United States Of Nigeria: What Is In A Name?

By : Abdulrasheed Ibrahim

Williams Shakespeare in his novel “Romeo and Juliet” used the phrase “What is in a name?” through Juliet who in describing her Romeo in the love play said that , if you call a rose by any other name it will still smell sweet ,meaning no matter what you call a thing, what matter most is its essence.

Recently, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina , the President of African Development Bank (ADB) called for the change of name from the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the United States of Nigeria .Although this may sound very funny to many but the reality, if the truth must be told as I said somewhere else is that what Nigerians need most now is the change of attitude from negative to positive rather than that changing of the country’s name. There is no doubt that Dr. Adesina had genuine intention for his assertion as according to him : “the achievement of economically viable entities and the viability of the national entity requires constitutional changes to devolve more economic and fiscal powers to the states or regions. The stronger the states or regions, the stronger the federated units”

I dare say that if our various States in the federation as presently constituted have been getting it right, they have the capacity to be economically viable since the governors are the custodians of the land in their various States. How many States in the country today are exploiting what they are blessed with particularly in the area of agriculture to display their comparative advantages?

How many States are productive in the real sense of the word to sustain themselves without going to Abuja caps in hands to collect allocation? The contemporary politicians particularly those at the helm of affairs are not learning the act of good governance where they supposed to learn it. Dr. Adesina was right in his assertion when receiving the 2024 Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership:

“If there was one attribute that defined Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and there were many, it would be his visionary boldness. He went where other feared or failed to go. In the process, decades later, his footprints remain in the sand of time .Likewise, today, in Nigeria, we need men and women with vision, who are willing to take bold decisions”

By this I believe I have been vindicated by my recent assertion that : “Nigeria’s political scene needs the reincarnation of the likes Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Dr. Nnamid Azikwe , Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Alhaji Aminu Kano , Chief Michael Okpara, Chief SLA Akintola and Alhaji Lateef Jakande among others”.

This set of people as human beings may have had their own shortcomings but they were or are the perfect example of politicians that meant well for their people when in positions of leaderships .It was not for nothing that the late Ikemba of Nnewi, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu described Chief Awolowo in his book titled: “Because I am Involved” as the “Best President Nigeria never had”.

Sometime I ask the question whether the contemporary politicians consider the blueprints of the likes of Awolowo and Sar’dauna outdated and that was the reason why they have refused to follow them. Chief Awolowo for instance did not depart the world with his blueprints of good governance some of which can still to be found in many of the publications he left behind. The like of Jakande followed Awo’s blueprints and that was the reason why people of Lagos State cannot forget him easily for what he did just within the period of four years in government.

If successive Governors in Lagos State have followed his footstep in terms of massive low cost houses he constructed during his reign, many Lagosians today will not be confronted with the problem of shylock landlords that are now all over the places.

By the recent position of the Lagos State Government that : “ We all see what is being done in other clime , rents are collected monthly, Hence , we are looking and hoping that before the end of the year ,or by early next year, we will be able to implement the policy of monthly rental .Also , the rental would be charged according to tenants’ earning”

This kind of policy can only work where the government is committed to building massive low cost houses that are affordable to people to buy or rent. But in the present day Nigeria where capitalism has displaced socialism, I wonder how the government will be able to compel the landlords and landladies that laboured to build their houses and letting them to the people while the government prefers allocating land to the Estate and Property Businessmen to build Mansions which are out of the reach of majority of Nigerians.

There is this law in Lagos State that a Landlord cannot accept more than a year rent from tenant, but when a landlord who insists on collecting more than a year is reminded by the tenant about the law, he would tell the tenant point blank to go and rent house from the government and that would be the end of the story. As long as there is no government’s alternative on the ground that can be resorted to, the vow to impose or enforce any policy may only amount to time wasting.

Now coming to the issue of the State Police. It is not a bad idea that each State in the Federation has its own State Police if this will guarantee adequate security and put an end to the insecurity problem we have been facing for quite sometimes . But the important question we need to ask is : how many States in the Federation are viable enough to maintain the State Police?

For instance the Governor of Kaduna State came on air to say that his State was in huge debt. According to the governor: “Despite the huge debt burden of 587 million Dollars, 85 billion Naira, and 115 Contractual Liabilities sadly inherited from the previous administration, we remain resolute in steering Kaduna State toward progress and sustainable development”.

In all honesty, Kaduna State is a state seriously in need of the POLICE FORCE due to the security challenges it has been facing. But the question is: with this debt profile, does it have the financial capacity to maintain the State Police? Setting up an institution is one thing and the ability to maintain and sustain it is another.

One thing that attention has not been giving to is the issue of regionalism or collaboration among States. Since many States have been created out of the various regions we used to have, I do not see any reason why the States within a particular region cannot come together to do things together for the economic or otherwise benefit of the States within those regions. The spirit of competition that used to exist among the Premiers of old regions does not exist among the contemporary governors.

In those day whenever Awo introduced a particular policy in the Western Region, Sar’dauna or Zik in the Northern Region or Eastern Region would respectively see that as a challenge and buckled up their belts to do similar thing in their regions. Do you see this kind of things among governors of States today?

There is this controversy going in Ilorin (Kwara) State that the government of the State is trying to acquire large portion of land from some villages within the Ilorin Emirate for public purpose of building “ILORIN (KWARA) SMART CITY”. Truly under the law , there is no doubt that a governor of a State being the custodian of all the land within his territory has the power to acquire any land for the public purpose and such land if acquired must be strictly used for the public purpose meant for and not something else.

The landowners that are deprived of the land must be adequately compensated even if relocated. What is yet to be clear from the scanty information available is that: what is this ILORIN (KWARA) SMART CITY is all about to qualify as public purpose? The Kwara State Government owes the people of State the responsibility to come out clear and clean on this. There should not be a repeat in Kwara State of what is presently happening between the Government of Lagos State and the Landlords as well as landowners of Magodo-Shangisha area of the State where according to a report the :

“Legal dispute over the Magodo land started about 38 years ago when the Lagos State Government acquired the land in the area and demolished structures in the pretext of putting the expanse of land for public use. But sooner after the acquisition and displacement of the original occupants, the land was allocated to private individuals for the development of their private properties, prompting the displaced owners, Chief Adebayo and others to approach the Lagos High Court on behalf of the entire landlords whose list was attached then in their suit against the government. The High Court thereafter issued allottees an order asking the State government and its allottees to stop doing anything on the disputed land until final determination of the suit, but this order was disobeyed by the government and its allottees as they continue to sell and develop the area. The landlords later defeated the government which was asked to as a matter of first priority allocate 549 plots of the land to the Association and its members as contained in the list. But not satisfied with the judgment, the Lagos State government took the matter to Appeal Court where the lower court judgment was upheld. ”

Despite the concurrent judgments of the two courts, the Lagos State Government still proceeded to the Supreme Court wanting to have the judgement set aside but the Supreme Court disagreed with the Lagos State Government and upheld the judgment of the two courts below.

The usurpation was done under the military regime that believed and derived its power from the barrel of the gun. Despite all the orders of court restraining them they refused to comply but now that they are no longer in power, the civilian government that inherited power from them must equally inherit the asset and liability by complying with the judgment of the Supreme Court.

Nigeria is a country well blessed with vast rich and fertile land that if properly put into serious agricultural and industrial use they are capable of contributing significantly to the economic development of this country.

Unfortunately the contemporary leaders are not interested in that which is the reason why there are hunger and starvation in the country. One just hopes that the ILORIN (KWARA) SMART CITY being proposed will not go the way of the Magodo-Shangisa in Lagos Station. I personally believe that what most of these villages whose land are being contemplating to be acquired need are well planned farm settlements that will boost investment in mechanized farming of various kinds that will prompt agribusiness and industrialisation capable of generating employment for the great number unemployed youths as being done in some developed countries.

Unfortunately we have a lot of able bodied men roaming about the streets doing nothing rather being on the farm settlement doing one thing or the other to earn fees. I have said it somewhere else that the government should get the issue of the security right and focus of the rural development by establishing farms of different plantations with farm settlements where necessary.

The idea of government flying uncountable number of key point agenda to be focus on will be meaningless if nothing is achieved at the end of the day rather than just pick 3 or 4 to include targeting stable and adequate supply of electricity will be enough for a government that meant well for the Nigerian people.

NOTE: Anyone is at liberty to disagree with my above submissions as I will surely appreciate a balanced, fair and objective rebuttal.

•Ibrahim can be reached through: abdulrasheedibrahim362@gmail.com