By Polycarp Onwubiko
Vanguard Editorial November 5, 2024 qualified to be described as most crude, unenlightened and grossly deficient of knowledge of governance in a Federal system of government. To say that the Editorial Board of the newspaper should be disbanded because of deteriorating standard in education, is simply factual.
How could an enlightened group
in the newspaper industry, an elite conclave for that matter, succumb to the
primitive and uncivilized age long manipulations by supposed "powerful
traditional rulers" especially from the North to blackmail federal
government from the time of independence to grant roles for the traditional
rulers in a Federal Constitution? Where has such outright nonsense if not
madness been done in other parts of civilized countries of the world?
Vanguard Editorial naively
propped up their advocacy for constitutional role for traditional rulers by
saying that traditional rulers are in the prime position to curb insecurity,
moreso in the North where the sponsors of Jihadist terrorists and the North's
self-styled "bandits and criminals" ostensibly to becloud the
terrorists undertones of their treasonable gambits while the security agencies
pretend that they are helpless. Who is fooling whom?
The Editorial further in its
grossly deficient and irresponsible outing said that:
"Nigeria needs a holistic
approach to power devolution, part of which will include giving constitutional
roles to traditional rulers. This is the only way we can reclaim our vast
(supposedly) Ungoverned spaces by criminals, insurgents and terrorists (how sad
a group of elite joined the sponsors of Islamic cum Jihadist terrorists) to
describe terrorists as "criminals"! Sorry for Nigeria!
Further to the naive written
Editorial, it continued thus:
Government should
"empower traditional rulers, especially in the areas of security,
implementation of economic policies and administration of justice, will make
governance more effective". From the crude tone of the Editorial, it is
crystal clear that it was a sponsored Editorial to secure the ear of the Aso
Villa landlord.
Oh, traditional rulers will
participate in the implementation of economic policies and administration of
justice! Therefore, please let the local government councils start recruiting
staff to serve in the coming offices of the traditional rulers all over the
country and get their names incorporated in the staff payroll. How stupid such
an idea could be entertained?
Soon, it is likely that
president Tinubu would cave in to the naive gimmickry of giving constitutional
roles to traditional rulers to get them mobilize for his second tenure. Nothing
is impossible in the country that has scant regard for civilized values and
practices as obtained in countries that practice federal system of government.
If traditional rulers should be
responsible for security, what then is the essence of the president of a
sovereign entity being the Chief security officer of the country? Again, in
addition to the farcical situation in Nigeria where the state governors are
tagged "Chief security officer of the state" but without being able
to give directives to the State Commissioner of Police?
Nobody is astonished by this
stupid gimmickry of assigning constitutional role for traditional rulers
because not only that the principles of federal system of government have been
dumped into the garbage but the occupants of Aso Villa past and present had
never left any impression that it is within the realm of possibility that
Nigeria will return the principles of federal system of government as obtained
in countries that practice federal even as the First Republic in Nigeria
practiced the realistic principles of federal system of government.
These principles of federal
system were not harmful to all the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria as they
jumpstarted great socioeconomic growth and development but were truncated by
the half educated military autocrats.
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