REGIONALISM
Striking the right balance between the local and the central organs of government is one of the keys to a successful federation. The tribulations of Nigeria can in large measure be traced to the steady accumulation of power and resources at the Centre producing, in the process, a winner-takes-all political philosophy. The MNR believes that we should move away from the practice of concurrent jurisdiction as this leads to unnecessary competition between the local and central organs of government. Instead, the underlying principle of a new constitution should be, putting it coarsely, that everything is residual and therefore for the Regions, except to the extent that a subject has been clearly assigned to the Union government. The new Constitution must therefore clearly and definitively set out the matters for which the Union is to be responsible. The government of a multi-nationality Region should stand in the same relation to its component associated territories as the Union government does in relation to the Regions. Thus, as with the Union Government, the principle should be that only those matters, which necessarily have to be conducted at the Centre, should be managed there.
The MNR recommends that the new constitution should provide for each Region to have its own constitution in which the division of responsibilities between the Regional Government and the lower tier administrations will be spelt out. This is to ensure that subject to a set number of mandatory provisions, the Constitution of each nationality will reflect the particular experience, fears and aspirations of the people of that nationality within its own powers and jurisdiction.
UNION INSTITUTIONS
The underlying principle of any new constitution should be that the Centre belongs to all our nationalities, large and small. To avoid a situation where some nationalities see themselves as more belonging or more equal than others, the MNR recommends that the composition of key Union institutions like the Central Bank, the Supreme Court, the Civil Service Commission, the Auditor General’s Office, the Accountant General’s Office, etc should be organised in a way that will ensure that the interests of each Region will be effectively protected there. This requires collegiate offices in which each Region has a seat rather than singular uncompounded offices, which are merely required to take account of the so-called “federal character”.
The MNR recommends that the new constitution should adopt the parliamentary system of government as a more cost effective and inclusive system of government better suited to our ethnic, sub-ethnic and ethical complexity.

The MNR position is being published in The Case for Return to the Parliamentary System of Government, which I hope some of you will read.
The sheer size and resources of Nigeria make it inevitable that our country should have a major profile in international affairs, however undeserving we may be of it on other grounds. However, the size of the country equally means that the task of managing our domestic affairs is a full time occupation. This in our view buttresses the need to vest the duties of Head of State and Chief Executive in different persons. There may be some concern about such a division of responsibilities between two different persons, probably from two different areas, because of the risk of a power struggle between the two personalities. In our view, the scope for such conflict can be adequately contained if the constitution strictly defines the President’s responsibilities. The constitution should, in our view, also ensure that the President is only indirectly elected so that he cannot claim a competitive mandate direct from the people. Our thinking is that the President, as father of the nation should be elected by an Electoral College consisting of the entire National and Regional legislatures in the country.
Consistent with the parliamentary system of government, the Prime Minister should be the leader of the majority party in Parliament.
The MNR recommends a collegiate executive, again based on the parliamentary system of government, to guard against the over-personalisation of the executive power of the head of the Union government. Such an executive may be called the Council of Ministers and consist of one or two ministers from each Region. In this way, we can ensure that the interests and concerns of all the Regions are expressed and taken into account when the Union government formulates policy or takes action. With such a collegiate executive in place, it will be feasible for the office of Prime Minister to be rotated among the Regions so that all nationalities can feel a sense of belonging and of common ownership.
ALTHOUGH Nigeria has two legislative chambers at present at the national level, there is not any real qualitative difference between the two Houses. Rather than each House making a unique contribution to the representation of the people, the members of the House of Representatives and of the Senate have simply duplicated each other.
It is against this background that the MNR recommends that the Second Chamber should be restructured as a House of Nationalities, to serve as the voice of the nationalities that make up the Union of Nigeria. Each Nationality, regardless of its size, should have an equal number of memberships in the House of Nationalities who will be selected by their nationality legislature. The House of Representatives would be the voice of the people of Nigeria as a whole. This unique triangular arrangement would give a voice to all the partners in the Union – a voice to the Regions through the Council of Ministers, a voice to the Nationalities through the House of Nationalities, and a voice to the individual citizens through the House of Representatives.
One of the weaknesses of Nigeria’s post-military democratic experience has been the lack of real representation. No sooner are legislators elected than many of them lose sight of their duty to faithfully represent their constituents. In our view, the best way to keep the legislators in touch with their constituents is to require them to renew their authority at more frequent intervals. For this reason, we recommend the shortest practicable term of office for members of the House of Representatives, say three years maximum. In future years, once a culture of representative politics has set in properly, the term of office can always be extended by amendments to the constitution. A longer term of office is appropriate for members of the House of Nationalities who are principally concerned with
macro issues affecting their respective nationalities.
The law of diminishing returns applies to lawmakers as it does to other aspects of life, so that every additional member of the House of Assembly does not necessarily translate into an equivalent addition to the quality of legislation and deliberations. We therefore recommend that the new Constitution should provide for the smallest possible number of members for the assembly consistent with fair representation. This would encourage quality of selection, which should enhance the quality of deliberations. We would suggest no more than 240 members for the House of Representatives. The membership of the House of Nationalities should be dictated by the number of established nationalities.
NATIONAL RESOURCES
Ownership and exploitation of the country’s natural resources have contributed a great deal to Nigeria’s political problems, especially in the oil age. The MNR advocates that the strict legal ownership which rests with the oil producing nationalities needs to be balanced with the equitable interests that have come into being by virtue of our co-existence. As a means of addressing the issue of the diversity of interests in such resources, and with a view to ensuring that all interests, direct and indirect, are duly provided for, the MNR proposes that a distinction should be drawn between such resources, as follows: (a) resources on or under the land of a nationality, (b) resources in what may be considered a nationality’s waters, and (c) resources in the country’s international waters. In the first case, we would revert to the basic principle that the owner of land owns all that is on the land and beneath it. Any new constitution must not only recognise the exclusive claim of the nationality to those resources, but it must also provide for the owners of the land, whether individual, family or community, to receive fair compensation for their good fortune and to participate in the fruits of the exploits…..(CONCLUDED)