There is a lie that the elites of Nigeria have told the people for 60 years.

That if we just find better people, the system will work. If we find a more honest President, a more competent Governor, a more patriotic Minister, Nigeria will work.

That is not true. A bad system will always defeat good intentions.

The unworkable system we operate did not start in 1999 or 1979. It started in January 1966 when the military took power to the centre. It was then constitutionalized in 1979 when we adopted our own funny Presidential system, and reinforced in 1999 under the current constitution.

For 60 years, we have run a systemic structure that concentrates power, money and opportunity in Abuja.

What we operated before 1966 was not perfect. But it worked. It was productive and competitive. Regions kept 50% of what they produced and developed at their own pace.

They policed their communities and built industrial estates because power was close to the people. That system only needed improvement. The military truncated it.

Our elites and a section of so-called intellectuals keep saying that Nigeria operates the American Presidential system. The truth is that we don’t.

America’s system was designed to prevent elite capture.

Power resides in 50 states and thousands of cities.

A Governor in Texas controls his own economy, energy, and policing. Washington can shut down and America will still work. A Mayor in New York runs his city, he controls his own police department of over 36,000 officers and runs a city budget of $126 billion, bigger than the entire Federal Government of Nigeria which is $49.38 billion and all 36 states combined which is N40.14 trillion, with over $60 billion to spare. He does not call Washington to fix a pothole or rail.

Our system does the opposite. It was designed for elite capture. Everything flows to Abuja. Oil money, security control, approvals. You must know someone in Abuja to live. This is unitary feudalism with a federal name, not federalism.

This is the story of most of Africa.

Nations that run this centralized, winner-takes-all Presidential system have retrogressed. Cameroon has had the same President for 40 years and a civil war in its Anglophone region. Uganda has a permanent President who is accountable to no one.

Zimbabwe’s imperial Presidency destroyed one of Africa’s most industrialized economies. The pattern is the same, rich government houses and palaces, poor citizens.

Progressive and productive countries chose differently. Switzerland and Canada run asymmetrical and loose federalism. Quebec has its own laws and immigration, 26 Swiss cantons control police, health and taxes. The UAE is a confederation where Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah run different economic models.

Germany, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa run parliamentary democracy where the Prime Minister answers to Parliament weekly and can be removed by his own party. No emperor. France runs a mixed parliamentary system where the Prime Minister runs the domestic economy. These systems work because no single man can hold the country hostage.

Our own structure is why we are poor and unsafe. You cannot industrialize when a Governor cannot guarantee power, police or tax incentives. So we import everything. You cannot secure a country of 230 million with 371,000 policemen controlled by one Inspector General in Abuja. The Governor in Zamfara and the LGA Chairman in Daura know the bandits and their hideouts, but they rely on the IGP in Abuja who is controlled by the President to rid their society of bandits. You cannot create jobs when states are salary-collecting agencies waiting for FAAC. True federalism forces competition and production.

For 60 years, political actors have made Nigerians believe this system can be improved with new slogans and repeated promises. It cannot.

That is why, as contained in our policy papers on Parliamentary Democracy and State Police, federal police for federal crimes, state police for state crimes and community policing for communities.

The Citizens Democratic Alliance is determined to end this. We will not attempt to improve an unworkable system. We will reform it entirely. Due to our multiethnic nature, we will restructure Nigeria into asymmetrical federalism as is done in multiethnic countries like Canada and Spain, where federating units with distinct histories and identities exercise different powers to keep the union productive. We will adopt a parliamentary system that reduces cost of governance, ensures daily accountability, decentralizes policing, returns economic power and resource control to federating units, and ensures no single individual or group can hold Nigeria hostage. That way Nigeria will be productive and progressive like Canada, Japan, Austria, Germany etc. Our best brains will have no need to emigrate to these countries and Nigeria will work.

Let’s Work To Make Nigeria Work.

Tamunotonye Samuel Solomon Inioribo
Founder and National Chairman
Citizens Democratic Alliance