GenBuhari:
Nobody is clear what restructuring entails yet there is an apparent clamour and I see a sinister agenda from imperialists for this clamour.

We already have system where power for governance is given to governors. What more do those calling for restructuring want?

That is a reason I doubt the sudden agitation for Biafra is anything other than an imperialist conspiracy and not from grass roots.

We Igbos are arguably the most detribalised One Nigeria proponents on the country. That is reason we travel out to other regions to live and trade more than any other group.

My view is the only thing restructuring I.e further weakening of central govt is going to achieve is to effectively produce 36 or less weak insignificant nation states.

We saw how both the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, restructured to a union on semi-independent states but eventually what happened in both cases was total break up with most of the resultant smaller nation state no better off than before balkanisation.

Imagine our criminal constitution that allows our exploitation and criminal looting to remain in place whilst our criminal imperialist controlled politicians rush to restructure .

It would not end well.

What more do those calling for restructuring want? Well, for starters they want things like police and road safety and power supply and resource.control decentralised. They want a.new system of govt as they feel this one is not working.

.

ameri9ja:


Thanks, General, for taking the time.
Well, it is obvious we copied the US system of govt. Let's at least copy it well. They have state and local police. We can at least start with that - Nigerian Police being nothing worth holding unto. The cities, which is what is closest to people, have mayors. These mayors, in some cases, are more powerful than governors and senators, being closest to the people. We can have all our cities elect mayors who have their own police force and controls everything about the city. They deal close to the people, leaving the governors free to deal with peripheral and interstate stuff.
The presidency should focus almost entirely on international and military stuff.

These are just a start.
So, yes, there is a need for restructuring.
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**Danites are members of DAN (Detribalised Association of Nigeria)
**We Danites try to see people as human beings, as individuals, not groups or tribes. We are too big to be just tribe. We see ourselves as human beings, as black people, as Africans, as NIGERIANS, then, way down the list, tribe.
**We make posts against tribal bigotry and hatred and posts supporting detribalization and unity of Nigeria. While seeking solutions for her innumerable problems, we encourage love for our beloved country, Nigeria. We encourage inter-tribal connections and cooperation.
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In US u can move to any place and become a native. That becomes.your place or state. Nigeria has northing like that yettthey want to copy US

400billionman:


I don't care to see nothing.

The bad people in this country compared with good ones is in a ratio of 10 : 1.

Illiterate, uncivilized, tribalistic, hateful, unmannered, cheating lots. These set of YOUTHS cannot vote a decent leader into power. Why ?

They cannot even recognize a decent leader.

I used the word YOUTH, because at least 70% of our voting population are aged 18 to 40. And they radiate the negative tendencies i mentioned earlier. People cannot rise above their mental tendencies..

Don't joke with what I said earlier, people pushing for restructuring may be labelled terrorists or slammed with HATE SPEECH.

Don't agree with.u. I think there are many good people here. Ratio is more like 1:1

ameri9ja:


What's so good about Abacha's constitution. Could you please explain?

Abi o

That is not something that couldn't be addressed through completely re-writing a brand new constitution.

Personally, I feel too much power has already devolved to states. I think the power to take external loans should be the reserve of Federation govt.

Governors should be more answerable to president and president have a 40% block vote in whether a Governor should be impeached, with the state assembly 33% and NAss 15% and judiciary 12% block votes

WetinConsignMe:


What more do those calling for restructuring want? Well, for starters they want things like police and road safety and power supply and resource.control decentralised. They want a.new system of govt as they feel this one is not working.

WetinConsignMe:


Don't agree with.u. I think there are many good people here. Ratio is more like 1:1

Inside street bro.

Not a multinational environment where there are policies and rules..

GenBuhari:
That is not something that couldn't be addressed through completely re-writing a brand new constitution.

Personally, I feel too much power has already devolved to states. I think the power to take external loans should be the reserve of Federation govt.

Governors should be more answerable to president and president have a 40% block vote in whether a Governor should be impeached, with the state assembly 33% and NAss 15% and judiciary 12% block votes

U are right about external loans. International things should be left to the Federal. Other than that I think the center is too powerful and the towns (not state) not empowered at all. I think power should shift more to the towns, to locals. I also think a very powerful and totally independent corruption fighting body should be voted in, NOT appointed.

400billionman:


Inside street bro.

Not a multinational environment where there are policies and rules..

Majority are good people. Why do u think they lynch bad people

For Nigeria to be peaceful, people should not feel that they are forced into the union, they should also have as much freedom as practical.

1. Land use act should be reviewed and amended. Every one should have ownership of his or her land - including resources. That way nobody feels cheated. Federal government should only tax resources heavily and regulate its exploitation.

2. Power needs to be devolved from the center. Federal Government should mainly deal with maintaining our territorial integrity, while states deal with policing. There would of course be federal police to deal with interstate crimes, drug, money laundry etc.

3. Infrastructural development should be championed by states.

4. On corruption, we can only use technology to fight corruption not police and arrests. In my former company, you don't need to sign any time book. You log in with your ID and there is camera at reception. Everyone knows when you resume and leave. Procurement is done on a central database. Vendors bid for contracts, in as much transparent way as possible. Imagine our state government running central database for procurement(not paper applications), and tenders are open to public. Imagine our state secretariat operating on a large database like SAP controlling all activities. I have worked with a large multinational firm and traveled on a few occasions abroad . I can break down how technology can be used to reduce corruption to barest minimum, these are just few examples. Election ballot box snatching can be eliminated and made irrelevant. Imagine a smart ballot box that automatically reads your vote and send to Central database. Manual counting is only for confirmation. So if you steal the ballot box, it's of no use for you. You can't eliminate corruption completely , even in western countries but you can make it almost insignificant that it is almost non-existent.

I will end here for now.

All it comes down to is writing a good constitution. Those people shouting restructure are very bad on detailing exactly what they want. Any way you look at it a new constitution should be written first from scratch. Not that nonsense cherry-picked amendments by NAss to serve their own selfish interests.

WetinConsignMe:


U are right about external loans. International things should be left to the Federal. Other than that I think the center is too powerful and the towns (not state) not empowered at all. I think power should shift more to the towns, to locals. I also think a very powerful and totally independent corruption fighting body should be voted in, NOT appointed.

GenBuhari:
All it comes down to is writing a good constitution. Those people shouting restructure are very bad on detailing exactly what they want. Any way you look at it a new constitution should be written first from scratch. Not that nonsense cherry-picked amendments by NAss to serve their own selfish interests.

That's exactly the essence of restructuring - a new constitution. So u do agree with restructuring without knowing it. A new constitution and restructuring mean almost the same thing

Nobody is forcing anybody into the Union. That a group just emerged overnight shouting secession does not mean anybody is being forced.

The proper way for going about agitating is to use democratic structure to canvass support, not by using a radio station to broadcast hate and bigotry.

Via democratic systems in place you can make you case and use your performance in elections as a referendum to show you have the support at least of your constituency.

From your demonstration of support for your agitation at the constituency polls, it would be much easier to make the case for regional referendum, and then for nationwide referendum.

Making hates speeches, insulting the president and his family, blocking roads and bridges, threatening war, threatening to disrupt elections and intimidation of your constituents is not the way.

mesoprogress:
For Nigeria to be peaceful, people should not feel that they are forced into the union, they should also have as much freedom as practical.

1. Land use act should be reviewed and amended. Every one should have ownership of his or her land - including resources. That way nobody feels cheated. Federal government should only tax resources heavily and regulate its exploitation.

2. Power needs to be devolved from the center. Federal Government should mainly deal with maintaining our territorial integrity, while states deal with policing. There would of course be federal police to deal with interstate crimes, drug, money laundry etc.

3. Infrastructural development should be championed by states.

4. On corruption, we can only use technology to fight corruption not police and arrests. In my former company, you don't need to sign any time book. You log in with your ID and there is camera at reception. Everyone knows when you resume and leave. Procurement is done on a central database. Vendors bid for contracts, in as much transparent way as possible. Imagine our state government running central database for procurement(not paper applications), and tenders are open to public. Imagine our state secretariat operating on a large database like SAP controlling all activities. I have worked with a large multinational firm and traveled on a few occasions abroad . I can break down how technology can be used to reduce corruption to barest minimum, these are just few examples. Election ballot box snatching can be eliminated and made irrelevant. Imagine a smart ballot box that automatically reads your vote and send to Central database. Manual counting is only for confirmation. So if you steal the ballot box, it's of no use for you. You can't eliminate corruption completely , even in western countries but you can make it almost insignificant that it is almost non-existent.

I will end here for now.

mesoprogress:
For Nigeria to be peaceful, people should not feel that they are forced into the union, they should also have as much freedom as practical.

1. Land use act should be reviewed and amended. Every one should have ownership of his or her land - including resources. That way nobody feels cheated. Federal government should only tax resources heavily and regulate its exploitation.

2. Power needs to be devolved from the center. Federal Government should mainly deal with maintaining our territorial integrity, while states deal with policing. There would of course be federal police to deal with interstate crimes, drug, money laundry etc.

3. Infrastructural development should be championed by states.

4. On corruption, we can only use technology to fight corruption not police and arrests. In my former company, you don't need to sign any time book. You log in with your ID and there is camera at reception. Everyone knows when you resume and leave. Procurement is done on a central database. Vendors bid for contracts, in as much transparent way as possible. Imagine our state government running central database for procurement(not paper applications), and tenders are open to public. Imagine our state secretariat operating on a large database like SAP controlling all activities. I have worked with a large multinational firm and traveled on a few occasions abroad . I can break down how technology can be used to reduce corruption to barest minimum, these are just few examples. Election ballot box snatching can be eliminated and made irrelevant. Imagine a smart ballot box that automatically reads your vote and send to Central database. Manual counting is only for confirmation. So if you steal the ballot box, it's of no use for you. You can't eliminate corruption completely , even in western countries but you can make it almost insignificant that it is almost non-existent.

I will end here for now.

Good write-up, however here are the flaws:

a) People with oil on their land will seceed yesyerday!! - that's 70% of the country's income

1) Land use act review is good. However u must exclude oil. Also there have to be federal lands and they should have the right to buy your land at market value.

2) Power should be devolved but to towns. The state governors are too poerful. Mayor of Lagos should be more powerful than governor of Lagos state.

3) Infrastructural development should be championed by towns except inter-town.

4) A corrupt Nigeria cannot implement the technology u r talking about. They intentionally use primitive ways because it makes it easy to steal. Solution: ELECT not appoint a totally independent and very powerful body whose sole job is to follow the money and make sure no body steals a penny or takes bribe directly or indirectly including the president.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Danites are members of DAN (Detribalised Association of Nigeria)
**We Danites try to see people as human beings, as individuals, not groups or tribes. We are too big to be just tribe. We see ourselves as human beings, as black people, as Africans, as NIGERIANS, then, way down the list, tribe.
**We make posts against tribal bigotry and hatred and posts supporting detribalization and unity of Nigeria. While seeking solutions for her innumerable problems, we encourage love for our beloved country, Nigeria. We encourage inter-tribal connections and cooperation.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
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If restructuring is merely a new constitution, then why were NAss only tinkering and amending the constitution?

The whole constitution should be written from scratch by all stakeholders not just NAss.

The nonsense they are calling constitutional amendments is clearly not enough to be consider restructuring.

We shall wait and see they would call restructuring.

WetinConsignMe:


That's exactly the essence of restructuring - a new constitution. So u do agree with restructuring without knowing it. A new constitution and restructuring mean almost the same thing

There's no oil in my town but if we must succeed, oil cannot be in exclusive list. There could be an arrangement where oil is weaned from other states over say five years. 100%, 80%, 60%...0%. Once states know that oil money won't come and is gradually declining, they would sit up. In fact states should fund FG not the other way round. Remember federal government can bail out struggling states through direct sponsor of education, health etc in such states but not as allocation. Read this submission below :

California is the 6th largest economy in the World. It's economy is larger than that of France or Brazil. The little problem is that California is not a Country. It is a State in the United States of America (USA). It has little offshore oil, yet its economy is larger than States in the US that are famous for their oil reserves, like Texas.

California generates much of its revenue from non-oil products. It found a way to absorb and domesticate much of the intellectual output from its Premier University, Stanford University, into saleable products within its economy.
As a matter of fact, much of California's economy is built around Stanford University. So with this, Silicon Valley developed. I'm sure you've heard of Silicon Valley at least once in your life. Now with Silicon Valley came Companies like Apple, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed, Hewlett Packard (HP), Google, Netflix, Facebook, Oracle, Tesla...and the list goes on and on ad infinitum. These are multibillion-dollar companies. The yearly budget of any one of these companies might be larger than the entire yearly budget of, say for example, Akwa Ibom State. I'm taking about companies that are richer than countries. They are all in California. But that is just in the technology industry where the technologies and inventions spewing out of Stanford are caught midair and converted to money spinning enterprises.

But there is also the entertainment industry in California. Yes, Hollywood is in California. The US movies industry contributes about $504Billion to USA's GDP. Hollywood, as you know, contributes over 70% of that figure. Most iconic movie studios are in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, the "Big Eight" consisting of 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, United Artists, Universal Studios and Warner Bros are, or were, all in Hollywood. These again, are multi-billion dollar companies generating revenue for California.

Despite the above, California also thrives on agriculture. As at 2014, California had nothing less than 77,000 farms and ranches raking in about $55Billion in revenue yearly. It produces over 400 agricultural commodities, a large chunk of which it exports. It is the leader in producing exotic fruits in America. Its wine industry is unique. California wine is drunk with relish the world over. I used to drink some too.
This is just one State in America. You see, California actually had a choice of sitting back and striving to get a piece of the revenue generated from Texas' oil. It could have depended solely on Federal allocation to survive so that every month end, it will send its Commissioner of Finance to Washington DC to receive monthly allocation so that it can barely pay salaries of its workers and nothing more. Then San Francisco would resemble Ajegunle in Lagos. And there certainly would not be those beautiful sights and sounds that make California what it is today. But No, not California. Not America. California gives to the center and, because of its wealth, despises the idea of depending on it for survival. The Federal Government actually needs California to survive, not the other way round.

You see, America is structured in such a way that States must look inwards to exploit their wealth for the good of its citizens. There is no free lunch for the lazy States. There certainly is no commonwealth. But there is your wealth, if you can create it. Under American Federalism, you are the captain of your ship. But again, you are also the waves upon which the ship will sail. That is America. The local government, the government closest to the grassroot, is deliberately made the strongest level of government. Items like Variances (adaptation of state law to local conditions,) Public works (yes, public works!!), Contracts for public works, Licensing of public accommodations, Assessable improvements, Basic public services are all left for Local County governments to handle. The State handles weightier matters like Property Law, Education, Commerce Laws of Ownership and Exchange, Banking and Credit Laws, Labour Law and Professional Licensure, Insurance Laws, and Electoral Laws, including Parties and Civil Service Laws. Items that the Federal Government, the center, handles affecting the States, are actually very negligible.

Nigeria on the contrary will never do well unless we restructure. We pretend to have a Federal system but we are actually operating a unique form of unitary government, and it is weighing the polity down. Can you imagine a country where the School Curriculum is regulated by a national central body and states have no powers to vary or amend their curriculum? So, if the rest of the developed world is light years ahead in what they teach their children from primary schools, and our Minister of Education has absolutely no clue, the States must be burdened with antiquated School Curriculum until such a time (if we are lucky, before rapture perhaps!!) that we have an Education Minister who would realise how far behind we are and bring the Curriculum up to date. Just take a look at the Science Curriculum for grade students in advanced countries and you would cry for Nigeria. I recently read of a High School in Japan which has amended its Curriculum to include Robotics and Drones Technology. IN HIGH SCHOOL!! But our Professors here don't have a hang on Robotics even! Students are still taught the very prehistoric rudiments of Physics and Chemistry in our Schools. And this is even in the few schools that teachers and students still meet in the classrooms! For the few Public Schools that are lucky to have Laboratories, all you see are miserable nameless creatures trapped in formalin, to which nobody ever pays attention. These creatures suffer a double jeopardy having suffered the first misfortune of being caught and preserved in formalin in Nigeria, and then thereafter completely ignored, even in death! And because the control of our Curriculum is central, there is nothing States can do about this.

You would think this is not a problem until you understand that Nigerians spend over ONE TRILLION NAIRA every year to study abroad. You see, the reason why you have Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Oxford, etc is not only for academic excellence of the citizens of the countries which have these schools. No. They invest in their institutions so that they can earn revenue from foreign students from countries like Nigeria which has destroyed its educational system. Abroad, schools are so important to society that the economy, business and lifestyle of whole cities and even States completely depend on or revolve around Schools. What would the city of Cambridge be without Cambridge University. Or Cambridge, Massachusetts without Harvard University. These cities depend on these Universities to survive. And imagine that Nigeria had invested in its Universities and was earning $1Billion dollars a year from foreign students seeking to study here, who would be fighting over oil in the Niger Delta? How many car manufacturing companies would we have in Owerri near the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) where students are constantly doing and selling their research products to burgeoning engineering and manufacturing companies? Recently, three students in Sweden conducted research and came up with a product that could improve wear and tear on tyres. The product became so successful that Volvo had to partner with these students to patent the product. Now when this product hit world stage, can you imagine how much revenue Sweden would earn from these product? Do your research, most of the World-class products we buy today off the shelf, at great cost, were invented by University Students. As you are reading this, do not forget that without Harvard University, there would not have been Facebook, and this our interface would have been impossible.

But our Students in Nigeria are not entirely without inventions. We invented the Pyrates Confraternity, the , the Eiye, the Vikings and what not!! Students resume school with guns and bullets, rather than books and scholastic ideas, as though academic institutions were a War College. Lecturers fly colors as do students. And when the turf war begins, people die in droves. But States can do nothing about this because some of these institutions are controlled by the Federal Government. Even for the ones controlled by States, you still can't do much because the security apparatus is controlled by the Federal Government. The Federal Government will provide or withdraw Security from the State, depending on whether it is happy with the sitting Governor. So every year, all sorts of characters are vomited from Nigerian Universities to take their place in Nigerian Society. So you have Judges, Lawyers, Engineers, Doctors and so forth whose first and primary allegiance is to their Cult group, before the Country. The multiplier effect of this, is a treatise for another day.

But suffice to say that as long as this problem persist, let's forget about Silicon Valley in Nigeria, because there will never be a Stanford University here to provide an infinite supply of ideas and prodigies to feed the invention value-chain!

Nigeria cannot wake up from its slumber today because it cannot lift its head. The entire weight of its existence is concentrated in its head. From the viewpoint of government, the weight is in Abuja. From the viewpoint of revenue source, the weight is in the Niger-Delta. We need to urgently restructure and evenly distribute this pressure points and weights to diffuse tension in Nigeria.

We need to revisit the exclusive legislative list in the Constitution and systematically reduce the responsibilities of the Federal Government vis-a-vis the States. Resources have to be handed back to the States that generated them but place an obligation on each States to contribute an agreed percentage to the common federal purse to service obligations of the Federal Government. There is no reason Education, Policing, Prisons (only people convicted of federal offenses should go to federal prisons!!), Ports, Inland Waterways, natural minerals, even marriage (yes, English form of marriage!!) and so many other items should be the concern of the Federal Government. We will never develop with such weight that weigh us down at the center. Nigeria can never raise its head in the comity of nations because of the sheer weight of the head.

There is more to say, but scarcely any time. But to emphasis the point I've been laboring to make, shall I say again that there is absolutely no reason or need to fight for oil in the Niger-Delta. There are so many things that can bring more revenue to States in Nigeria than oil. South Africa has no oil, but it has Gold, and is richer than Nigeria. Let us fight for a system that will promote both equality and equity. Let us restructure Nigeria.

*Copied*

WetinConsignMe:


Good write-up, however here are the flaws:

a) People with oil on their land will seceed yesyerday!! - that's 70% of the country's income

1) Land use act review is good. However u must exclude oil. Also there have to be federal lands and they should have the right to buy your land at market value.

2) Power should be devolved but to towns. The state governors are too poerful. Mayor of Lagos should be more powerful than governor of Lagos state.

3) Infrastructural development should be championed by towns except inter-town.

4) A corrupt Nigeria cannot implement the technology u r talking about. They intentionally use primitive ways because it makes it easy to steal. Solution: ELECT not appoint a totally independent and very powerful body whose sole job is to follow the money and make sure no body steals a penny or takes bribe directly or indirectly including the president.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Danites are members of DAN (Detribalised Association of Nigeria)
**We Danites try to see people as human beings, as individuals, not groups or tribes. We are too big to be just tribe. We see ourselves as human beings, as black people, as Africans, as NIGERIANS, then, way down the list, tribe.
**We make posts against tribal bigotry and hatred and posts supporting detribalization and unity of Nigeria. While seeking solutions for her innumerable problems, we encourage love for our beloved country, Nigeria. We encourage inter-tribal connections and cooperation.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
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mesoprogress:
There's no oil in my town but if we must succeed, oil cannot be in exclusive list. There could be an arrangement where oil is weaned from other states over say five years. 100%, 80%, 60%...0%. Once states know that oil money won't come and is gradually declining, they would sit up. In fact states should fund FG not the other way round. Remember federal government can bail out struggling states through direct sponsor of education, health etc in such states but not as allocation. Read this submission below :

California is the 6th largest economy in the World. It's economy is larger than that of France or Brazil. The little problem is that California is not a Country. It is a State in the United States of America (USA). It has little offshore oil, yet its economy is larger than States in the US that are famous for their oil reserves, like Texas.

California generates much of its revenue from non-oil products. It found a way to absorb and domesticate much of the intellectual output from its Premier University, Stanford University, into saleable products within its economy.
As a matter of fact, much of California's economy is built around Stanford University. So with this, Silicon Valley developed. I'm sure you've heard of Silicon Valley at least once in your life. Now with Silicon Valley came Companies like Apple, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed, Hewlett Packard (HP), Google, Netflix, Facebook, Oracle, Tesla...and the list goes on and on ad infinitum. These are multibillion-dollar companies. The yearly budget of any one of these companies might be larger than the entire yearly budget of, say for example, Akwa Ibom State. I'm taking about companies that are richer than countries. They are all in California. But that is just in the technology industry where the technologies and inventions spewing out of Stanford are caught midair and converted to money spinning enterprises.

But there is also the entertainment industry in California. Yes, Hollywood is in California. The US movies industry contributes about $504Billion to USA's GDP. Hollywood, as you know, contributes over 70% of that figure. Most iconic movie studios are in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, the "Big Eight" consisting of 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, United Artists, Universal Studios and Warner Bros are, or were, all in Hollywood. These again, are multi-billion dollar companies generating revenue for California.

Despite the above, California also thrives on agriculture. As at 2014, California had nothing less than 77,000 farms and ranches raking in about $55Billion in revenue yearly. It produces over 400 agricultural commodities, a large chunk of which it exports. It is the leader in producing exotic fruits in America. Its wine industry is unique. California wine is drunk with relish the world over. I used to drink some too.
This is just one State in America. You see, California actually had a choice of sitting back and striving to get a piece of the revenue generated from Texas' oil. It could have depended solely on Federal allocation to survive so that every month end, it will send its Commissioner of Finance to Washington DC to receive monthly allocation so that it can barely pay salaries of its workers and nothing more. Then San Francisco would resemble Ajegunle in Lagos. And there certainly would not be those beautiful sights and sounds that make California what it is today. But No, not California. Not America. California gives to the center and, because of its wealth, despises the idea of depending on it for survival. The Federal Government actually needs California to survive, not the other way round.

You see, America is structured in such a way that States must look inwards to exploit their wealth for the good of its citizens. There is no free lunch for the lazy States. There certainly is no commonwealth. But there is your wealth, if you can create it. Under American Federalism, you are the captain of your ship. But again, you are also the waves upon which the ship will sail. That is America. The local government, the government closest to the grassroot, is deliberately made the strongest level of government. Items like Variances (adaptation of state law to local conditions,) Public works (yes, public works!!), Contracts for public works, Licensing of public accommodations, Assessable improvements, Basic public services are all left for Local County governments to handle. The State handles weightier matters like Property Law, Education, Commerce Laws of Ownership and Exchange, Banking and Credit Laws, Labour Law and Professional Licensure, Insurance Laws, and Electoral Laws, including Parties and Civil Service Laws. Items that the Federal Government, the center, handles affecting the States, are actually very negligible.

Nigeria on the contrary will never do well unless we restructure. We pretend to have a Federal system but we are actually operating a unique form of unitary government, and it is weighing the polity down. Can you imagine a country where the School Curriculum is regulated by a national central body and states have no powers to vary or amend their curriculum? So, if the rest of the developed world is light years ahead in what they teach their children from primary schools, and our Minister of Education has absolutely no clue, the States must be burdened with antiquated School Curriculum until such a time (if we are lucky, before rapture perhaps!!) that we have an Education Minister who would realise how far behind we are and bring the Curriculum up to date. Just take a look at the Science Curriculum for grade students in advanced countries and you would cry for Nigeria. I recently read of a High School in Japan which has amended its Curriculum to include Robotics and Drones Technology. IN HIGH SCHOOL!! But our Professors here don't have a hang on Robotics even! Students are still taught the very prehistoric rudiments of Physics and Chemistry in our Schools. And this is even in the few schools that teachers and students still meet in the classrooms! For the few Public Schools that are lucky to have Laboratories, all you see are miserable nameless creatures trapped in formalin, to which nobody ever pays attention. These creatures suffer a double jeopardy having suffered the first misfortune of being caught and preserved in formalin in Nigeria, and then thereafter completely ignored, even in death! And because the control of our Curriculum is central, there is nothing States can do about this.

You would think this is not a problem until you understand that Nigerians spend over ONE TRILLION NAIRA every year to study abroad. You see, the reason why you have Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Oxford, etc is not only for academic excellence of the citizens of the countries which have these schools. No. They invest in their institutions so that they can earn revenue from foreign students from countries like Nigeria which has destroyed its educational system. Abroad, schools are so important to society that the economy, business and lifestyle of whole cities and even States completely depend on or revolve around Schools. What would the city of Cambridge be without Cambridge University. Or Cambridge, Massachusetts without Harvard University. These cities depend on these Universities to survive. And imagine that Nigeria had invested in its Universities and was earning $1Billion dollars a year from foreign students seeking to study here, who would be fighting over oil in the Niger Delta? How many car manufacturing companies would we have in Owerri near the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) where students are constantly doing and selling their research products to burgeoning engineering and manufacturing companies? Recently, three students in Sweden conducted research and came up with a product that could improve wear and tear on tyres. The product became so successful that Volvo had to partner with these students to patent the product. Now when this product hit world stage, can you imagine how much revenue Sweden would earn from these product? Do your research, most of the World-class products we buy today off the shelf, at great cost, were invented by University Students. As you are reading this, do not forget that without Harvard University, there would not have been Facebook, and this our interface would have been impossible.

But our Students in Nigeria are not entirely without inventions. We invented the Pyrates Confraternity, the , the Eiye, the Vikings and what not!! Students resume school with guns and bullets, rather than books and scholastic ideas, as though academic institutions were a War College. Lecturers fly colors as do students. And when the turf war begins, people die in droves. But States can do nothing about this because some of these institutions are controlled by the Federal Government. Even for the ones controlled by States, you still can't do much because the security apparatus is controlled by the Federal Government. The Federal Government will provide or withdraw Security from the State, depending on whether it is happy with the sitting Governor. So every year, all sorts of characters are vomited from Nigerian Universities to take their place in Nigerian Society. So you have Judges, Lawyers, Engineers, Doctors and so forth whose first and primary allegiance is to their Cult group, before the Country. The multiplier effect of this, is a treatise for another day.

But suffice to say that as long as this problem persist, let's forget about Silicon Valley in Nigeria, because there will never be a Stanford University here to provide an infinite supply of ideas and prodigies to feed the invention value-chain!

Nigeria cannot wake up from its slumber today because it cannot lift its head. The entire weight of its existence is concentrated in its head. From the viewpoint of government, the weight is in Abuja. From the viewpoint of revenue source, the weight is in the Niger-Delta. We need to urgently restructure and evenly distribute this pressure points and weights to diffuse tension in Nigeria.

We need to revisit the exclusive legislative list in the Constitution and systematically reduce the responsibilities of the Federal Government vis-a-vis the States. Resources have to be handed back to the States that generated them but place an obligation on each States to contribute an agreed percentage to the common federal purse to service obligations of the Federal Government. There is no reason Education, Policing, Prisons (only people convicted of federal offenses should go to federal prisons!!), Ports, Inland Waterways, natural minerals, even marriage (yes, English form of marriage!!) and so many other items should be the concern of the Federal Government. We will never develop with such weight that weigh us down at the center. Nigeria can never raise its head in the comity of nations because of the sheer weight of the head.

There is more to say, but scarcely any time. But to emphasis the point I've been laboring to make, shall I say again that there is absolutely no reason or need to fight for oil in the Niger-Delta. There are so many things that can bring more revenue to States in Nigeria than oil. South Africa has no oil, but it has Gold, and is richer than Nigeria. Let us fight for a system that will promote both equality and equity. Let us restructure Nigeria.

*Copied*

U never said how you will keep Niger Delta and then Lagos, etc from seceeding.

Thanks for sharing the copied write-up. It is technically informative but otherwise full of fallacies, misinformation, and highly unrealistic. So many fallacies that one does not know where to start. Here are just some:

1) There are some 200 countries in the world yet almost all social media and information technology innovations are from one country, USA, and then from one state in USA, California. Most of the other places don't have oil either, yet they have nothing like silicon valley or Hollywwod. So clearly lack of oil is not what drove California.

2) That if we experiment and remove oil money from places like Kaduna and others they may produce Stanford university and silicon valley. We already have the answer: Chad. Those states will simply become dirt poor like Chad.

3) That in USA federal govt gets its money from states. Wrong. It actually GIVES money to the states. It gets it's money from individuals and corporations through federal taxes. The idea of filling a tax form is quite strange to the average Nigerian, something normal to Americans.

4) Nigeria already has wealth. Nigeria's problem is not gerating wealth. So even if removing oil helps generate wealth (which it won't) the wealth generated will still do us no good as long as the underlying.corruption and mismanagement are still there.

5) The universities the writer mentioned are PRIVATE universities. They have little to do with govt and restructuring.

In short the writer is comparing apples anf oranges. US and Nigeria are on completely different tracks.

GenBuhari:
If restructuring is merely a new constitution, then why were NAss only tinkering and amending the constitution?

The whole constitution should be written from scratch by all stakeholders not just NAss.

The nonsense they are calling constitutional amendments is clearly not enough to be consider restructuring.

We shall wait and see they would call restructuring.

I agree . A new constitution. That's the first fundamental of restructuring

GenBuhari:
I always look at their profile, but sometimes one or two may still surprise you.

are you not a tribalist you hypocrite??

White racist imperialist catfish spotted!
Pathetic beings

Izonpikin:
are you not a tribalist you hypocrite??

Izonpikin:
Nigeria is a big joke that won't move an inch from its primordial dealings.. A large nation filled with majority dumb blacks who can't for once fight for a purpose.. Slaves...

GenBuhari:
White racist imperialist catfish spotted!
Pathetic beings

nonsense...hypocrite calling out another person for tribalism when you're the gang leader..rubbish... And oh yes blacks like you are in a cage..

Pathetic racist!
I pity you people. You will soon be extinct and confined the dustbin of history.

Izonpikin_:
nonsense...hypocrite calling out another person for tribalism when you're the gang leader..rubbish... And oh yes blacks like you are in a cage..

WetinConsignMe:


U never said how you will keep Niger Delta and then Lagos, etc from seceeding.

Thanks for sharing the copied write-up. It is technically informative but otherwise full of fallacies, misinformation, and highly unrealistic. So many fallacies that one does not know where to start. Here are just some:

1) There are some 200 countries in the world yet almost all social media and information technology innovations are from one country, USA, and then from one state in USA, California. Most of the other places don't have oil either, yet they have nothing like silicon valley or Hollywwod. So clearly lack of oil is not what drove California.

2) That if we experiment and remove oil money from places like Kaduna and others they may produce Stanford university and silicon valley. We already have the answer: Chad. Those states will simply become dirt poor like Chad.

3) That in USA federal govt gets its money from states. Wrong. It actually GIVES money to the states. It gets it's money from individuals and corporations through federal taxes. The idea of filling a tax form is quite strange to the average Nigerian, something normal to Americans.

4) Nigeria already has wealth. Nigeria's problem is not gerating wealth. So even if removing oil helps generate wealth (which it won't) the wealth generated will still do us no good as long as the underlying.corruption and mismanagement are still there.

5) The universities the writer mentioned are PRIVATE universities. They have little to do with govt and restructuring.

In short the writer is comparing apples anf oranges. US and Nigeria are on completely different tracks.

In the United States, federal government sponsors certain state agencies eg health, education etc. States do not wait for federal government to pay their staff and government salary. States are not dependent on federal government.

Soon oil will be irrelevant. Coal already almost irrelevant due to carbon emissions. Restructuring will end agitation. Most food we eat come from the north. Why would South want to import it if they easily get it in one nation. Again, northern Nigeria won't be like Chad. Oil mining will be heavily taxed, eg 40 - 50%. Then other companies tax coming from Lagos, Niger delta etc. Federal government can directly invest in these states to improve their well-being.

It's a matter of time, if Nigeria is not properly restructured, people will pull out the right way. Nnamdi Kanu's method was full of insult. Imagine where where all niger delta reps /governors present to Senate and presidency that their people want to pull from the union? That would be a legitimate cause devoid of insult or use of force.

So think about it. It is better we do the right thing now. It is only a matter of time

GenBuhari:
Nobody is clear what restructuring entails yet there is an apparent clamour and I see a sinister agenda from imperialists for this clamour.

We already have system where power for governance is given to governors. What more do those calling for restructuring want?

That is a reason I doubt the sudden agitation for Biafra is anything other than an imperialist conspiracy and not from grass roots.

We Igbos are arguably the most detribalised One Nigeria proponents on the country. That is reason we travel out to other regions to live and trade more than any other group.

My view is the only thing restructuring I.e further weakening of central govt is going to achieve is to effectively produce 36 or less weak insignificant nation states.

We saw how both the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, restructured to a union on semi-independent states but eventually what happened in both cases was total break up with most of the resultant smaller nation state no better off than before balkanisation.

Imagine our criminal constitution that allows our exploitation and criminal looting to remain in place whilst our criminal imperialist controlled politicians rush to restructure .

It would not end well.

Oga if you have nothing better to say just sit down wherever you are and shut your mouth up.
In a federal system of govt everything is directed towards the federal govt.
How do you want the country to progress when all the governors do is wait for federal monthly allocations.
Is that how a country is run, when A wife whi is a house-wife and all she does is to wait for her husband to give her money. The woman cannot progress more than the husband have to offer her.
Nigeria system of government right now is a big joke.

mesoprogress:


In the United States, federal government sponsors certain state agencies eg health, education etc. States do not wait for federal government to pay their staff and government salary. States are not dependent on federal government.

Soon oil will be irrelevant. Coal already almost irrelevant due to carbon emissions. Restructuring will end agitation. Most food we eat come from the north. Why would South want to import it if they easily get it in one nation. Again, northern Nigeria won't be like Chad. Oil mining will be heavily taxed, eg 40 - 50%. Then other companies tax coming from Lagos, Niger delta etc. Federal government can directly invest in these states to improve their well-being.

It's a matter of time, if Nigeria is not properly restructured, people will pull out the right way. Nnamdi Kanu's method was full of insult. Imagine where where all niger delta reps /governors present to Senate and presidency that their people want to pull from the union? That would be a legitimate cause devoid of insult or use of force.

So think about it. It is better we do the right thing now. It is only a matter of time

1) Nigeria always trying to compare and copy the US will never work because the mindset and orientation of the people and government are totally different. US is a CAPITALIST society. Nigeria is not. Nigerian govt gets involved in running or owning so many things that in US are completely privatised. In US they have federal, state, and local taxes. That's how federal, state, and local govts get funded, not through allocation from anybody or through govt owning or running anything.

2) Even if the whole Niger Delta walk to Abuja, no amount of petitioning will result in their seceeding with that oil. You don't understand the stupendous amount of money involved. Heck, even if ND were a sovereign nation, it would have been necessary to invade them to get the oil. Oil is at $56 and going up. Whoever told you oil will soon be worthless is lying to you.

3) I agree that a new constitution and restructuring are necessary. But that will be possible only if u exclude oil.
Otherwise the North and others will never agree.
You have to be realistic. Because they know what will happen. ND will become like Dubai, while the North will become like Chad, not California!

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KingGBsky:


Oga if you have nothing better to say just sit down wherever you are and shut your mouth up.
In a federal system of govt everything is directed towards the federal govt.
How do you want the country to progress when all the governors do is wait for federal monthly allocations.
Is that how a country is run, when A wife whi is a house-wife and all she does is to wait for her husband to give her money. The woman cannot progress more than the husband have to offer her.
Nigeria system of government right now is a big joke.

Don't insult the man, genbuhari, for stating his opinion. He has a right to state his opinion as u have a right to state yours.
Just about all northerners think the structure is fine just the way it is. Most of us in the south think there should be restructuring. He happens to side with the North. What would be your suggestion as to how this divide is to be resolved (besides war)?

WetinConsignMe:


Don't insult the man, genbuhari, for stating his opinion. He has a right to state his opinion as u have a right to state yours. 8
Just about all northerners think the structure is fine just the way it is. Most of us in the south think there should be restructuring. He happens to side with the North. What would be your suggestion as to how this divide is to be resolved (besides war)?

If the country cannot be restructured? Then every1 should go to their separate ways.
He is giving his opinion base in what his pilitical party preaches to him

KingGBsky:


If the country cannot be restructured? Then every1 should go to their separate ways.
He is giving his opinion base in what his pilitical party preaches to him

Believe me they don't mind u going your separate way as long as you leave the oil behind.

mesoprogress:
There's no oil in my town but if we must succeed, oil cannot be in exclusive list. There could be an arrangement where oil is weaned from other states over say five years. 100%, 80%, 60%...0%. Once states know that oil money won't come and is gradually declining, they would sit up. In fact states should fund FG not the other way round. Remember federal government can bail out struggling states through direct sponsor of education, health etc in such states but not as allocation. Read this submission below :

California is the 6th largest economy in the World. It's economy is larger than that of France or Brazil. The little problem is that California is not a Country. It is a State in the United States of America (USA). It has little offshore oil, yet its economy is larger than States in the US that are famous for their oil reserves, like Texas.

California generates much of its revenue from non-oil products. It found a way to absorb and domesticate much of the intellectual output from its Premier University, Stanford University, into saleable products within its economy.
As a matter of fact, much of California's economy is built around Stanford University. So with this, Silicon Valley developed. I'm sure you've heard of Silicon Valley at least once in your life. Now with Silicon Valley came Companies like Apple, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed, Hewlett Packard (HP), Google, Netflix, Facebook, Oracle, Tesla...and the list goes on and on ad infinitum. These are multibillion-dollar companies. The yearly budget of any one of these companies might be larger than the entire yearly budget of, say for example, Akwa Ibom State. I'm taking about companies that are richer than countries. They are all in California. But that is just in the technology industry where the technologies and inventions spewing out of Stanford are caught midair and converted to money spinning enterprises.

But there is also the entertainment industry in California. Yes, Hollywood is in California. The US movies industry contributes about $504Billion to USA's GDP. Hollywood, as you know, contributes over 70% of that figure. Most iconic movie studios are in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, the "Big Eight" consisting of 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, United Artists, Universal Studios and Warner Bros are, or were, all in Hollywood. These again, are multi-billion dollar companies generating revenue for California.

Despite the above, California also thrives on agriculture. As at 2014, California had nothing less than 77,000 farms and ranches raking in about $55Billion in revenue yearly. It produces over 400 agricultural commodities, a large chunk of which it exports. It is the leader in producing exotic fruits in America. Its wine industry is unique. California wine is drunk with relish the world over. I used to drink some too.
This is just one State in America. You see, California actually had a choice of sitting back and striving to get a piece of the revenue generated from Texas' oil. It could have depended solely on Federal allocation to survive so that every month end, it will send its Commissioner of Finance to Washington DC to receive monthly allocation so that it can barely pay salaries of its workers and nothing more. Then San Francisco would resemble Ajegunle in Lagos. And there certainly would not be those beautiful sights and sounds that make California what it is today. But No, not California. Not America. California gives to the center and, because of its wealth, despises the idea of depending on it for survival. The Federal Government actually needs California to survive, not the other way round.

You see, America is structured in such a way that States must look inwards to exploit their wealth for the good of its citizens. There is no free lunch for the lazy States. There certainly is no commonwealth. But there is your wealth, if you can create it. Under American Federalism, you are the captain of your ship. But again, you are also the waves upon which the ship will sail. That is America. The local government, the government closest to the grassroot, is deliberately made the strongest level of government. Items like Variances (adaptation of state law to local conditions,) Public works (yes, public works!!), Contracts for public works, Licensing of public accommodations, Assessable improvements, Basic public services are all left for Local County governments to handle. The State handles weightier matters like Property Law, Education, Commerce Laws of Ownership and Exchange, Banking and Credit Laws, Labour Law and Professional Licensure, Insurance Laws, and Electoral Laws, including Parties and Civil Service Laws. Items that the Federal Government, the center, handles affecting the States, are actually very negligible.

Nigeria on the contrary will never do well unless we restructure. We pretend to have a Federal system but we are actually operating a unique form of unitary government, and it is weighing the polity down. Can you imagine a country where the School Curriculum is regulated by a national central body and states have no powers to vary or amend their curriculum? So, if the rest of the developed world is light years ahead in what they teach their children from primary schools, and our Minister of Education has absolutely no clue, the States must be burdened with antiquated School Curriculum until such a time (if we are lucky, before rapture perhaps!!) that we have an Education Minister who would realise how far behind we are and bring the Curriculum up to date. Just take a look at the Science Curriculum for grade students in advanced countries and you would cry for Nigeria. I recently read of a High School in Japan which has amended its Curriculum to include Robotics and Drones Technology. IN HIGH SCHOOL!! But our Professors here don't have a hang on Robotics even! Students are still taught the very prehistoric rudiments of Physics and Chemistry in our Schools. And this is even in the few schools that teachers and students still meet in the classrooms! For the few Public Schools that are lucky to have Laboratories, all you see are miserable nameless creatures trapped in formalin, to which nobody ever pays attention. These creatures suffer a double jeopardy having suffered the first misfortune of being caught and preserved in formalin in Nigeria, and then thereafter completely ignored, even in death! And because the control of our Curriculum is central, there is nothing States can do about this.

You would think this is not a problem until you understand that Nigerians spend over ONE TRILLION NAIRA every year to study abroad. You see, the reason why you have Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Oxford, etc is not only for academic excellence of the citizens of the countries which have these schools. No. They invest in their institutions so that they can earn revenue from foreign students from countries like Nigeria which has destroyed its educational system. Abroad, schools are so important to society that the economy, business and lifestyle of whole cities and even States completely depend on or revolve around Schools. What would the city of Cambridge be without Cambridge University. Or Cambridge, Massachusetts without Harvard University. These cities depend on these Universities to survive. And imagine that Nigeria had invested in its Universities and was earning $1Billion dollars a year from foreign students seeking to study here, who would be fighting over oil in the Niger Delta? How many car manufacturing companies would we have in Owerri near the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) where students are constantly doing and selling their research products to burgeoning engineering and manufacturing companies? Recently, three students in Sweden conducted research and came up with a product that could improve wear and tear on tyres. The product became so successful that Volvo had to partner with these students to patent the product. Now when this product hit world stage, can you imagine how much revenue Sweden would earn from these product? Do your research, most of the World-class products we buy today off the shelf, at great cost, were invented by University Students. As you are reading this, do not forget that without Harvard University, there would not have been Facebook, and this our interface would have been impossible.

But our Students in Nigeria are not entirely without inventions. We invented the Pyrates Confraternity, the , the Eiye, the Vikings and what not!! Students resume school with guns and bullets, rather than books and scholastic ideas, as though academic institutions were a War College. Lecturers fly colors as do students. And when the turf war begins, people die in droves. But States can do nothing about this because some of these institutions are controlled by the Federal Government. Even for the ones controlled by States, you still can't do much because the security apparatus is controlled by the Federal Government. The Federal Government will provide or withdraw Security from the State, depending on whether it is happy with the sitting Governor. So every year, all sorts of characters are vomited from Nigerian Universities to take their place in Nigerian Society. So you have Judges, Lawyers, Engineers, Doctors and so forth whose first and primary allegiance is to their Cult group, before the Country. The multiplier effect of this, is a treatise for another day.

But suffice to say that as long as this problem persist, let's forget about Silicon Valley in Nigeria, because there will never be a Stanford University here to provide an infinite supply of ideas and prodigies to feed the invention value-chain!

Nigeria cannot wake up from its slumber today because it cannot lift its head. The entire weight of its existence is concentrated in its head. From the viewpoint of government, the weight is in Abuja. From the viewpoint of revenue source, the weight is in the Niger-Delta. We need to urgently restructure and evenly distribute this pressure points and weights to diffuse tension in Nigeria.

We need to revisit the exclusive legislative list in the Constitution and systematically reduce the responsibilities of the Federal Government vis-a-vis the States. Resources have to be handed back to the States that generated them but place an obligation on each States to contribute an agreed percentage to the common federal purse to service obligations of the Federal Government. There is no reason Education, Policing, Prisons (only people convicted of federal offenses should go to federal prisons!!), Ports, Inland Waterways, natural minerals, even marriage (yes, English form of marriage!!) and so many other items should be the concern of the Federal Government. We will never develop with such weight that weigh us down at the center. Nigeria can never raise its head in the comity of nations because of the sheer weight of the head.

There is more to say, but scarcely any time. But to emphasis the point I've been laboring to make, shall I say again that there is absolutely no reason or need to fight for oil in the Niger-Delta. There are so many things that can bring more revenue to States in Nigeria than oil. South Africa has no oil, but it has Gold, and is richer than Nigeria. Let us fight for a system that will promote both equality and equity. Let us restructure Nigeria.

*Copied*

I think one BIG, BIG advantage a place like, say, US, has over Nigeria is that they have a very hard-to-beat way of identifying each individual and a way of making it very hard for one to change his identity.. This makes it easy to lend people money, rent.cars, buy on credit, monitor credit, have credit cards. This makes the economy muxh more buoyant than.if people spent only money they have on hand.

[quote author=ameri9ja post=60528540]Hello everyone,
This is ameri9ja, founder of the Danist movement.
This thread was originally put up by CHUKAZU, a Danite.
Since the vast majority of us agree that the country needs restructuring, we hereby invite you to please state your ideas on how the country is to be restructured. The following write-up is by aforementioned Mr. Chukazu. You don't have to read all of it. Just state your own ideas or comment on his ideas.
------------------------
Going by the recent clamoring from different parts of the country for a complete restructuring of the country, I have always wondered what exactly we hope to achieve by such exercise? 

With due respect to the opinions of all, I hereby propose a way forward. 

POLITICAL REALIGNMENT 
Our over bloated political system is totally none sustainable, we must as a matter of urgency scrap the current system of the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ;it's of no benefit to an average Nigerian going by the budget we spend on each member of the assembly,the nation of Senegal just disengaged it Legislature and we certainly can do better 

A) lawmaking should be voluntary, anybody that cannot volunteer to make law without been paid is not worthy.. Currently Nigerian lawmakers are the highest paid in the world 
The present system is too lopsided and unjust, I mean a situation where two states from the North have more house of representatives members than the entire South East region can not stand 

B) talk about been worthy... How do we justify individuals (Our legislatures) who have never been to law school, making laws for trained lawyers((the judiciary) to interpret 

PRESIDENCY 
We must devolve power from the executive to the states or regions as the case may be 
Our presidency should be ceremonial 

A) out of the six geo-poilitcal zones, let's experiment with a single president ably assisted by" five vice presidents "from the five remaining geo-political zones to address cry of marginalization, I mean each region in Nigeria can stand alone as an independent nation, so why don't we give everyone a say and a sense of belonging? 

B) the current" four years of two terms " is way too much, why don't we do a" five years "single term for our political office holders ? 
Anybody that cannot make an impact within five years tenure is already a failure so why dash someone eight years to waste 

INEC : 
Our major problem as it relates to elections lies with INEC. 
to have a competent and credible elections,firstly we must make politics totally unattractive... Have always imagined what would happen if tell all our politicians to go ahead and become president, governors, Senators, local government chairman; without collecting salaries, how many of them would still come and tell us they want to serve

INEC must have the option for independent candidates, I mean if someone is required to pay as much as 5 million Naira to buy a party form for gubernatorial election, how do we expect such individual not to steal and recover his money 

A) politicians should have the least pay of all public office holders 

B) our politicians should have no access or power over the treasury 

C) once it approaches time for elections; every political office holder, from president to local government chairman should resign from office three months to election date and a caretaker interim leaders be appointed to serve for the period of election so as to avoid the "power of incumbency" which has bedeviled our polity, that is how it is presently done in Sri Lanka 

* MINISTERIAL CONDUCT 
No public officials, especially ministers should be allowed to send their wards abroad for studies (they will be forced to modernize education system) 

No public officials be allowed to use generator as alternative power source (no choice but to make our epileptic power work) 

No official be allowed to get treatment abroad regardless of the illness 

* ECONOMY 

Stop every exploration of crude oil and focus on human capital development.. Invest in ICT, the nation of Isreal is making more than Twenty billion dollars annually from technology driven start-ups, second only to the Silicone Valley in the US while the likes of oil rich Saudi Arabia is struggling to restructure it economy due to heavy drop in crude oil prices 

We need to build at least one Mega City for each geo-political zone; that was the initial plan between world Bank and federal government, which obviously started with Lagos but currently no one knows what happened to Ibadan, Enugu and Kano that were supposed to commence after Lagos 
That is the only way we can address over dependence on Lagos with unbearable "rural urban" drift 
With the rate of wide economic gap between the North and the South, am actually scared we don't become like North Korean /South Korea example.. The South has built and modernized it economy but the North Koreans have become a constant terror treat, always threatening the South with missile and Even Nuclear weapons, it already happening with BOKO HARAM ... 

So for our economic managers, it behooves on them to implement an all inclusive, all in compassing economic policy so that Lagos doesn't become a center of excellence while the rest of the nation wallow in poverty 

RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION 
Total overhaul of our Railway system, with speed train instead of the Locomotive train currently on ground, I mean someone should be able to live in Ibadan and be coming to work in Lagos on board a train that would spend nothing more than 1hr/30 minutes to two hours 

* INDUSTRY 
Every Geo-political zone should have a FREE TRADE EXPORT PROCESSING ZONE that is not based on politics but purely on comparative advantage, to avoid the type of "AJAOKUTA EXPERIENCE" 

* POWER GENERATION :

The concept of "national grid" should be totally expunged from our system 
Every state should set a target of nothing less than 1, 000 MEGA WATTS of electricity generation, within a five years meticulous planning- starting with yearly 200MEGA WATTS, with that in less than ten years we have more than 30, 000, MEGA WATTS from 36 states... This is no rocket science naa


Let's try pure communism, see what happens

mesoprogress:
There's no oil in my town but if we must succeed, oil cannot be in exclusive list. There could be an arrangement where oil is weaned from other states over say five years. 100%, 80%, 60%...0%. Once states know that oil money won't come and is gradually declining, they would sit up. In fact states should fund FG not the other way round. Remember federal government can bail out struggling states through direct sponsor of education, health etc in such states but not as allocation. Read this submission below :

California is the 6th largest economy in the World. It's economy is larger than that of France or Brazil. The little problem is that California is not a Country. It is a State in the United States of America (USA). It has little offshore oil, yet its economy is larger than States in the US that are famous for their oil reserves, like Texas.

California generates much of its revenue from non-oil products. It found a way to absorb and domesticate much of the intellectual output from its Premier University, Stanford University, into saleable products within its economy.
As a matter of fact, much of California's economy is built around Stanford University. So with this, Silicon Valley developed. I'm sure you've heard of Silicon Valley at least once in your life. Now with Silicon Valley came Companies like Apple, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed, Hewlett Packard (HP), Google, Netflix, Facebook, Oracle, Tesla...and the list goes on and on ad infinitum. These are multibillion-dollar companies. The yearly budget of any one of these companies might be larger than the entire yearly budget of, say for example, Akwa Ibom State. I'm taking about companies that are richer than countries. They are all in California. But that is just in the technology industry where the technologies and inventions spewing out of Stanford are caught midair and converted to money spinning enterprises.

But there is also the entertainment industry in California. Yes, Hollywood is in California. The US movies industry contributes about $504Billion to USA's GDP. Hollywood, as you know, contributes over 70% of that figure. Most iconic movie studios are in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, the "Big Eight" consisting of 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, United Artists, Universal Studios and Warner Bros are, or were, all in Hollywood. These again, are multi-billion dollar companies generating revenue for California.

Despite the above, California also thrives on agriculture. As at 2014, California had nothing less than 77,000 farms and ranches raking in about $55Billion in revenue yearly. It produces over 400 agricultural commodities, a large chunk of which it exports. It is the leader in producing exotic fruits in America. Its wine industry is unique. California wine is drunk with relish the world over. I used to drink some too.
This is just one State in America. You see, California actually had a choice of sitting back and striving to get a piece of the revenue generated from Texas' oil. It could have depended solely on Federal allocation to survive so that every month end, it will send its Commissioner of Finance to Washington DC to receive monthly allocation so that it can barely pay salaries of its workers and nothing more. Then San Francisco would resemble Ajegunle in Lagos. And there certainly would not be those beautiful sights and sounds that make California what it is today. But No, not California. Not America. California gives to the center and, because of its wealth, despises the idea of depending on it for survival. The Federal Government actually needs California to survive, not the other way round.

You see, America is structured in such a way that States must look inwards to exploit their wealth for the good of its citizens. There is no free lunch for the lazy States. There certainly is no commonwealth. But there is your wealth, if you can create it. Under American Federalism, you are the captain of your ship. But again, you are also the waves upon which the ship will sail. That is America. The local government, the government closest to the grassroot, is deliberately made the strongest level of government. Items like Variances (adaptation of state law to local conditions,) Public works (yes, public works!!), Contracts for public works, Licensing of public accommodations, Assessable improvements, Basic public services are all left for Local County governments to handle. The State handles weightier matters like Property Law, Education, Commerce Laws of Ownership and Exchange, Banking and Credit Laws, Labour Law and Professional Licensure, Insurance Laws, and Electoral Laws, including Parties and Civil Service Laws. Items that the Federal Government, the center, handles affecting the States, are actually very negligible.

Nigeria on the contrary will never do well unless we restructure. We pretend to have a Federal system but we are actually operating a unique form of unitary government, and it is weighing the polity down. Can you imagine a country where the School Curriculum is regulated by a national central body and states have no powers to vary or amend their curriculum? So, if the rest of the developed world is light years ahead in what they teach their children from primary schools, and our Minister of Education has absolutely no clue, the States must be burdened with antiquated School Curriculum until such a time (if we are lucky, before rapture perhaps!!) that we have an Education Minister who would realise how far behind we are and bring the Curriculum up to date. Just take a look at the Science Curriculum for grade students in advanced countries and you would cry for Nigeria. I recently read of a High School in Japan which has amended its Curriculum to include Robotics and Drones Technology. IN HIGH SCHOOL!! But our Professors here don't have a hang on Robotics even! Students are still taught the very prehistoric rudiments of Physics and Chemistry in our Schools. And this is even in the few schools that teachers and students still meet in the classrooms! For the few Public Schools that are lucky to have Laboratories, all you see are miserable nameless creatures trapped in formalin, to which nobody ever pays attention. These creatures suffer a double jeopardy having suffered the first misfortune of being caught and preserved in formalin in Nigeria, and then thereafter completely ignored, even in death! And because the control of our Curriculum is central, there is nothing States can do about this.

You would think this is not a problem until you understand that Nigerians spend over ONE TRILLION NAIRA every year to study abroad. You see, the reason why you have Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Oxford, etc is not only for academic excellence of the citizens of the countries which have these schools. No. They invest in their institutions so that they can earn revenue from foreign students from countries like Nigeria which has destroyed its educational system. Abroad, schools are so important to society that the economy, business and lifestyle of whole cities and even States completely depend on or revolve around Schools. What would the city of Cambridge be without Cambridge University. Or Cambridge, Massachusetts without Harvard University. These cities depend on these Universities to survive. And imagine that Nigeria had invested in its Universities and was earning $1Billion dollars a year from foreign students seeking to study here, who would be fighting over oil in the Niger Delta? How many car manufacturing companies would we have in Owerri near the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) where students are constantly doing and selling their research products to burgeoning engineering and manufacturing companies? Recently, three students in Sweden conducted research and came up with a product that could improve wear and tear on tyres. The product became so successful that Volvo had to partner with these students to patent the product. Now when this product hit world stage, can you imagine how much revenue Sweden would earn from these product? Do your research, most of the World-class products we buy today off the shelf, at great cost, were invented by University Students. As you are reading this, do not forget that without Harvard University, there would not have been Facebook, and this our interface would have been impossible.

But our Students in Nigeria are not entirely without inventions. We invented the Pyrates Confraternity, the , the Eiye, the Vikings and what not!! Students resume school with guns and bullets, rather than books and scholastic ideas, as though academic institutions were a War College. Lecturers fly colors as do students. And when the turf war begins, people die in droves. But States can do nothing about this because some of these institutions are controlled by the Federal Government. Even for the ones controlled by States, you still can't do much because the security apparatus is controlled by the Federal Government. The Federal Government will provide or withdraw Security from the State, depending on whether it is happy with the sitting Governor. So every year, all sorts of characters are vomited from Nigerian Universities to take their place in Nigerian Society. So you have Judges, Lawyers, Engineers, Doctors and so forth whose first and primary allegiance is to their Cult group, before the Country. The multiplier effect of this, is a treatise for another day.

But suffice to say that as long as this problem persist, let's forget about Silicon Valley in Nigeria, because there will never be a Stanford University here to provide an infinite supply of ideas and prodigies to feed the invention value-chain!

Nigeria cannot wake up from its slumber today because it cannot lift its head. The entire weight of its existence is concentrated in its head. From the viewpoint of government, the weight is in Abuja. From the viewpoint of revenue source, the weight is in the Niger-Delta. We need to urgently restructure and evenly distribute this pressure points and weights to diffuse tension in Nigeria.

We need to revisit the exclusive legislative list in the Constitution and systematically reduce the responsibilities of the Federal Government vis-a-vis the States. Resources have to be handed back to the States that generated them but place an obligation on each States to contribute an agreed percentage to the common federal purse to service obligations of the Federal Government. There is no reason Education, Policing, Prisons (only people convicted of federal offenses should go to federal prisons!!), Ports, Inland Waterways, natural minerals, even marriage (yes, English form of marriage!!) and so many other items should be the concern of the Federal Government. We will never develop with such weight that weigh us down at the center. Nigeria can never raise its head in the comity of nations because of the sheer weight of the head.

There is more to say, but scarcely any time. But to emphasis the point I've been laboring to make, shall I say again that there is absolutely no reason or need to fight for oil in the Niger-Delta. There are so many things that can bring more revenue to States in Nigeria than oil. South Africa has no oil, but it has Gold, and is richer than Nigeria. Let us fight for a system that will promote both equality and equity. Let us restructure Nigeria.

*Copied*

Ok. Noted

post=60632144:
There's no oil in my town but if we must succeed, oil cannot be in exclusive list. There could be an arrangement where oil is weaned from other states over say five years. 100%, 80%, 60%...0%. Once states know that oil money won't come and is gradually declining, they would sit up. In fact states should fund FG not the other way round. Remember federal government can bail out struggling states through direct sponsor of education, health etc in such states but not as allocation.v Read this submission below :

California is the 6th largest economy in the World. It's economy is larger than that of France or Brazil. The little problem is that California is not a Country. It is a State in the United States of America (USA). It has little offshore oil, yet its economy is larger than States in the US that are famous for their oil reserves, like Texas.

California generates much of its revenue from non-oil products. It found a way to absorb and domesticate much of the intellectual output from its Premier University, Stanford University, into saleable products within its economy.
As a matter of fact, much of California's economy is built around Stanford University. So with this, Silicon Valley developed. I'm sure you've heard of Silicon Valley at least once in your life. Now with Silicon Valley came Companies like Apple, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed, Hewlett Packard (HP), Google, Netflix, Facebook, Oracle, Tesla...and the list goes on and on ad infinitum. These are multibillion-dollar companies. The yearly budget of any one of these companies might be larger than the entire yearly budget of, say for example, Akwa Ibom State. I'm taking about companies that are richer than countries. They are all in California. But that is just in the technology industry where the technologies and inventions spewing out of Stanford are caught midair and converted to money spinning enterprises.

But there is also the entertainment industry in California. Yes, Hollywood is in California. The US movies industry contributes about $504Billion to USA's GDP. Hollywood, as you know, contributes over 70% of that figure. Most iconic movie studios are in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, the "Big Eight" consisting of 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, United Artists, Universal Studios and Warner Bros are, or were, all in Hollywood. These again, are multi-billion dollar companies generating revenue for California.

Despite the above, California also thrives on agriculture. As at 2014, California had nothing less than 77,000 farms and ranches raking in about $55Billion in revenue yearly. It produces over 400 agricultural commodities, a large chunk of which it exports. It is the leader in producing exotic fruits in America. Its wine industry is unique. California wine is drunk with relish the world over. I used to drink some too.
This is just one State in America. You see, California actually had a choice of sitting back and striving to get a piece of the revenue generated from Texas' oil. It could have depended solely on Federal allocation to survive so that every month end, it will send its Commissioner of Finance to Washington DC to receive monthly allocation so that it can barely pay salaries of its workers and nothing more. Then San Francisco would resemble Ajegunle in Lagos. And there certainly would not be those beautiful sights and sounds that make California what it is today. But No, not California. Not America. California gives to the center and, because of its wealth, despises the idea of depending on it for survival. The Federal Government actually needs California to survive, not the other way round.

You see, America is structured in such a way that States must look inwards to exploit their wealth for the good of its citizens. There is no free lunch for the lazy States. There certainly is no commonwealth. But there is your wealth, if you can create it. Under American Federalism, you are the captain of your ship. But again, you are also the waves upon which the ship will sail. That is America. The local government, the government closest to the grassroot, is deliberately made the strongest level of government. Items like Variances (adaptation of state law to local conditions,) Public works (yes, public works!!), Contracts for public works, Licensing of public accommodations, Assessable improvements, Basic public services are all left for Local County governments to handle. The State handles weightier matters like Property Law, Education, Commerce Laws of Ownership and Exchange, Banking and Credit Laws, Labour Law and Professional Licensure, Insurance Laws, and Electoral Laws, including Parties and Civil Service Laws. Items that the Federal Government, the center, handles affecting the States, are actually very negligible.

Nigeria on the contrary will never do well unless we restructure. We pretend to have a Federal system but we are actually operating a unique form of unitary government, and it is weighing the polity down. Can you imagine a country where the School Curriculum is regulated by a national central body and states have no powers to vary or amend their curriculum? So, if the rest of the developed world is light years ahead in what they teach their children from primary schools, and our Minister of Education has absolutely no clue, the States must be burdened with antiquated School Curriculum until such a time (if we are lucky, before rapture perhaps!!) that we have an Education Minister who would realise how far behind we are and bring the Curriculum up to date. Just take a look at the Science Curriculum for grade students in advanced countries and you would cry for Nigeria. I recently read of a High School in Japan which has amended its Curriculum to include Robotics and Drones Technology. IN HIGH SCHOOL!! But our Professors here don't have a hang on Robotics even! Students are still taught the very prehistoric rudiments of Physics and Chemistry in our Schools. And this is even in the few schools that teachers and students still meet in the classrooms! For the few Public Schools that are lucky to have Laboratories, all you see are miserable nameless creatures trapped in formalin, to which nobody ever pays attention. These creatures suffer a double jeopardy having suffered the first misfortune of being caught and preserved in formalin in Nigeria, and then thereafter completely ignored, even in death! And because the control of our Curriculum is central, there is nothing States can do about this.

You would think this is not a problem until you understand that Nigerians spend over ONE TRILLION NAIRA every year to study abroad. You see, the reason why you have Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Oxford, etc is not only for academic excellence of the citizens of the countries which have these schools. No. They invest in their institutions so that they can earn revenue from foreign students from countries like Nigeria which has destroyed its educational system. Abroad, schools are so important to society that the economy, business and lifestyle of whole cities and even States completely depend on or revolve around Schools. What would the city of Cambridge be without Cambridge University. Or Cambridge, Massachusetts without Harvard University. These cities depend on these Universities to survive. And imagine that Nigeria had invested in its Universities and was earning $1Billion dollars a year from foreign students seeking to study here, who would be fighting over oil in the Niger Delta? How many car manufacturing companies would we have in Owerri near the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) where students are constantly doing and selling their research products to burgeoning engineering and manufacturing companies? Recently, three students in Sweden conducted research and came up with a product that could improve wear and tear on tyres. The product became so successful that Volvo had to partner with these students to patent the product. Now when this product hit world stage, can you imagine how much revenue Sweden would earn from these product? Do your research, most of the World-class products we buy today off the shelf, at great cost, were invented by University Students. As you are reading this, do not forget that without Harvard University, there would not have been Facebook, and this our interface would have been impossible.

But our Students in Nigeria are not entirely without inventions. We invented the Pyrates Confraternity, the , the Eiye, the Vikings and what not!! Students resume school with guns and bullets, rather than books and scholastic ideas, as though academic institutions were a War College. Lecturers fly colors as do students. And when the turf war begins, people die in droves. But States can do nothing about this because some of these institutions are controlled by the Federal Government. Even for the ones controlled by States, you still can't do much because the security apparatus is controlled by the Federal Government. The Federal Government will provide or withdraw Security from the State, depending on whether it is happy with the sitting Governor. So every year, all sorts of characters are vomited from Nigerian Universities to take their place in Nigerian Society. So you have Judges, Lawyers, Engineers, Doctors and so forth whose first and primary allegiance is to their Cult group, before the Country. The multiplier effect of this, is a treatise for another day.

But suffice to say that as long as this problem persist, let's forget about Silicon Valley in Nigeria, because there will never be a Stanford University here to provide an infinite supply of ideas and prodigies to feed the invention value-chain!

Nigeria cannot wake up from its slumber today because it cannot lift its head. The entire weight of its existence is concentrated in its head. From the viewpoint of government, the weight is in Abuja. From the viewpoint of revenue source, the weight is in the Niger-Delta. We need to urgently restructure and evenly distribute this pressure points and weights to diffuse tension in Nigeria.

We need to revisit the exclusive legislative list in the Constitution and systematically reduce the responsibilities of the Federal Government vis-a-vis the States. Resources have to be handed back to the States that generated them but place an obligation on each States to contribute an agreed percentage to the common federal purse to service obligations of the Federal Government. There is no reason Education, Policing, Prisons (only people convicted of federal offenses should go to federal prisons!!), Ports, Inland Waterways, natural minerals, even marriage (yes, English form of marriage!!) and so many other items should be the concern of the Federal Government. We will never develop with such weight that weigh us down at the center. Nigeria can never raise its head in the comity of nations because of the sheer weight of the head.

There is more to say, but scarcely any time. But to emphasis the point I've been laboring to make, shall I say again that there is absolutely no reason or need to fight for oil in the Niger-Delta. There are so many things that can bring more revenue to States in Nigeria than oil. South Africa has no oil, but it has Gold, and is richer than Nigeria. Let us fight for a system that will promote both equality and equity. Let us restructure Nigeria.

*Copied*

Here is a poignant statement:

"Nigeria cannot wake up from its slumber today because it cannot lift its head. The entire weight of its existence is concentrated in its head. From the viewpoint of government, the weight is in Abuja. From the viewpoint of revenue source, the weight is in the Niger-Delta. We need to urgently restructure and evenly distribute this pressure points and weights to diffuse tension in Nigeria."