Jibril: Nigeria needs power devolution

Former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) Prof Munzali Jibril has called for the devolution of powers, responsibilities and resources from the centre to the federating units.

He kicked against the demand for full retructuring of the country, adding that “restructuring Nigeria into six or more geo-political region will only take us fifty years back.”

He spoke in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital while delivering the 8th convocation lecture of Al-Hikmah University.

The lecture was entitled: ‘To restructure or not to restruture Nigeria: That is the question.’

He said that as “a corollary to the envisaged refom, we must restore accountability and good governance to the system.”

Jibril said: “Accountability is very low in Nigeria today considering the impunity with which political office holders, especially governors, convert public assets to their own. Two of them have been jailed recently but there are many more who are not being investigated.

“Surprisingly, the Nigerian elite seem less concerned about more critical issues such as accountability and good governance that they are with restructuring. We may return to all the lofty ideals of the first republic, such as fiscal federalism ahnd the derivation principle but without restoring accountability and good governance we would be enriching a few individuals and impoversihing our communities.

“When the military dabbled into politics, it regarded its mission as an extention of military duties and so gradually but systematically and relentlessly it embarked on the centralisation of administrative authority at the federal and thereby weakened the regions and then the states.

He added: “The argument that states are not viable is a lame excuse. The proper thing to do is for us to retrace our steps and devolve power, responsibility and resources back to the states.

“A critical examination of the sxi geopolitical zones would reveal that only two of them, the South-West and South-East, are truly homogenuous in terms of ethnic composition. All others, including the North-West, have substantial ethnic and cultural minorities within them ore are artificial assortment of communities that share no common historical or other affinities.”