NAL Charges N’Assembly on Devolution of Power 

By Bennett Oghifo

The National Assembly has been urged to revisit the issue of devolution of power in the on-going Constitutional review.

The Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) stated this in a communiqué signed by its President, Professor Olu Obafemi, after its 19th Convocation, Scientific Session and Investiture of new Fellows, held at the University of Lagos.

The nation, according to the group, “needs to urgently reassess the structure of power to enable sub-national interests to have a voice in the scheme of things.”

They said the governing elite must genuinely promote a national conversation to establish the basis, terms and nature of our nationhood.

“A true sovereign national, unfettered and unrestrained referendum must be engendered and empowered from the centre.

“All the previous recommendations that had been gathering dust should be revisited and a final document made which can then be submitted to popular acceptance through a referendum.”

“The envisioned restructured Nigeria should be a blend of federalism that encompasses greater fiscal autonomy, geopolitical zone structures and internal boundaries based on ethnic and subethnic divisions and identities. As interim measure, Government should revisit the report of the last National Confab and implement relevant recommendations that seek to resolve fiscal imbalance. In addition, the humongous salary structure of our legislators should be reviewed downward with due economic sense and equity.

“Our education system should be overhauled to inculcate a genuine sense of patriotism in our schoolchildren. History as a subject should document for our people our areas of successes and failure as a nation, project key ethical and moral conduct and perspectives such that can trigger national Patriotism and national survival; Government at all levels must rise up to defend and cater for its citizens at all times through appropriate policies for living up to its responsibilities in order to restore hope and commitment to the Nigerian state,” they said.

They called for “a transformational process of cultural education and reorientation so that our indigenous languages, flora, fauna and ecosphere take pre-eminence in our values and material formations. Our governments must, therefore invest in our formal and informal educational and research institutions.

“Our oral and literary artists and their arts are a viable tool for creating awareness amongst the people if we inculcate in them the spirit of responsibility, nationalism, patriotism, nation-building and oneness. Government should implement the endowments of the arts as provided for by our constitution and the nation’s cultural policy to support and encourage the work of established and growing creative artists respectively.

“Our political leaders and representatives should demonstrate exemplary patriotism in the running of our nation, knowing that a patriot’s major motive is the love of his country, upholding and defending our common interest.”

NAL had observed that “Nigeria inherited an unworkable and imbalanced state structure from our colonial masters at Independence, hence the consistent debate over restructuring has become the symbolic crystallisation point of deeper conflicts of identity, distribution of resources and sovereignty.

“There is a growing interest and strong resolve to dismantle the existing state structure and construct a new one based on equity and justice;

“Our problem in Nigeria is not a lack of ideas but the lack of political will to take decisive action. Our political leaders and representatives in government often betray our collective interest for personal gains; they show open obsession for federalism but bask in the practice of unitarism.

“There is lack of political will to deal with fundamental problems that hinder our developmental efforts; we fail to learn from history and our mistakes of the past become replicated in our national life. It is thus important to commend the Honourable Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu for restoring History as a subject in the curricula of our primary, and secondary schools, this year after nearly a 30-year of its removal.

There is a weak sense of national Patriotism in Nigeria. This is because our well-being as a people is observably inadequately protected; citizens are unable to find security and a sense of belonging, patriotism suffers, and there is the resurgence of various degrees of nationalism; we appear to owe more allegiance to our ethnic and linguistic groupings than to the Nigerian nation.”

They said “Literature, as a source of illumination and enlightenment, cannot, on its own, change society but can serve as catalytic tool of change when put to good use; and

“Patriotism and nationalism cannot function without genuine education, especially in a knowledge society.”