Nigerian Public Discourse: The Interplay of Empirical Evidence and Hyperbole

By Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN

From beginning to the end, Nigerian Public Discourse is a poignant insider's dissection of Nigeria's hydra-headed socio-political situation. Through courageous and radical intellectual analyses, the author questions the collective dissemination of myth garnished as facts in the discourse of national enterprise, a misadventure that has negatively

• Language: English
• Publisher: Quramo Publishing
• Release date: Jan 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9783952406953

Book preview

Dedication

Most of the thoughts, ideas and positions canvassed in this monograph derive largely from my public service experience of over two decades. This came at some cost borne largely by my family. My wife and children, my parents, aunties and uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces, as well as in-laws.

Thank you for your forbearance in my absence.

I dedicate this to you all.

Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Dialectics Of Local Discourse In A Global Context: A Case Study Of Nigeria’s Fiscal Mechanisms

Chapter 2: The Jurisprudential Imperative Of Law And Order: An Exegesis

Chapter 3: The Imperative Of Data And Statistical Analysis In Policy Formulation: A Scholarly Examination

Chapter 4: The Dilemma Of Out-Of-School Children: A Critical Examination Of An Educational Crisis

Chapter 5: The Enigma Of Housing Deficit: A Socio-Economic Dissection

Chapter 6: Deconstructing The Myth Of One Dollar A Day: An Economic Perspective

Chapter 7: Beyond The Grid: A Critical Examination Of The Electricity Dilemma

Chapter 8: The Challenge Of Unfair Comparisons

Chapter 9: Is Our Constitution The Fundamental Problem? A Legal Analysis

Chapter 10: The Conundrum Of Minimum Wage: A Comprehensive Remodelling Of The Salary Structure

Chapter 11: Duties And Responsibility Of Citizens

Chapter 12: Governance, Protocols, Frills And Cost: My Takeaway

Chapter 13: What Can The President Do For Me? A Critical Inquiry

Chapter 14: What Am I Voting For? An Analytical Perspective

Chapter 15: Restructuring For A Better Life— Lessons From Brexit

Chapter 16: Reinventing Nigeria: The Rights And Duties Of Government And Citizens

Appendix I: Presentation Of The Report Of [Nigerian] Constitution Debate Coordinating Committee (Cdcc)

Appendix Ii: Summary Of Interventions Of Inec In Electoral Activities Of Countries In Africa

Appendix Iii: Sample Report Of Federal Road Safety Corps Road Traffic Crashes Monthly Report

Index

Foreword

This collection of essays is the experience of a seasoned administrator—eight years as Governor of Lagos State and eight years as Minister of Works and Housing, with Power added to his portfolio for a period of time.

As Governor, he policed the Nigeria Police. He went around Lagos traffic with no fanfare and sirens, without pomp, or overt display of power. He brought the ethos of good traffic habits to the consciousness of school children (unfortunately, not enough of the older generation took heed) by way of an annual road safety week programme to teach the general public how to use the roads as it used to be in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The author of this book informs us that power generated in Nigeria is more than the 4,000 MW (from national grid) the world is made to believe. This is because 35.2 MW generated by Lagos State Government and 12.15 MW generated by Akute Independent Power Plant (a sub-total of 47.35 MW) are not taken into account. All these make Nigeria's total generated power 4,047.35 MW for 200 million Nigerians. While this is still far below, for example, South Africa's national output of 58,095 MW for a population of 50 million, the incremental progress made in this sector must be acknowledged.

And now, a word about the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Unlike the American Constitution which has stood the test of time since 1789 with 27 amendments (mostly on admission of new states) to date, Nigeria amends her constitutions almost every other day! Federalism as clearly defined in the 1954 and 1960 Constitutions does not carry the same meaning as in the 1999 Constitution (as amended)! What we have today is a unitary system of government with federal features.

What with a unified judiciary under the Chief Justice of Nigeria, and the National Judicial Council appointing High Court Judges of all the 36 States of the Federation! The 1963 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the other hand consisted of five parts, one for the Federation, and the other four for each of the Regions. And under the Constitution of each Region, the Judges of the High Court shall be appointed by the Governor acting on the advice of the Premier.

What with Federal Government intervention in Land and Housing, items which were not in the Exclusive Legislative Lists in any of our constitutions since 1954! These two items are in the past 44 years residuary matters exclusively for the State, under section 4 (7) (a) of the 1979 or 1999 Constitution.

State Governors these past few years spend every other week at the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, wanting to see Mr President, or to collect their statutory allocations.

I must end this part of the Foreword with Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s admonition to the present writer when he, (as Federal Commissioner for Works and Housing) sent his draft memorandum entitled National Housing Policy to the Federal Ministry of Finance for clearance as customary for Federal Executive Council memoranda with financial implication.

The sage said to the young enthusiast who wanted to follow Harold Mac Millian’s achievement of 300,000 Housing Units per annum for Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Femi, what’s your business with housing? The young idealist’s eyes became wide open. The constitutional lawyer came back to him.

Thereafter, the socialist idealist turned his sight to the establishment of the Federal Mortgage Bank instead of providing houses for Nigerians. He had no Federal state land anyway on which to build houses, because land and housing are residuary matters under all our constitutions. End of the story.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria was originally made up of three British colonies: The first was Lagos Settlement (1862), later to become the Colony of Lagos before the end of the century. The other two were the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria (1 January 1900) and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria (1 January 1900). In 1906, with Sir Walter Egerton as the Governor of the Colony of Lagos as well as the Governor of the Southern Protectorate, there was a minor amalgamation of the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.

On 1st January 1914, His Majesty’s Government in Britain proclaimed that the countries known as the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria and the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria be amalgamated into one country known as Nigeria.

This book seeks to open up a national discourse on a variety of issues on governance of Nigeria in the past 50 years. It contains a pandora box—of incorrect narrative, and misunderstandings of data to the emergence of a new breed of politicians whose personal interests must align with national interests; a federal system of government sometimes with and without federal features. The case of alleged Federal Government quarters on Lagos State land at Ikoyi is a case in point. Most of the quarters have been sold unilaterally by the Federal Government without reference to Lagos State.

There is also the case of the Federal Government reinventing laws in 2004, laws earlier transferred to Lagos State in 1990. These laws declared spent, transferred to Lagos State have reappeared in the 2004 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria. Let the debate on restructuring begin from here. Hopefully, the Federation of Nigeria will re-emerge.

The 1922 Clifford Constitution created a Legislative Council and an Executive Council of white officials, and white businessmen with Africans from the Colony and Southern Protectorate as unofficial members, while the Northern Protectorate was firmly under Native Authority control.

The Richards Constitution redressed the balance by creating Western and Eastern Regions out of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria in 1946. It also brought the three regions and Lagos Colony under one Legislative Council. It was the Lyttleton Constitution which in 1954, introduced the Federal System of government in Nigeria, followed by the 1960 and the 1963 republican Constitution. And on 27th May 1967, Major General Yakubu Gowon created the Twelve-State structure to redress the imbalance in size and population between the North and the South.

Elimination of Revenue Allocation Formula from the 1979 Constitution and creation of more states from Twelve to Thirtysix which has significantly increased the cost of governance have put Nigeria in the state the country is today. To these, we must add the emergence of full time legislators at federal and state levels and the constituency projects of the legislators.

Enjoy this thought provoking book. You too can delve into the Nigerian Public Discourse and hopefully begin to unravel The Interplay of Empirical Evidence and Hyperbole.

Let the debate begin, and hopefully, a New Nigeria full of patriotism will emerge.

Femi Okunnu, SAN, CON.

(Federal Commissioner for Works & Housing, May 1967 to

December 1974)

Lagos, 20th September 2023

Preface

The promise of Nigeria is a dream with which I have been endlessly fascinated as early as my youthful mind became cognitive. I recall with pride my teenage days when Nigeria was on the lips and consciousness of major leaders and people across the globe. That Nigeria, I know, was powered by her citizens’ hard work, their self-pride and their values.

Then came perhaps what can be called the tectonic shift. Nigeria began to have problems. Who better to prick the conscience than one of her literary giants, Chinua Achebe? He published The Trouble with Nigeria and like many at the time, I got a copy and read it. That was in 1983; I was 20 years old.

It seems that the problem did not go away. It seems that we did not do enough. I was a young adult then, now I am a parent and two generations of us have perhaps ignored an affliction or series of them that are hobbling the promise of Nigeria and my childhood dream.

This is as best as I can contextualise the state of my mind as I embarked on this maiden literary adventure. I know not where it will lead in the effort to unlock the promise of Nigeria and deliver the Nigerian Dream for the next and future generations of Nigerians. I expect at the minimum that it will not only provoke further talks but hopefully lead to decisive actions that will deliver solutions. In that sense, this would have been a successful debut.

While I take full responsibility for the thoughts, expressions and any shortcomings, I must acknowledge the contributions of Olanrewaju Akinsola who helped to produce the first draft from my dictations, Olasupo Shasore SAN and Jamiu Abiola who responded positively to my appeal for editorial help. I thank my publishers, Quramo Publishing Limited, for the tenacity of purpose in midwifing this book.

My deep gratitude goes to Alhaji Femi Okunnu, SAN who at 90 years old indulged my request and pressure to contribute the foreword, and, of course, to Professor Wole Soyinka who offered critical and valuable advice.

Hakeem Bello, Terfa Tilley-Gyado, and Femi Akinyelure did the proofreading, fact-checking, and provided data for the work. I thank you all.

Of course, my wife Abimbola was involved and to her, I am indebted for proofreading and many corrections.

Introduction

Throughout my career as a jurist and public servant, operating at both the national and subnational echelons, I have frequently encountered a plethora of seemingly definitive and categorical pronouncements concerning the state of our nation. These pronouncements, often disseminated by public analysts, social commentators, and even public servants themselves, aim to delineate the state, condition, or quality of various sectors of our national life. Given the stature, position, office, and qualifications of the individuals proffering these categorical assertions, the average Nigerian citizen is often inclined to perceive them as irrefutable truths.

These pronouncements are disseminated with such unwavering conviction that it often becomes a formidable task to summon the courage to critically examine their veracity without appearing either naive or contrarian. Consequently, a mere conjecture or personal opinion, expressed with authority on a national platform, assumes the guise of an empirical principle which cannot be disputed. With repeated retelling, such personal sentiments tend to take on a life of their own, and it is only a matter of time before they become accepted as indisputable facts.

One of my earliest encounters with one of these unquestionable facts was the purported relationship between the Lagos Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean. You may have heard the prevailing narrative that the waters of the lagoon and the ocean must not mix, and the proponents of this narrative refer to the artificial barriers created by the colonialists to separate the two bodies of water. This narrative was deeply ingrained in the Lagos of my formative years. We were informed that if the waters were to be contained in the same vessel, the container would instantaneously shatter due to the enmity between the lagoon and the ocean. It was not until my adolescence that I realised this narrative was merely a myth.

Of course, research and history has now taught us that the artificial barrier was no more than a breakwater constructed as routine infrastructure in support of the building of the Apapa port in Lagos around 1921.

Another instance pertains to a football match between Nigeria and India, in which the Asian nation purportedly triumphed with an astounding score of 90 goals to none, attributed to their fabled wizardry. All my endeavours to uncover the truth behind this infamous match