By Pius Mordi
They called themselves ‘The Reformers’. By their reckoning, they represent a radical thinking in the search for a political and federal arrangement that will suit Nigeria. On Monday, June 10, the 35 federal lawmakers across party lines and regions unveiled their vision for a new political structure for Nigeria.
Ikenga Ugochinyere, the group’s lead speaker, painted the picture of an unprecedented coalition of lawmakers across parties and regions to unfurl an initiative that will “lead to a reduction in the cost of governance”, “unite the country and ensure a seamless transition and unprecedented development for the country”. These are high sounding expectations. But their road map to achieving the goals mainly revolve around reforming access to power by the political class. From Aso Rock to the 36 Government Houses in the states and reform of the electoral process as well as the status of local government areas, the Reformers reeled out a rash of bills they say will be tabled for review of the constitution.
However, their enthusiasm was not matched by their knowledge of the fundamental challenges facing the country and the primary expectations of the people. Their major recipe is a recommendation that occupiers of executive offices should be restricted to just term that will be elongated to six years. By their thinking, governance suffers when a president and governors have to go through the throes of reelection. The problem is that it us built on the esoteric assumption that every president and governor ones voted into office is competent, capable and will play by the rules.
As wide ranging as the bills they propose are, the package has a fundamental flaw. It is not bold and majors in ephemeral issues that do not address the issues that have been stultifying Nigeria’s development. Recommending the zoning of the presidency among the six zones is a product of the wrong assumption that equitable access to power is the major challenge to development in the nation. Apparently, the group aligned itself with the position of former vice president, late Dr. Alex Ekwueme, who came up with the idea of six regions and rotation of the presidency between the north and south. When Ekwueme sold the idea, it seemed plausible at the time. But after 25 years of the Fourth Republic during which the principles of equity, fairness and rule of law were willfully trampled upon and a reign of multi-dimensional poverty and mutual suspicion took root, the path to nationhood no longer lies with merely democratising the “Emilokan” mantra. Each region will be embroiled in jostling for whose turn it will be to have its man in Aso Rock.
The concentration of enormous powers in Abuja under the 1999 constitution has proved to be the major impediment to progress and development. With up 66 items on the Legislative List reserved for Aso Rock, advancement both in the political and economic spheres has been stunted given the absence of innovation and healthy competition. Abuja has too many powers than it can handle, a fact that has been demonstrated by the near anarchic state of insecurity. Economic planning is done centrally from Aso Rock in a country with over 853 kilometres of coastline and land mass just short of one million square kilometres. Nowhere is the dysfunctional arrangement manifest than in security, energy and education. At a time excellence and the deployment of specially gifted children are being encouraged to do the extraordinary for society’s development, a Minister of Education is seeking to enforce a minimum age of 18 years before students can be admitted into tertiary institutions because they are “still children and vulnerable.” In another breath, a federal lawmaker wants young girls married off before attaining 18 years to be allowed to vote contrary the 18 years stipulated in the constitution because “as mothers, they have become matured.” Aso Rock and the powers domiciled therein have become the albatross to inventiveness. And at a recent debate in the Senate over how to check the rising spate of attacks on farmers by cattle herders, a female Senator in bid to defend the herders against accusations of having no respect for lives argued that the herders value their cattle even more than their own lives!
Ugochinyere and his group of Reformers have their self imposed task cut out. Even though the bills being proposed will ultimately be subjected to public hearing where the various stakeholders will make their input, their package of reforms is not far-reaching and exciting enough. Abuja has to be unbundled and stripped of the enormous powers vested on it that have turned out to heavy chains on the wheels of development. The pathway is for powers in education, security, energy, seaports among others to be devolved to states.
Postscript
Of June 12 and repression of the press
Against the backdrop of the recent alarm raised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors on the stifling of press freedom by security agencies using some flawed sections of the Cybersecurity Act, the Tinubu administration is celebrating Democracy Day today. Over the past few years, many countries have either enacted or updated current “cybercrime” laws.
However, the authoritarian character of the Nigeria leadership is one that favours arbitrary interpretation of Section 24 of the Cybercrime Act by the government. Almost every article critical of the government or its top functionaries online is interpreted as cyberstalking irrespective of the accuracy of the stories. The coercive apparatus of the state is used to censor online media with security forces engagibg in illegal arrest, abduction or intimidation of online media practitioners. The relative autonomy enjoyed by online journalists in terms of what they publish on the internet, in contrast to traditional journalists, is seriously threatened by the authoritarian appearance and exercise of political power in what should be a liberal or free Nigerian state. The repression of online press freedom is worrisome when the important role of the internet in Nigeria as a major tool of political mobilisation is considered. The internet was crucial in influencing the outcome of the 2015 presidential election in favour of an opposition political party for the first time in the country’s democratic history.
Section 24 of the Cybercrime Act 2015, which was signed into law by former president Jonathan on 15 May 2015, addresses offensive and annoying statements on the internet. It talks about cyberstalking and prescribes punishment, including fines and fine imprisonment for convicted persons.
Some stories published through traditional media outlets (print and electronic) that were never sanctioned by the government have been attacked by the same government upon being rebroadcast or republished through online platforms.
Most of these arrests never led to criminal charges in court and the few prosecuted were dropped by the government due to the weaknesses of their claims. While cyberstalking is aimed at controlling false news online, the law has been used to repress reporters and online media outlets
When the Cyber Security Act was enacted, it was believed to be a legal framework for combating cybercrimes but the police and other arms of security have turned it to a legal instrument for persecuting journalists.
Warning of the consequences of the increasing clampdown on the press, the Nigerian Guild of Editors has condemned the increasing sequence of abduction and arrest of journalists in the country by security agents, under the guise of enforcing the Cyber Security Act.
In a statement issued by the Guild’s President, Mr Eze Anaba, and its General Secretary, Iyobosa Uwugiaren, at the end of its Standing Committee meeting in Port Harcourt, the Guild warned warned such actions are illegal. With the nightmarish state of the economy that plunged the people into multidimensional poverty while the ruling class revels in and flaunts its conspicuous consumption, the online media in better placed to report the incongruity between government’s claims on the impact of its economic policies and the actual living conditions of the people. The NUJ and NGE must be more vigilant in protecting Nigerians henceforth.