POLITICAL RESTRUCTURING AND DEVOLUTION OF POWERS AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

The word “restructuring” has acquired widespread usage, with sonorous reverberations, particularly in Nigeria’s public space within the last 18 months of the coming to office of the Buhari Administration. In historical terms, it must be emphasized that this is not the first time that words with prefixes such as “Re” have found their ways into national consciousness and reckoning. As a matter of fact, after the bitterly fought civil war between 1967 and 1970 in the country, the Yakubu Gowon Administration coined the three “Re’s,” namely, “Re-conciliation:” “Reconstruction;” and “Re-habilitation;” to depict the determination of the regime then to come up with programs that would, at least, be used to blunt the rough edges of the traumatic years of the civil war on the war-torn erstwhile Eastern Region. It should be quickly stressed that the three “Re’s” were not even evocative then as compared to the current“restructuring” crusade that some of its protagonists would be prepared to even pay the supreme sacrifice in order to realize it.

If what should have been the more evocative “Re’s” did not bring out the worst in us (considering the fact that during and, particularly, shortly after the war emotions were still high given that lives were lost on both sides and properties were similarly destroyed), then the tenor of the call for restructuring, even when it is not conceptually so crystal clear at this point in time, should makeresolve of government to embark on re-conciliation, re-construction, and re-habilitation should have been resisted. But the feeling then was that the war was a misadventure by the rebels who took up arms against their fatherland; they were misguided and therefore should be forgiven. Between then and now, so much water has passed under the bridge as far as nationbuilding process is concerned. This is to the extent that some people openly canvass the dismemberment of the country, as its peoples cannot stay together. True federation and resource control have increasingly become buzzwords in recent times in Nigeria. The discussions, debates and controversies are predicated on who gets “what”, “when”, “how” and “why” of the national resources amongst the levels of government, that is, the vertical arid horizontal allocation.

Federalism is one of the most pressing problems concerning many states of the world today. The nature and conditions of the financial relations, in any federal system of government, is important for the survival of such a system. Thus, in most of all federal states, one of the constant areas of intergovernmental wrangling centres on the problem of b securing adequate financial resources for the lower tiers of government, to discharge their essential political and constitutional responsibilities. Although, the call for resource control and true federalism had been disparate in Nigeria’s new democratic experience since May 1999, it assumed L a more co-ordinated dimension when the southern Governors began their conferences. In a 17-point communique, the governors resolved among other things:”That Resource control and derivation should henceforth &be accepted as the basis for revenue generation and allocation; and that Nigerian’s federal status as presently constituted be restructured along a legal framework that would grant reasonable measure of autonomy to the states and component parts of the federation”. Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, the host governor, articulated the whole”the raging agitation in the Niger Delta as well as other parts of the country were compelling indication that resource control and restructuring had become imperative in order to resolve the turning issues of Nigeria’s continued nationhood

The seed of discords between the states and the Federal Government was sown by the military intervention in politics, specifically in 1969 by Cowon, and sustained by the MurtalaI Obasanjo regime between 1975-1979. In 1969, Gowon had vested all minerals in the control of the Federal Government. He enacted decree No. 9 of 1971, whereby: “the rights of the regions (states) in the minerals in their continental shelves were abrogated and ownership and title to the territorial waters, continental shelf as well as royalties, rents and other revenues derived from or .relating to the exploration, prospecting or searching for or winning or working of petroleum from seaward appurtenances of the states become vested in the Federal Government”. Subsequent governments, including that of AlhajiShehuShagari, sustamed this policy of absolute control of minerals by the Federal Government. Expectedly, those constitutional provisions brought some of the states in the South-South in constant clash with the Federal Government. Late Governor Ambrose Ali of the former BendelStatedand late Governor Clement lsong of Cross River State challenged the authority of the Federal Government at the law courts over the vexed issue of resource control.

1.2 Statement Of Problem

To all intents and purposes, resource control, remains a major point of disagreement between the centre and the federating units. It raises important questions of ownership, control, management, equity, justice, fairness, natural rights, even development;and the processes of inter-governmental relations. In Africa, land is an important value, both occupational and spiritual. The attachment to land determines a people’s sense of identity, and serves as the primary basis for the construction of their history. Land and space is much about ownership, control and distribution of resources therein. The Latin maxim, “quid quidplantato solo so credit”, that is, he who owns land owns what is on, under and above it, speak much of the value placed on land in Nigeria.It is in view of this that the researcher intends to investigate the impact of political restructuring and devolution of powers and national development in Nigeria.

1.3 Objective Of The Study

The main objective of the study is to investigate the impact of political restructuring and devolution of powers and national development in Nigeria, to aid the completion of the study, the researcher intends to achieve the following specific objective:

1. To investigate the impact of political restructuring in the national development of Nigeria
2. To ascertain the effect of devolution of powers on National unity
3. To investigate if there is any relationship between political restructuring and national development in Nigeria
4. To examine the role of devolution of powers on the economic development of Nigeria

1.4 Research Hypotheses

To aid the completion of the study the following research hypotheses were formulated by researcher

1. H0: political restructuring has no impact on the national development of Nigeria
   H1: political restructuring has impact on the national development of Nigeria
2. H02: there is no significant relationship between political restructuring and national development
   H2: there is a significant relationship between political restructuring and national development

1.5 Significance Of The Study

At the completion of the study, it is believed that the findings will be of great importance to the federal government of Nigeria as the study seek to enumerate the benefit of political restructuring to the national unity of the country, this is because when the federal character is properly adhered to it brings the sense of oneness and national unity, the findings of the study will also help the long standing problem of national disunity in the country The study will also be of great benefit to researcher who intends to embark on research in similar topic as the study will serve as a reference point to the study. Finally, the study will be of great importance to academia’s, researchers, lecturers, teachers, students, and the general public as the findings will add to the pool of knowledge.

1.6 Scope And Limitation Of The Study

The scope of the study covers political restructuring and devolution of powers and national development, in the cause of the study, there were some factors which limited the scope of the study:

(a) Availability of research material:

The research material available to the researcher is insufficient thereby limiting the study.

(b) Time:

The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.

(c) Finance:

The finance available for the research work does not allow for wider coverage as resources are very limited as the researcher has other academic bills to cover.

1.7 Definition Of Terms

Politics

Politics is the process of making decisions that apply to members of a group. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governanceorganized control over a human community, particularly a state.

Restructuring

Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs

Devolution

Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level.

1.8 Organization Of The Study

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows

• Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), statement of problem, objectives of the study, research question, significance or the study, research methodology, definition of terms and historical background of the study.
• Chapter two highlight theoretical framework on which the study its based, thus the review of related literature.
• Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study.
• Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.
• Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.