Moshood Adebayo
Lagos Governor, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, has offered a fresh impetus on how true federalism can solve the current security challenges bedeviling Nigeria and put the country on the path of accelerated development.
He said decentralisation of some exclusive functions of the Federal Government, including provision of security, would provide instant answer to the current agitations threatening the unity of the country. The Governor said the emergence of “beggar-states” as the major constituents of the Nigeria’s federation would not take the country to the future it desires in a world that is developing rapidly.
He said the flawed federalist ideals enshrined in the 1999 Constitution had continuously limited the power of the states to pursue individual development at their own pace, stressing that Nigeria must holistically address the “fundamental question” of federalism if the political class was serious about lifting the country out of the current quagmire.
Sanwo-Olu spoke, yesterday, at the Freedom Online third annual lecture with the theme: “Nigeria: Foundation, Fundamentals and Future.”
Represented by his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, he recalled that Nigeria was administered efficiently during the period of regional arrangement, pointing out that the feat was achieved because each region assumed autonomy on its resources and developed at its own paces without relying on handouts from the centre.
“One of the legacies of military rule was the abolition of powerful and largely financially independent regional governments, and replacement with weaker entities known as States. These States were of course beholden to a very powerful central government that doled out resources to them and used every opportunity to make it clear that the states were appendages of the centre.
“At the time, the regions worked hard, earned their revenues from exports, from taxes, and so on, and kept a large chunk of what they earned. None of them came to Lagos – the then Federal Capital – with caps in hands for what we now refer to as ‘Federal Allocation’. Every region survived mainly on its internally generated revenue. There was also a healthy competition among the regions.”