Photo credit: the Cable
That Nigeria is not yet a federation has never been in doubt. The fact has been made much more apparent by the South West- sponsored Operation Amotekun.
For a nation to be considered as a federation, certain hurdles should have been crossed. The first is that the federating states should come together under a law. Second is that they might always exercise their rights to cease to be part of the federation, if the need arises.
Above all, they must not lose their rights to self governance. In any case, the federating states and the federation shall operate by a law of separation of powers.
At best, what I can say Nigeria is practising is a primitive kind of Unitarianism. For those who might want to ask questions on my describing Nigeria’s system as primitive, I will refer them to France which is practising one of the most advanced forms Unitarianism.
If Nigeria had been a true federation, most of the resources which are now being controlled by the federal government should have been within the purview of the federating units.
In fact, it’s a thing of shame that the states go every month to beg for allocations from Abuja. I would have thought it should have been the other way round.
On this Operation Amotekun issue, since individuals and communities have the right to defend their own terrains by employing private security personnel, I fail to see any problem in states coming together for the defence of their states. Most especially, when it is considered that the security system has failed in Nigeria.
I believe all hands should be on deck to make Nigeria a true federation. As far as I’m concerned we stand more to gain, if we could stay as one country.
In the absence of that, I will quote 1 Kings 12:16, ‘To your tents O Israel!’.
The Yoruba will say, ‘A kii ba ni tan, ka fa’ni n’tan ya’!
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