ANALYZING NIGERIA PROBLEMS By Emeka Esogbue

ANALYZING NIGERIA PROBLEMS 

By Emeka Esogbue

ABSTRACT

Nigeria, a former colony of the British, granted independence since 1960 has been facing a lot of challenges, all of which threaten its unity. This paper has looked into some of these challenges as they trouble the nation. However, this paper only concentrated on these multifarious challenges that mostly touch on structural, constitutional and leadership problems without providing solutions because it is outside the scope of the paper to do so.

KEYWORDS

Nation, leadership, Constitution, Governance, Ethnicity, Problems, Government

INTRODUCTION

Although the Nigerian nation was birthed in 1960 following her independence from the British, it is today plagued by several challenges that confront her.  It is very disheartening that the situation is affecting the ordinary citizens to the extent that the spirit of patriotism has greatly diminished. What is quite interesting is that nearly every Nigerian agrees that the Nigerian nation is facing daunting challenges and agrees that it was be tackled if the nation must remain in existence but the will or skill to find solutions to these challenging is lacking.

For some, the problem is rested on lack of true federation with other forms of problem branching off this particular kind of problem while others think the problems are simply indescribable as they are multifaceted. This has led several political observers of the nation to assert that unless these challenges are “cured”, there cannot be lasting peace in the country.

Some analysts maintain that the problems of Nigeria are as old as Nigeria itself. Madiebo (1980) argued that “the independence of Nigeria, as it exists today, has never really been one homogenous country, for widely differing peoples and tribes are yet to find any basis for true unity. This unfortunate yet obvious fact notwithstanding, the former colonial masters had to keep the country one, in order to effectively control his vital economic interests concentrated mainly in the more advanced and “politically unreliable” South. Thus for administration convenience Northern and Southern Nigeria became amalgamated in 1914. Thereafter the only thing these peoples had in common became the name of their country. That alone was an insufficient basis for true unity”¹

Despite the above, others have maintained the argument that in the years of her independence from the British, she was regarded as flowing with milk and honey. However, in later years, it seemed like the colonial masters should return to take over the country. Worst of all, Nigeria has had no national values and ideologies and all that it has such as unity, peace, equity, justice and fairness, it is fast loosing.

Rightly, the Nigerian problems have been listed as:

(i)            Lack of national vision

(ii)          Governance

(iii)         Colonial factor

(iv)         Religion

(v)          Lack of effective institutions

(vi)         Resource control or revenue sharing formula

(vii)        Demographic discrepancies

(viii)      Constitutional challenges (system of government)

(ix)         Corruption

(x)          Problem of leadership

(xi)         Ethnicity   

All these challenges have been broadly categorized under the following:

(i)            National problem

(ii)          Structural problem

(iii)         Historical problem

(iv)         Governmental problem

(v)          Institutional problem

This paper will set out to discuss:

(i)            Demographic discrepancies

(ii)          Constitutional challenges; and

(iii)         Leadership problem

 DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEM

According Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, the demographic features of Nigeria include the population, the population density, ethnicity, vital statistics, education level, the health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other similar features.
It is a country with a population of people estimated at 160 million persons, which is the largest in Africa. About 50% of this population lives in urban areas. Nigeria is a home to over 250 ethnic groups and nearly 500 languages with different customs and traditions which give the nation cultural diversity. Major ethnic groups of the country are Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo.
It has been often said that there are a lot of demographic discrepancies in the composition of Nigeria, which is now seen as part of the problems that she faces as a nation. Some have also claimed that these demographic discrepancies were created by the British colonial masters during the foundation of the country. They support their argument with several factors discussed below:

(i)            Composition of the Nigeria: - There are people who hold the view that in founding the nation, the British did not pay attention to kinship as they necessarily partitioned out one ethnic group from the other.

(ii)          Balkanization: - in creating what they called regions, they also balkanized one area or the other and by so doing, gave undue advantage to some regions as larger than the other. For instance, the extent in size to which the regions forming Nigeria is considered today is as underlined by the British.

After the independence, these discrepancies in the demography of the nation were permitted to remain by the indigenous government by two major factors that are:

(iii)         Censes: - All the censuses conducted by the indigenous governments of Nigeria till date have remained controversial as they are often viewed by citizens as giving undue advantage in size to one region against the other by the particular government that conducts it. Thus the conduct of population census in this part of the world is often very sensitive, the very reason, the government avoids direct attempts to directly count ethnic groups and even religions.

(iv)         States creation: - Various Nigerian governments by their states creation policies maintained demographic imbalance in the nation especially between the northern and southern northern parts of the country. Though the Nigerian nation is made up of 36 states, what is noteworthy of these states is that they were not all created simultaneously. As we have noted in this paper, the nation only inherited regions from the colonial masters hence by 1960, there were no states but regions that were Northern Region, Western Region and Eastern Region. What is worrisome about the politics of states creation in the country is that all states of the federation were at one time or the other created northerners and it has always been a matter of imbalance often tilted to favour the North in number and size. States in Nigeria was first created by Gen Yakubu Gowon (Rtd) who created twelve states. Out of the states created by him, seven states were in favour of the North while 5 were in favour of the South. Gen Murtala Muhammed would re-create seven states, which brought the number of states to nineteen. Out of these nineteen states, ten states were for North while nine were for the South. Gen Ibrahim Babangida added the two states of AkwaIbom and Katsina, which meant that the North remained favoured in the number of states. On August 27, 1991, the same Gen Ibrahim Babangida created additional nine states. 5 states in favour of the North and four in favour of the South. In 1996, Gen Sani Abacha brought the number of states in the country to 36. As it is today, the North has nineteen states while the South has 17. This does not include Abuja, the nation’s capital which lies in the North. By and large, states creation in the country has contributed to demographic discrepancies that the nation suffers today.

SOUTH EAST AS THE GREATER VICTIM
The people of south East Geo-political zone are believed to be the biggest victim of this anomaly as they have always maintained that their region is seriously marginalized. ChuksIbegbu, a political analyst has maintained that:
“Since everything in Nigeria is shared on the basis of states and local Governments, the densely populated South East zone will continue to trail behind in all indices of development in Nigeria. Kano state alone has 44 local government areas, nearly what all South East states have. It is bizarre that political leaders in the zone are not doing enough to correct this imbalance now. They ought to be shouting, talking, protesting, and pushing for the rest of nation to listen to
them.  It is all about the future of the Youths and children of the zone”.
Besides, what should also be noted is that it also matters in legislative representation at the Senate and House of Representatives.
It is for this reason that there has been clamour for what some people have noted as restructuring or true federalism with others asking for states in the country².

CONSTITUTIONAL PROBLEM
“Fifty-Seven years after attaining political independence, stakeholders in Nigeria are still engaged in intense debates on the most appropriate system of government to adopt for good governance. While it is being canvassed in some quarters that the present 1999 Constitution is nothing but a failed document incapable of redeeming the country from its present predicament, others believe that the question of constitution is not the major setback for the nation’s development but that of attitude” reports the The Guardian^{3 .}

Writing on what he called “The Problem with Nigeria’s Constitution”, Ozodi Thomas Osuji noted that “a constitution is formulated by the people and or their delegates. The people of Nigeria, and or their representatives did not write the so-called (1999) constitution. This so-called constitution was imposed on Nigerians by a military junta”.

“The importance of a constitution in any given society cannot be overemphasized. The constitution, in Nigeria’s situation, is the supreme law of the land which all acts of individuals and of parliament must not contravene. It is the fundamental and organic law of a nation or state that establishes the institutions and apparatus of government, defines the scope of governmental sovereign powers, and guarantees individual civil rights and civil liberties” Olamide (2016)⁴. 

CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

As some have argued, Nigeria itself is a creation of the constitution. What is derivable from this argument is that the nation was created from the formation of various constitutions that occurred over the time. The history of constitutional development in Nigeria can be divided into two parts- colonial and post-colonial eras.

1.    Colonial or pre-independence era

(i)            1914 constitution - The legislative council was this time allowed to make law for only the colony.

(ii)          1922 or Clifford’s Constitution - It also introduced a legislative council which replaced the Nigerian council.

(iii)         1946 or Richard’s Constitution - The constitution also provided for regional houses of assembly

(iv)         1951 or Macpherson’s Constitution - The constitution provided for a federal legislature called the House of Representatives.

(v)          1954 or Littleton Constitution - The constitution fully introduced a federal system, with North, East, West and Southern Cameroons. While the Federal capital territory was in Lagos.

(vi)         1960 or The Independence Constitution - This meant that we had the Head of State and the Head of Government in two different people.

2.    Post-colonial era

(i)            1963 or Republican Constitution - One of the main features was that the Queen of England ceased to be the head of state.

(ii)          1979 or The Presidential Constitution of 1979 - The constitution jettisoned the parliamentary system of government and replaced it with a presidential system

(iii)         1999 ushered in by Gen AbdusalamiAbubakar

Nigeria is characterized by frequent change of constitution; thus the nation has a history of recurring change in her constitution. This development is contrary to those of other nations of the world. For instance,” the constitution of the United States of America has lasted more than two centuries and is less than twenty pages long yet it provides broad outlines of the powers of the government and denotes who exercises the power”.

Ozodi Thomas Osuji has provided reasons why the Nigeria is again moving for change in the 1999 constitution. He stated that “a constitution is formulated by the people and or their delegates. The people of Nigeria, and or their representatives did not write the so-called (1999) constitution. This so-called constitution was imposed on Nigerians by a military junta”.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE 1999 CONSTITUTION?

(i)            Constitution is too lengthy

The 1999 constitution is 200 pages long and it is doubtful if anyone can read and digest its content without making frequent reference at the document. As it has been further argued, citizens need to have constitution with few pages which they can read on their own without consulting lawyers for interpretation.

(i)            Constitution does not provide for true federalism

The constitution does not provide for true federalism which itself has led to several conflicts in the nation thus leading to instability. And from every indication, it is looking like provision of true federation for Nigeria is a difficult task if not totally impossible. For this reason, Prof OsaghaeEghosa of the Igbinedion University described federalism in Nigeria as the worship of an unknown god.  For him, whosoever is expecting that the government at the centre would concede power easily to states “should forget it. According to him, it would not be easy for the Federal Government to devolve power to states and local government it created. That would certainly look like “a man asking his creator to relinquish power.”⁵

(ii)          Over supremacy of the federal government

Although the nation has three tiers that are the federal, state and local government, power is too concentrated in the centre. Even then, the local government lacks autonomy and is strongly tied to the local government. This scenario led to financial supremacy of the federal over the state and state over the local government.

(iii)         Financial dependency on the centre

Another challenge of the present constitution is that state depends so much on the centre financially so that it is always a matter of running to Abuja every now and then for what has come to be known as financial allocation. 

(iv)         Resource control

The Nigerian constitution should encourage states to generate and control their resources.

(v)          Allocation formula

There should be review in allocation formula for states to receive allocation based on what they generate.

LEADERSHIP PROBLEM

One of Nigeria’s biggest challenge as a nation is the problem of the leadership and that is well acknowledged by nearly everyone. For this reason, most analysts believe that Nigeria has never had a good leader since independence.

According to Gberevbie, Shodipo and Oviasogie in ‘Leadership Accountability: The Challenges of Development in Nigeria’, “sizable number of scholars have argued that development in any nation is a function of a leadership that subscribes to the principles of accountability in government at various levels”.

Godwin Okaneme gave an explicit clarification of this Nigerian kind of leadership when he explained that ”from the time of the nation’s independence up till now, it has seriously grappled with the challenges of poor leadership and governance or what has been popularly referred to as leadership and governance ineptitude. This has become so pronounced and brazen that it has ultimately affected the nation’s development over time. More often than not, the nation has been foisted with political leaders who lack the basic ingredients required for effective, efficient and productive political leadership which will ultimately turn the country around for good. Governance therefore has become an all comer’s affair where the qualified and the unqualified, the high and the low as well as the rich and the poor all jostle inordinately for political power”⁶.

Indeed, as Farida (2009) has noted the conception of leadership as comprising the following:

(i)                    Leadership is concerned with fostering change.

(ii)                  Leadership is inherently value-based.

(iii)                 All people are potential leaders.

(iv)                 Leadership is a group process⁷.

Good leadership is expected to have the below qualities:

(i)            Good governance

(ii)          Rule of law

(iii)         Transparency

(iv)         Responsiveness

(v)          Equity

(vi)         Accountability

What is wrong with the Nigerian kind of leadership?

(i)            Failure to provide good governance

(ii)          Failure to provide adequate employment

(iii)         High level of corruption

(iv)         Lack of accountability

(v)          Lack of service delivery

CONCLUSION

Drawing inference from this paper, it is clear that the Nigerian nation has been facing challenges since independence and that a major aspect of these challenges were inherited from the British colonial government whose interest was mainly derivation of economic gains for the home government instead of the general wellbeing of the Nigerian people. What this paper has also demonstrated is that although these challenges abound, the Nigerian indigenous government that received the baton of leadership have not been able to steer the nation to the right direction.

REFERENCES

1.    Madiebo. A. “The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War”, Fourth Dimension Publishers

2.    Alabi. M, “36-State Structure Unsuitable for Nigeria’s Federation”, New telegraph, Sept 22, 2017

3.    Seye. O, “Nigeria at 57: Facing Challenges of Constitutional issues”, The Guardian, October 6, 2017

4.    Olarewaju. O, “History of Nigerian Constitutional Development”, Nigerian Constitutional Law

5.    Ibid, pg 4

6.    Okaneme. G, ‘The Challenge of Leadership and Governance in Nigeria”, volume 5, No. 1, June 2017

7.    Waziri. F, “A Paper Presentation Delivered t the Ambrose Alli University Annual lecture/Awards on the 19^th of October 2009

Paper was originally published by the Author as Master’s Degree classwork, later presented to the class and discoursed