The Secretary of Steering Committee Eminent Elders Forum, and also a member of The Patriots, Akin Fapohunda, has called for the decentralisation of Nigeria, while arguing that Nigeria does not function as a unified nation-state should.
He said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, following a Formal letter that was addressed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and others including the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, appealing that the governance structure of the country being decentralised.
This letter was written by a group of prominent leaders of the country, and it advocates structural reforms aimed at devolving powers from the federal government to regional authorities.
Fapohunda said: “The mantra is that each region needs to be managed in a modular manner. We are not a nation. A nation must be bound by culture and language. We don’t have one language; we don’t have one culture. We don’t even have one vegetation or one climate”, he said.
Fapohunda argued that Nigeria is not a single nation but a collection of distinct nations, and therefore cannot be effectively governed as a highly centralised state.
“There is universal consensus across all regions that managing everything unitarily from Abuja is not ideal. Mr. President is trying, but one man cannot oversee 50 ministries”, he insisted.
He further outlined a plan for the decentralisation of Nigeria, describing it as a gradual process to reduce concentrated presidential power and improve governance.
“Restructuring is not a switch you put on the wall. It’s a process. So, if the idea is kick-started now—like we have the state police being discussed—credit to the President. You kickstart it”, he said.
Fapohunda mentioned that their proposal for decentralisation and restructuring of Nigeria has been formally communicated to all three branches of the Nigerian government—the executive, legislature, and judiciary.
“That’s why we wrote him a letter. In fact, we wrote not him; we wrote the executive arm, the legislature, and the judiciary. That is the Nigerian state. We want the three of them to act in concert. So that there is a consensus that we want to do this.”, he said.
He further revealed that he and his group are expecting a response on 45 days, insisting that the current 1999 Constitution’s centralised system is no longer acceptable for governing Nigeria.
” In the letter, we said, ‘Please give us feedback within 45 days. Because we are geared up. Look, we cannot continue being managed this way. The real import is that we don’t want to be managed under the 1999 constitution the way it is anymore”, he stressed.
