Decentralization without Disintegration.: What Restructuring is NOT About. September 07, 2022

"Restructuring my foot" (Kashim Shettima) or anti-restructuring is not an option to be pursued. We must not promote Senator Shettima's view under any guise, because its entitlement culture has been taken too far. It makes State Governors indolent.

The compulsory monthly allocation from Abuja to states and local government councils is strengthening a unitary model that the 1999 Constitution didn't envisage or contemplate. It corrodes the fundamental principles of a traditional federal system of government enshrined in the constitution 1999 Constitution as amended.

The dependency syndrome that General Sani Abacha created, even though it has succeeded in making more money available to some states and local government counts that they don't reasonably deserve, hasn't brought peace and development to those states.

There is no investment going on and no improvement in human capital development or educational standards. That's what Prof Pat Utomi is lamenting in the video. If you sweat to create wealth or generate revenues, prudent investing and frugality will supplant wastage or define your course of action.

Some states have hundreds of thousands of unproductive PAs or Aides on payroll, collecting salaries every month, without rendering services to the people of the state. And that is made possible by the excess allocations from Abuja.

Sharing does not create additional wealth. It's like a feeding bottle, and it needs constant refilling. And that was how Banditry began - a history of cash distribution without creating value.

My proposed approach is Decentralization without Disintegration. It's the best alternative to not taking action. We can remain together, and be competitive, but without interfering or interrupting the pace of development in another state within the union. In that case, we are deemphasizing the relevance of Abuja.

Why should a State Governor and the Commissioner of Police, for instance, have to wait for Abuja or the IGP before taking action to quell an insurgency? On security matters, the Commissioner of Police in a given state ought to be answerable to the people of the state, not Abuja. This is just one of the fundamental attributes of True Federalism or Restructuring.

So, Restructuring is not just about revenue allocation or sharing the oil wealth, it's about resource control and production optimization.