A former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has said that the chances of restructuring the country under President Bola Tinubu’s administration are unlikely.
Odinkalu noted that owing to the “mechanics of presidentialism,” it remains unlikely that a sitting president would champion the devolution of more powers to the federating units.
The former NHRC boss said this on Friday when he was featured as a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a sociocultural programme of Channels Television.
Odinkalu said, “President Tinubu is now seeing Nigeria from the centre, not from the circumference. I’ve lived in Lagos for clearly 40 years and I have tried to tell my friends that Lagos is not Nigeria; Lagos is Lagos. And I say this as a full-time Lagosian. Lagos is not Nigeria. All of that he was talking about is different when you are the President.
“So, the idea that Tinubu is going to come to the job with an idea of restructuring is not likely to fly. The mechanics of presidentialism make it unlikely that an incumbent President is going to be the advocate of the cannibalisation of that power. Even if the President were to be enthusiastic about that, the presidential team, many of whom would lose relevance, would slow workings.
“So, you are going to have two levels of resistance – one from the occupant of the office himself but more also from the people around him who don’t have interest in seeing that happen. So, the redesign of Nigeria from the centre is going to be very difficult.”
“President Tinubu is now seeing Nigeria from the centre, not from the circumference. I’ve lived in Lagos for clearly 40 years and I have tried to tell my friends that Lagos is not Nigeria; Lagos is Lagos. And I say this as a full-time Lagosian. Lagos is not Nigeria. All that he was talking about is different when you are the President.
“So, the idea that Tinubu is going to come to the job with an idea of restructuring is not likely to fly. The mechanics of presidentialism make it unlikely that an incumbent President is going to advocate the cannibalisation of that power. Even if the president were to be enthusiastic about that, the presidential team, many of whom would lose relevance, would slow the workings.
“So, you are going to have two levels of resistance – one from the occupant of the office himself but more also from the people around him who don’t have an interest in seeing that happen. So, the redesign of Nigeria from the centre is going to be very difficult,” Odinkalu said.
In his remarks about a new constitution, the human rights activist noted that Nigeria rather needs what he termed a “constitutional settlement.”
He said this would ensure Nigerians discuss “the things that matter and bind us together, the things we want and wish to have.”
Odinkalu stated, “I am not of the idea that we need a new constitution. What we need is a constitutional settlement. A constitution is a text, anyone can write it…A constitutional settlement precedes a constitution and we have never really had one; the closest we came to one was in 1971…but the military stepped in.
“We need a constitutional settlement to precede a constitution; to say, all of us in Nigeria, communities, ethnicities, whosoever we are, we discuss the things that matter and bind us together, the things we want and wish to have, and you guys should make a constitution of it.”
