
Indeed, there is need to restructure this country along the lines of these relationships. A restructured Nigeria will have the potentials of its people unleashed. Now, we are seldom respected in the comity of nations. But a Nigeria whose constitution empowers the people will be a country whose citizens are seldom disrespected. In the light of all that has been said so far, the question is, and ought to be asked: what should a new or modified federal constitution look like in Nigeria?
First, the Nigerian constitution must provide adequate answers to three fundamental questions I have referred to in earlier written interventions: The question of the relationship between the citizen and the state; the question of relationship among the various arms, tiers and institutions of government; the question of relationship between a citizen and a fellow citizen. Secondly, in addressing the question of the relationship between the state and the citizen, the Constitution must set up the state as subservient to the citizen.
In this regard, section 2 of the 1999 Constitution needs to be expunged or modified. Instead of a constitutional ascription of sovereignty to the state, the Nigerian Constitution must state explicitly that sovereignty belongs to the people, and that the state is to serve and preserve the sovereignty of the people. The state exists for the citizen not the citizen for the state. The state is an instrument in the hands of citizens. A state that is superior to the citizen is a state that is either totalitarian or on the verge of totalitarianism.
Thirdly, in addressing the question of the relationship among the various arms, tiersand institutions of government, the principle and practice of separation of powers and corresponding checks and balances must be clearly enshrined in the Constitution. In the current dispensation, not only is the state more powerful than the citizen, the President is like an emperor to the whole country, heading a federal government that lords it over state governments. State Governors, for their part, govern like emperors over local governments in their states.
The local government has literally gone into extinction. The new constitution must clearly provide for the autonomy of state and local governments. Such autonomy would be consistent with the fact that these governments are elected by the people. Neither state governors nor local government chairmen are appointees of the President, but of the people who voted them into office. As for relationship among the three arms of government, independence of the judiciary and the legislature vis-à-vis the executive arm of government must be sacrosanct. Such independence is violated when the President fires the Chief Justice.
Appointment and discipline of heads of the judiciary and the legislature should not be in the hands of the head of the executive arm of government. It is sufficient for the head of the executive arm of government to nominate justices to the Supreme Court for confirmation by the legislature. Once that is done, a vote of the legislature would be required to remove such a judge from the bench. In the same way, to avoid the scenario of a rubber stamp legislature, members of the legislative arm are to appoint who heads that arm without any interference from the executive arm. Fourthly, since the power of government is being reduced, the new constitution must commensurately reduce size and cost of governance at the centre, and at the state and local government level.
To reduce the size of government, the constitution shall provide for a unicameral legislature in place of the bicameral legislature in the 1999 Constitution. Members of parliament shall be paid according to the number of hours they sit. In other words, their work is part-time and not full-time. Fifthly, the Constitution shall provide for not more than eight ministers of the federal government which shall include, foreign affairs, defence, internal affairs, finance. To be appointed minister, one would have been elected into the federal parliament. The office of Vice President should be abolished. Instead of that office, the President shall appoint as Prime Minister one of the ministers. His functions shall be that of a coordinating minister.

Where the office of President becomes vacant, the Speaker of the Federal Parliament shall be Acting President until elections are held. The same shall be the case in each of the states in the federation. The Governor shall appoint his Commissioners, who shall not exceed five in number, from members of the state parliament. One of them shall be known as Premier and shall be in the state cabinet what the coordinating minister is in the federal cabinet. Where the office of Governor becomes vacant during his or her tenure, the Speaker of the State Parliament shall be acting Governor until elections are held. Presidents and Governors shall be in office for five years, and their terms shall not be renewable. Sixthly, democracy is government by representation.
Those who represent the people must constantly consult with the people and be regularly accountable to the people. Consequently, the new constitution shall make it mandatory that ministers and commissioners give bimonthly reports of their stewardship to parliament. By so doing, they will be accountable to the people through their representatives in parliament. In the same vein, the constitution shall make it mandatory that the President, State Governors and Local Government Chairmen present quarterly reports of their stewardship to the people through the federal, state or local parliament as may be applicable. Seventhly, the new constitution must drastically reduce the number of items on the exclusive legislative list so as to reduce the size of government at the centre.
As it is now, Nigerians can neither obtain nor renew a driver’s licence without the consent of the Federal Road Safety Corps, a federal parastatal based in Abuja; admission into tertiary education cannot be obtained without the consent of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, another parastatal based in Abuja; a university cannot be licenced without the National Universities Commission, a parastatal based in Abuja; no university can introduce a new programme without the consent of the same parastatal based in Abuja. The list is illustrative and not exhaustive of instances where services that can and ought to be rendered by local authorities are appropriated by federal parastatals. A shortened exclusive legislative list will reduce the number of ministries and parastatals in Nigeria.
Security will not be left in the hands of the federal government alone. State and local government police will be provided for in the new constitution. If state and local governments are constitutionally empowered to legislate, then they must have the power to enforce their laws. There is legitimate fear that state and local police could be used to settle political scores. However, since the police is an agency of government, if government is accountable to the people, the police can be held accountable. The primary role of the police is to protect the constitutional rights of the citizen. Unfortunately, Nigerians live in a country where the police is at the vanguard of human rights violation. To allay the legitimate fear of misuse of the police, there is need to define the terms of engagement between security apparatus and the citizen. Fundamentally, the police is not to violate, but to protect the constitutional rights of the citizen.
Therefore, a security officer who is proven to have violated this trust is to face stiff sanctions. Heads of the police or heads of the judiciary at federal, state or local government level are not to be appointed by the President, or Governor or Local Government Chairman, as the case may be. They are to be appointed by an independent and neutral body made up of representatives of bodies such as the Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerian Union of Journalists, subject to confirmation by the legislature. The same is to be said of the head of the electoral commission. As things stand at the moment, the loyalty of the police and of the electoral commission is not to the people but to the state.
That is why these two critical organs of state are easily used to violate human rights, and to violate the integrity of the electoral process. Eighthly, mineral resources should not be in the hands of any government—federal, state or local. A Nigerian who buys a piece of land and finds any mineral deposit there is the rightful owner of what he finds on his land. Of course, exploiting what he finds on it will compel him to employ people to work with him. That will create jobs. He will pay taxes to the local government, not to the federal government, and that will economically empower our local governments. The new constitution should leave powers to make laws on mining to the local government.
This will ensure that control of wealth is by the people through the tier of government that is closest to the people. In the same vein, and to ensure a truly representative democracy at the local government level, the political and fiscal autonomy of this tier of government must be clearly stipulated in the constitution. There is no democracy where local government chairmen are appointed and controlled by governors or installed by governors. They are not representatives of the governor, but representatives of the people. In spite of all the challenges we have to face, and in spite of the dangerous defects in what we call our democracy, one is permitted to end on a positive note by saying: Nigeria is a blessing from God waiting to be received. A blessing is a gift.
But a gift is also a task. When we Nigerians assume the task of thinking and working for the common good we would be disposed to receiving the gift, the blessing that Nigeria is. Assuming this task necessarily passes through the writing of a truly federal constitution whose institutions will adequately manage our diversity. Without such a constitution, peace and prosperity will continue to elude Nigeria. It is my final submission that a truly federal Nigeria will be secure and prosperous for us, for our children, and for generations yet unborn.
• Rev. Fr. Anthony Akinwale, OP is a Professor and Deputy Vice Chancellor, Augustine University Ilara-Epe, Lagos State