the solution to Nigeria’s problems. To those who believe that Nigeria should separate along ethnic lines, he cited several ongoing political and social discords and conflicts ongoing within several ethnic communities of the nation – Ife and Modakeke within the same Yoruba ethnic group, the Niger Delta communities within Rivers State, Boko Haram conflict in Borno State; amongst others. He noted that these conflicts are historical.

He said the attitude of the citizens goes a long way in resolving the pertinent issues of the nation and until the citizens begin to run the nation collaboratively and with a greater demand for accountability from themselves and the leaders, a lot of the issues will be left unresolved. He charged that what we make of Nigeria is up to the citizens and so, we must evolve and take responsibilities. He noted that more things need to be looked into; including capacity development for effective governance at the grassroot level so that even the people can hold their leaders more accountable. The devolution of power must also take into cognizance gender and age bias.

He ended his speech with the stories of the proverbial cows. Rather than obsessing over their losses, we as the cows should greatly consider accountability at every level, the quality of leadership and long-term plans to the capitalization of the economy.

The following snippets filtered from delivered speeches and interview sessions with the speakers is compiled as shown below:

“First, is a laid back citizenry. I think we need a citizenry that would consistently and irreverently hold the feet of those in office to fire. Second, the civil service. If we can transform and bring committed professionals back to the civil service, they will be in the position to assist those in politics to deliver on what they have promised the people. Third, are the politicians and their capacity to deliver”

… Gov. Kayode Fayemi responding to the question “What do you think are the three biggest challenges the country is facing now and how do you think we can solve them?”

“Devolution is not the problem with Nigeria. Our constitution makes the powers of the federal government clear”

… Chief Osita Chidoka, responding to the question - Is devolution of powers the solution to Nigeria’s problems?

“There are more pertinent issues to address now other than devolution”

“We are a fragile State in a low grade civil war. We need to first talk about peace and order before devolution”

… Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), responding to the question - Is devolution of powers the solution to Nigeria’s problems?

“You can change systems, but you will still get the same outcome unless there is a change in citizen engagement”

… Dr. Chales Omole, responding to the question (Is devolution of powers the solution to Nigeria’s problems?

“Our duty as ordinary citizens is to continue to hold our politicians to the promises that they made”

… Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, delivering a lecture titled ‘We Need To Exhale’

“The idea of cultural ethnic homogeneity is no prescription for forging a country”

… Mr. Segun Adeniyi

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