Former Lagos State Governor and National leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN),Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is advocating an end to rotational political leadership at all levels in the country, especially the presidency, saying the current arrangement breeds conflict and disharmony.
Asiwaju Tinubu said while every Nigerian had constitutional right to aspire to any office, "mandatory rotation of positions is an affront to democracy and places us further down the road of selection rather than election. It exalts mediocrity and access over talent and worth."
He spoke yesterday in a paper at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, Plateau State.
Denouncing what he called "Turn by Turn Nigeria Ltd," he said: "I would rather we install in an important office a decent and able man from another region than a cruel and incapable man from my own family. I say this without hesitation because I speak from the heart and an unshakable commitment to democratic tenets.
"This type of mind-set is what had fed the anachronistic and false distinction between indigenes and settlers that has cost so many lives, destroyed so many communities and marred our national identity. We must apply the constitutional guarantees in this kind of situation. If we must deploy tanks and armed soldiers for peace, we have already lost something. Government must give meaning to these words of our first anthem,'O God of all creation, Grant this our one request, Help us to build a nation, Where no man is oppressed. And so, with peace and plenty, Nigeria may be blessed.'"
He also deplored the institutionalisation of unitary system of administration by the military in a plural society like Nigeria.
He said : "After the civil war, the military sought to re-fashion Nigeria in its own centralist image. They thought the way to manage the country's diversity was to bury it under the suffocating control of an all-powerful centre. By imposing a unitary state on a naturally federal society, the military sought to substitute a chaotic diversity with imposed uniformity, which they thought was necessary to promote order and development.
"Unfortunately, all the supposedly democratic dispensations since the civil war have substantially mirrored the over-centralised and unduly bureaucratic military political cultures. The consequence of this rigid model retards pluralism rather than advancing it. The Nigerian state thus presents the baffling paradox of appearing at once so powerful when protecting the narrow interests of the elite, yet so fragile in providing the barest services of a modern nation to the bulk of the populace. Nigeria is run like a closely held private corporation with a revolving ownership. While the leaders may change, one thing remains constant. Those who run the corporation, run it solely for their own benefit.
"A nation that does not respect pluralism and the diversity of its own people can never achieve her full potential. A disregard for pluralism means a disregard for the peculiarities of citizens. Any nation that operates with such herdsman mentality will only end up diminishing itself."
Asiwaju Tinubu said for Nigeria to develop, the people must change their orientation and give the progressives a chance to run the country.
"To free ourselves of the old mental shackles, we must discard old thinking. We cannot do this by talking as we have talked before. The problem is that we have not produced an alternative world view. People must think and act on something. Before they leave the old, you must offer them the new, which is superior or more preferable. The nation that we model our government on has a saying, 'from many, one' to signify America's unity. We have distorted this fine saying in our own regard. Our motto has become 'from many, even more.'
"The progressives want to change the way we interact politically and economically to bring greater democracy and economic development. The conservatives believe in the status quo, hence have gotten us into this hole. The progressives believe in the development of new ideas and its operationalisation. I believe when the progressives win power, they will be able to lift Nigeria out of the hole by turning our riotous diversity into cooperative pluralism. No more the lack of continuity in development planning which has seen different governments enunciate different and often confusing socio-economic policies.
"Are we still in the reform process or has transformation taken over? Are we still running on the Obasanjo reform mantra or the current transformation swan-song? What happened to the National Development Plans of the 60s and 70s? Policies like NEEDS, Vision 20-20 or 20-20-20 need to be re-examined in the light of current global realities. Can the National Institute investigate the failure or otherwise of these old policies and come up with newer and bolder ideas going forward?"
He charged the graduands and the alumni of the institute to use their position as policy makers to advise the Federal Government " strongly on the need to provide incentives for the agricultural sector" and to " challenge the government to establish commodity exchange boards for domestic and exportable products while guaranteeing minimum prices (MPG) for the farm products. This will put money directly into the pockets of farmers while assuring their products will be purchased at the guaranteed price. Farming will become more attractive because income would be less erratic, thereby reducing migration to our urban centres."
He also said Nigeria deserves structural changes at this point in its life. According to him, the proposed steps in this direction include:
•Reducing the items on the Exclusive List and transferring them to the Residual List to enhance the powers and responsibilities of states and local governments. Revise the Revenue Allocation Formula in favour of states and local governments to empower them fiscally to deliver the infrastructure development and social welfare programmes. The Federal Government currently is obese, suffering from elephantiasis and unable to spring Nigeria into new realms and possibilities.
•Transfer ownership, control and development of all natural, solid mineral and agricultural resources to the states while paying appropriate taxes and duties to the Federal Government.
•Strengthen the electoral process by removing the sole power of the President to appoint the Chairman of the INEC and other electoral commissioners. Appointments should be open and competitive and not used as job for the boys. Kenyans have shown us a lead in this area when they drew a new constitution recently, which denies the president of their country the power to appoint or influence the electoral chief, the Supreme Court President, the Director of Public Prosecution and the Inspector General of the Police.
•Decentralise the power to generate, transmit and distribute electricity to revolutionise the sector and ensure that uninterrupted electricity accelerates national economic growth within a two-three time frame. Electricity should be treated as a commodity.
•Enact judicial reforms to reduce the abuse of power in the judiciary in order to strengthen the entire judicial system.
The Nation