Yesterday my friend suggested Buhari suspend the constitution for 6 months….to enable him “fight corruption”.
I was against the idea, such an idea is arguing that President Buhari cannot govern and achieve results in a democracy, however on sleeping on it, I have come around to the idea that Buhari should suspend the constitution, for me I want the suspension for 4 years.
So day one the constitution is suspended, this will mean for clarity;
1. Federal Character is suspended
2. Land Use Act is suspended
3. Executive list is suspended
What will be the effect of these suspensions…?
1. Federal Character suspended
Federal Character suspension means the President does not need 36 Ministers, he can have 12, we can immediately reduce recurrent expenses. It also means we don’t need to balance out political appointees even to the 12 ministers, we can appoint solely based on competence not on state of origin. So this is positive.
2. Land Use Act suspended,
Land Use Act suspended means the ownership of land is transferred back to the people of Nigeria away from the State Governors.
In practical terms, it means small farmers don’t need to spend millions to get a Certificate of Occupancy for the land they have “owned “ for centuries…the farmers instantly have “equity”, because they own the land no C of O required.
What this means is that in overnight Nigeria takes a bold step in eradicating rural poverty, if rural farmers own land, they are not poor and without collateral. Like Hernando De Sato opined, the land they currently “own” is dead capital, as they have no Deeds, but without the land Use Act, that land becomes valuable. The can pledge their land for fertilizer and tractors, increase their yields, break the cycle of poverty.
I can buy a land in Lekki, and my lawyer can the sellers lawyer can agree to the sale and put the contract of sale in a public state registrar. We don’t need the signature of the governor, the same way we don’t need the consent of the governors if I buy shares of same value from same client, this boosts economic productivity; so again positive
3. Exclusive list is suspended
Exclusive List suspended means the activities listed as “Exclusive” to the FGN are suspended.
Have you ever wondered why the states in say the former Western Region can’t license private investors to build a railway network to connect Lagos to Ibadan? Well that because according to our constitution in the Exclusive list only the FGN can operate a railway, (that’s why states only do light rails).
So if we suspend the constitution, the South East will have the legal powers to partner investors and GE who are in Cross River to build a railway to connect Lagos to Onitsha, to Aba to Nnewi to Enugu to PortHarcourt to Onne etc . Can you imagine what this railway will do? The productivity improvements? Can you imagine a railway from Lagos to Lokoja to Warri, built by the Private investors to export agricultural products from the North to the Southern ports? Can you imagine the jobs created? Can you imagine the revenues that will flow to the agricultural states?
What about power? Why has Lagos State not licensed ABB to build a power plant to take Lekki Peninsula off the National grid? Again the laws give the powers to grant licenses to the FGN. The FGN had to give the Geometric Power the license to build a power plant in Aba, not the Abia state, the FGN. The FGN own the Transmission Company of Nigeria. In fact, according to the constitution the 10 gas power plants built from 2005 were all ILLEGALLY built, yes I repeat, those 10 power plants were built by ILLEGALLY debiting the Consolidated Revenue Fund (aka FAAC) to build them. (so as you the taxpayer enjoys gas power; you are an accessory to an illegality).
So if we suspend the constitution, states and the private sector can build railways, and power plants, this is competition, create jobs and revenues…. how can this not be positive? And I can go on and on, but I have chosen just these three positives that will come from suspending the constitution for four years.
If my friend had come to me and said, oh lets suspend the constitution so we can create 10m jobs, double our GDP and reduce the size of the government, who will be brave enough to say NO…but the sole reason offered to suspend the constitution is to “fight corruption”, and this revels what the problem with this administration .
Tunnel vision.
This administration has a one-point agenda……. corruption.
This administration set up its National Security Team and its Anticorruption advisory team headed by Prof Sagey, it is yet to set up an Economic Management team, in fact the Economic Council of State retreat has as part of its agenda “to properly constitute an economic management team”
President Buhari if I recall ran on three platforms, anticorruption, Boko Haram and Jobs….trust me, if we have zero corruption today, and we completely defeat Boko Haram, and no jobs are created, nobody in power today will return in 2019.
We must not be administratively myopic, this nation, the largest economy in Africa cannot wait for the President and his supports to fight and defeat corruption before it does anything else…we don’t have that luxury.
Mr President, respectfully sir…chew gum and walk…..at the same time.
Ps
For full disclosure, I support a constitutional amendment to the constitution, not a suspension. Also read this artice as a position paper on Constitutional amendments (not a response to my friend)
