Senators from northern Nigeria have strongly opposed calls for a return to a regional system of government.
This stance emerged during the ongoing process to amend the 1999 Constitution, which began with a two-day retreat organized by the Senate Committee on Constitution Review in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) in Kano.
In discussions with journalists on the sidelines of the event, several lawmakers from the region expressed that their territories had not benefitted from the regional system when it was previously in place.
Their views contrasted sharply with those of their colleagues from the southern part of the country.
A ranking senator from Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Abdul Ningi, stated that his constituents would never endorse the idea, recalling that they experienced no development during the implementation of the regional government in the First Republic.
Ningi said: “I have heard so much about regional government or federalism and I have heard people going about, canvassing for such ideas.
“For a start, no matter how you see it, the current document (1999 Constitution) is still the grundnorm. It has also stipulated how it is going to be amended.
“Having said that, it is also imperative to also know that it isn’t just enough for anybody to come and say he is the representative of one ethnic group or another at the National Assembly.
“The question that arises is, when was this mandate canvassed? When was it received? You are a representative of a particular ethnic group in Nigeria, at what time were you given mandate to canvass that? “The only people that are given this mandate, to look at the Constitution and amend it are, of course, members of the National Assembly.
“Therefore, it is important for those who go about selling these ideas, false ideas, in my opinion, that they are representatives of the people to let Nigerians know where they are coming from and on whose mandate and when was this mandate given to them.
“We have seen how the regional government was operated in the past. My part of the country that I am representing didn’t enjoy the development of that so called regional government that was based in Kaduna.
“We aren’t going back there! I am speaking for my senatorial district. It is either the Nigerian federation or nothing. We can’t go along, my senatorial district will be satisfied independently with Nigeria, if that is what is required.
“As far as regional government is concerned, my constituency, my people, aren’t for it. What we need is the reform of the current Federal Government structure and fiscal federalism because there is nothing like true federalism.”
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, advised Nigerians against mistaken the establishment of the Zonal development commission for regionalism.
He said the various geopolitical zonal development commissions were strictly for the social and economic development of their areas.
He said: “It is wrong of anybody to think that the development commissions being established for the six geopolitical zones is a plan towards regionalism. It is not. “Those who are advocating for it should come up with bills through their representatives in the National Assembly and test the popularity of their proposal.”
Similarly, former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, said the idea of true federalism was no longer fashionable because many countries in Africa had discarded it.
He advocated the creation of strong institutions that would enhance good governance and curb corruption and insecurity.
“When the government put these in place, there won’t be clamour for true federalism because there will be justice, equity and fairness in all the regions of the country,” he said.
But the Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TetFund, Senator Muntari Dandutse, representing Katsina South Senatorial District, disagreed with the proponents of regional government.
He said the essence of the ongoing retreat was to improve on the defects and anomalies discovered in the nation’s constitution over the years.
He said: “We should not have myopic thinking about ourselves. There is no section of this country that is not blessed. “What is important is that we should have good governance, a credible and responsible accessibility of the resources that we have, because Nigeria is blessed.
“We have all the comparative advantages that will move this country forward, unless of course we are serious and determined.” On their part, the Southern Senators described the agitation as a welcome development that would improve the economy, tackle insecurity and Fasttrack infrastructural development.
The Senator representing Oyo North Senatorial District, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, disagreed with those condemning the regional system of government.
Buhari said: “Recall that the regions were able to harness their resources in the First Republic. We were able to harness all our resources.
There was no dominance of a particular resource(s). “In those years, the North was known for the pyramid of groundnuts, the South West was known for cocoa.
We should be able to do that. “When you make the centre less attractive you cut off corruption. You can’t wipe it off, but you can cut it off, because there is what is called, watch your team. People will watch their team within their locality or within their region.
Asked whether the South West region has a specific agenda for the ongoing constitution review, he said it would be presented at the appropriate time.
He said: “We don’t want to disclose that agenda yet but we have agreed among ourselves that the person that is going to present that is the Chairman of the South West Forum when the time comes. It will be very unfair for me now as a member to start discussing that.”
However, the Leader of the Senate, Bamidele Opeyemi, said the issue of regionalism could not be changed through constitution amendment.
He said: “There are some decisions in the state of which an executive bill cannot come to the parliament unless there are some political consensus.
“For me, going back to regional form of governance is something that will go beyond a bill being sponsored, either as a parliament member bill or as an executive bill. “It’s also not something that you sit down in a public hearing room and organize a public hearing to take a decision on.
“An example is when people tell us, oh, you know, you are in parliament. As a parliament, you cannot discard the entire constitution. Nigeria needs a new constitution because this constitution cannot work. “It’s easy for people to make such arguments, but that is not something we can sit down in parliament and do.
“So, we are not changing the constitution, because that would require a political consensus, and that would also require the buyin of the Nigerian people themselves.”
