In the last two months, and perhaps to May next year, what shall dominate our governance space is the choices of political leaders into various seats of Government. As the country does this, actual governance suffers. It is noteworthy that after the “occupy Nigeria” against President Goodluck Jonathan by Pastor Tunde Bakare and his group, which is partly responsible for the enthronement of the APC government at the center, we now have three movements that may redefine Nigeria’s political future from 2023. These are Peter Obi, Kwankwansia, and the Third Force. The good about these movements is that they are trying to break the cycle of tribal and religious centeredness in our polity.
From the look of things, these movements may have fused relationships and candidates before the 2023 elections. If they did the way of the 2014 super-merger that produced the APC, tough times await the APC and the PDP. It could mean that the first ballot may not produce a clear winner and the re-run would be interesting.
As these crop of the prospective leaders ask for our hands in making them Presidents and Governors, we should in clear terms, ask them to tell us the roadmaps for attaining fiscal federalism to replace this present unitary structure in the garb of federalism. They should, in concrete terms, tell us what they understand by the restructuring of Nigeria that would establish true fiscal federalism, which would allow states to control their resources and fund the slimmer center. Besides, they should tell us how they want to make the Judiciary and Local Governments autonomous.
Aside from these, they must also pledge to pursue autonomy for the state assembly, which shall empower it to carry out oversights on the state executive arm of Government in various states. These pledges shall be the benchmarks to score them and determine if they are deserving of a second tenure. Will they?
Grace and peace!!!
