Do you want to live and work in the United States of Nigeria as opposed to the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Would you rather be a citizen of USN rather than FRN?
I ask that question because there is a renewed clamour for the renaming of the giant of Africa from its present identification as the Federal Republic of Nigeria to a new one, the United States of Nigeria. The current wave was triggered by Africa’s Optimist-In-Chief and President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, in his brilliant lecture delivered at his investiture as winner of the Obafemi Awolowo Leadership Prize 2024.
I used to be bothered by appearing to be a blind copycat, especially if there was another way of presenting something that was not totally new. Follow the beaten path or create a new one? Most times, I opt to be as original as I can be without necessarily trying to reinvent the wheel. So, when the issue of renaming Nigeria re-emerged in the marketplace of public discourse, I was quite interested in steering the discourse towards more enduring territories than a mere copying and domestication of another country’s name.
What’s In A Name?
Some people have asked, what’s in a name? They argue that there’s no intrinsic value to a name and that any name is as good as any other. Of course, Shakespeare disagrees. In his play, Romeo and Juliet, he asks, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”
By extension, following that argument, no matter the name you give to Nigeria, the country will still be what it is.
For our collective sakes, we should all be eager to prevent the discussion from degenerating into the usual pedestrian level of naming for naming’s sake. The change of name suggested by Dr. Adesina is but one of the items in a long list of ingredients required to make the Nigerian developmental soup of our dreams.
Adesina argues that Nigeria must dream. Like many analysts of the African condition before him, he links the destinies of Nigeria and the African continent together in a symbiotic relationship. He argues that we must start by unleashing our full potential while managing our challenges. We must make poverty history in Nigeria and, indeed, in Africa.
How can we achieve this? Adesina reels out a five-point agenda: “First, rural economic transformation and food security. Second, health care security for all. Third, education for all. Fourth, access to affordable housing for all. Fifth, government accountability and fiscal decentralisation for a true federalism.
In Adesina’s view, a better Africa must start with the transformation of rural economies. That is because some 70% of the population live there. A nation without a sound health care system is a nation that is defenceless against the invasion of all forms of disease or epidemics.
He argues that, “What is not acceptable or sustainable is an Africa that imports 70-80% of its medicines and produces just 1% of its vaccines. The health security of Africa’s 1.4 billion people cannot be subjugated to global supply chains or the generosity of others.”
Disclosing that over the last seven years, AfDB had invested over $8.5 billion in agriculture, which had impacted 250 million people, Adesina declares that the transformation of rural economies must be structural, systemic, strategic and comprehensive.
Not surprisingly, he advocates education and housing for all. He points out that, “Nigeria accounts for 15% of the total population of out-of-school children, according to UNICEF, with over 10.2 million at the primary school level, and 8.1 million at the Junior Secondary School. This is not a gold medal Nigeria should be proud of… I firmly believe that their future lies in a rapidly developing Nigeria, and Africa, that is able to generate quality jobs with competitive wages and a decent quality of life for millions of youths. That is why the African Development Bank Group and partners have provided $614 million to Nigeria for the i-DICE program to support the development of digital and creative enterprises, which are expected to create 6.3 million jobs and add an estimated $6.4 billion to the Nigerian economy.
Specifically on housing, Dr. Adesina notes that, “In Nigeria, 49% of the population live in slums, according to data by UN-Habitat. That is a staggering 102 million people! That is 152% of the population of the United Kingdom, 392% of the population of Australia, 268% of the population of Canada, 150% of the population of France, and 1,020% of the population of the United Arab Emirates. Right here in Lagos, a UN-Habitat assessment shows 70% of the population live in informal settlements or slums.”
Adesina decried what he called “the opprobrious policies that seek to upgrade slums”. In his view, “There is nothing like a 5-Star Slum: a slum is a slum. Urgent actions are needed to support mortgage financing and refinancing and use of innovative financing structures to raise long-term capital for closing the housing deficits.
Constitutional Lie
As a columnist who has closely followed and analysed the Nigerian condition for several decades, I have no doubt that the most crucial of the five variables for re-engineering a new Nigeria is the decentralisation or unbundling of the grotesque unitary structure imposed by the military at the onset of their misadventure into governance in 1966. Before that time, Nigeria was governed on the basis of a constitution peacefully negotiated by representatives of the people. Today, the current Nigerian constitution is the holiest lie in the country’s legal superstructure because everyone knows that the clause, “We, the people…” actually means, “We the military…”
Dr. Adesina points out that democracy is more than the right to cast a vote. It is the right of citizens to hold governments accountable for improvements in their welfare. He laments the situation where most Nigerians have been forced to constitute themselves into private local governments on account of the fact that they provide electricity for themselves via generators; repair roads in their neighbourhoods; provide boreholes for drinking water; and, we may as well add, provide their own security.
The sensible way out is to revert to an idea which informed the negotiations of the founding fathers of Nigeria at independence — and which served us well until the military rudely intervened — decentralise governance to constituent parts in order to provide greater autonomy.
Adesina’s belief in a new Nigeria is predicated on his conviction that, if things were done differently, the giant of Africa would be able to sing a new political and developmental song in the nearest future: “There is a compelling need for the restructuring of Nigeria. Restructuring should not be driven by political expediency, but by economic and financial viability. Economic and financial viability are the necessary and sufficient conditions for political viability.”
Restructuring
It is in the spirit of restructuring, of building the Nigerian pyramid from the bottom up, that Adesina’s call for the renaming of the country as the United States of Nigeria should be understood. What we have at the moment is a Unitary State of Nigeria disguised as a federal republic. A lie told in any language or vernacular, will always remain a lie!
Providentially, the National Assembly is in the process of amending the 1999 constitution in the midst of calls by several sub-national groups for an adoption of the report of the Constitutional Conference of 2014 or even a reversion to the original 1963 Republican Constitution. No matter the perspective of politicians on the matter, all agree that the current system is fraudulent and cannot lead Nigeria to its deserved place among the comity of nations.
If, in addition to restructuring or reversion to the originally negotiated constitution of Nigeria, our political engineers reach a consensus on renaming the country as the United States of Nigeria, you won’t find me among those bleating ‘Nay!’
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