Rilwan Balogun

EQUALITY is leaving the door open for anyone who has the means to approach; equity is ensuring there is a path to that door for those who need it.

    – Caroline Belden

Development agenda(s) have been the central focuses of every government in all developing countries in the world. No doubt, every responsible and responsive government needs map out some forms of agenda as a blueprint for its administration, hence, Nigerian government is no exception. According to some political enthusiasts, our stance as a nation to true federalism is the bane of our political, social and economic development, hence, colossal deformities. The duo concepts of equity and equality are paradoxically bipolar but Siamese concepts that pose some technicalities when defining and applying them.

In a more concerned manner, these concepts are literally and technically abused and misinterpreted, perhaps because of their wide latitudes, as they relate to political, social and economic discourses. According to Blaze Bolenbarghin his research, posited that when these two concepts are reversely defined, what this breeds are inequity and inequality which have been on astronomical increase and permeated, virtually every political, social and economic space in developing countries. Many Philosophers have argued that, what perhaps, brings about these malaises is the global economic processes of globalization, economic liberalization, and integration.

While emphasizing on the impact of ascertaining equity in the development of every society, the World Bank’s World Development Report, 2006 on Equity and Development placed a concern on social justice and combating inequality at the centre of the development paradigm.According to the report, what had attracted so much attention by economic policy makers of every country is the fact that inequality and inequity have become more central to both academic inquiry and policy debates in develop and developing countries alike.Inequality, therefore, at global space to wit: economic, political and social have been an underpinning factor sabotaging the performance of every government in power.

Nigeria is a mere geographical expression comprising many nations with diverse backgrounds and beliefs. The focus of this critique is an examinationof the conspicuous part of the Nigeria’s constitution which states in its preamble that “… we the people of Nigeria have resolved to provide for a constitution for the purpose of promoting the good government and welfare of all persons in our country on the principles of freedom, equality and justice and for the purpose of consolidating the unity of our people”. [ emphasis mine].

Based on the above wish and aspirations, one could inquisitively surmise and query that, in a bid by the government to propagate good governance and cater for its teeming citizenry, what then is the best political, social and economic ideology that can be adopted by the government, in other to bring to reality its constitutional wishes and aspirations as  propagated in the preamble to its grund norm? Would it be right to say the best and most effective principle the government needs adopt is the principle based on equity or equality? On a more technical definition or interrogation could it be justifiably said that the two words are six of twelve, half a dozen of the other or words that are bipolar apart?

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One of the most contentious issues that the 2014 National Conference grappled with was fiscal federalism; the allocation of revenue collection, taxation right between and among the federal and states governments. This includes the so called “resource control” question. As a matter of fact, the convoluted Fiscal Revenue Allocation formular and the most chewed “resource control” question in Nigeria forms a central theme in government characterized by a chequered historical antecedent. {Onuigbo et al 2015] In a nation, where there are multi ethnic groups like our dear Nigeria, equity in it baseline definition is where societal wealth is distributed based on the need of every diverse group.Here, what we get from this equity ideology is the fair treatment, access, opportunity and advancement for all people, while at the same time striving to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of some groups.

The concept of equity both in social, economic and political spaces transcends the shallow understanding of what those at the helms of affairs in Nigeria can relate. As a matter of fact, adherence to equity concept in governance involves increasing justice and fairness within the procedure and processes of all institutions or systems, as well as in their distribution of resources.

Equity is the quality of being fair and impartial, it involves treating each individual according to his or her need. On the other hand, equality in relation to social, economic and political development has to do with the idea of all-inclusive and the extermination of the idea of the medieval political philosophers who assumed that human beings were not merely different, but equal in terms of their moral, political and social worth.

This school of thought deems this natural; a phenomenon which inherently natural, hence, man cannot do away with it.Equality is the state or quality of being equal, involves treating every individual in the same manner, irrespective of their differences and needs.sThe idea of all-inclusive doctrine aimed at achieving equality among the diverse groups in Nigeria reflects in its constitution, hence the provision of section 14(3) of the Nigeria’s 1999 constitution, a fortiori subsection 4 of same section stretching its constitutional stance to the state level.

The section stoutly stipulates that the composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.

Drawing from the analytical comparism of the duo concepts of equity and equality as contemplated by the two relevant provisions, that is the preamble to the constitution and section 14(3)of the same constitution, it can thus, be concluded that there are two contradictory stances of the constitution, which can only thread similar but different paths as regard governance in a multi ethnic society like Nigeria.

Balogun, a legal practitioner, writes from Lagos via [email protected]