By Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Mr. Speaker, honourable members of the Lagos State House of Assembly, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, congratulations to us all. We have a lot to be proud of, as we have to be thankful for.
Those who were not born in 1993 or were too young to be fully cognitive will probably not understand what the big deal is. We have a right to disagree with the government, to call out governors, ministers, presidents and all who occupy our public offices, and we do not lose our liberties or lives for the sake of doing only that.
This is what democracy has given.
It has given us 93 million voters, who can choose who will lead at different levels of government. This was not there 25 years ago. Not only does it give these large number of people a voice, they represent the largest number of such people on the African continent.
But democracy with all its liberties does not necessarily mean that the government will work well or quickly or that it will be good. There are other institutions that I call democratic institutions which make that happen. And of course, there is debate about what type of democracy works in what part of the world. Is it a liberal democracy which is a typical model or a less liberal one.
Those are variants of the subjects that continue to engage practitioners and scholars on an ongoing basis. What is important is the opportunity and right to have a say in how our affairs are managed.
That is huge.
It came at an enormous cost including the cost of life and limb. There are many who paid the ultimate price and did not even see the outcome that we gather here to commemorate. We must continue to honour their sacrifice and their memory by nurturing what took their lives more than most valued possessions.
Those who do not know, or those who do but are impatient with democracy and therefore urge undemocratic alternatives spit on the graves of all the martyrs of our democracy and dishonour their memory.
As I said, democracy can be tedious, this is globally acknowledged but its liberties are priceless for the preservation of the dignity of human civilization.
The tedium of democracy understandably frustrates not a few people worldwide including Nigeria and you might’ve heard them express it in complaints about our federalism.
They have said things like “Nigeria is a unitary state.” In my view they are wrong.
Many of the elements of a federal system of government exist in Nigeria by the 1999 constitution; such as multilevel systems of government by local, state and federal governments.
Also present are multilevel legislative houses and elected legislators at local councils, State Houses of Assembly and National Assembly.
There also exist multilevel justice systems like customary, magistrates, state and federal courts.
We will also observe the multilevel sharing of powers in the Exclusive, Concurrent and Residual legislative lists.
For example, the National Assembly cannot make laws on matters relating to landlord and tenant relationships or rent control; that is the exclusive preserve of the states.
But how many states are using these powers to protect millions of their residents from Shylock demands of landlords who demand multiple years rent in advance which aggravates cost-of-living issues?
But the more important point to make is that many characteristics of a federal type of government exist in our constitution.
And to the naysayers, I can only apply the famous duck test which says: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”
Therefore, with regard to our constitution, I say that because it says we are federal, because it shares powers like a federal system, and has multilevel Government like federal one, it is most certainly federal.
Is it perfect? Certainly not.
Which makes me obliged to commend the Lagos State of Assembly under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa for convening this event and choosing the topic ‘Federalism, the Quest for the Perfect Union’.
This is the holy grail for many federal nations and Nigeria cannot be an exception. Whether a perfect union is even possible is debatable but the quest for it remains a most noble undertaking.
Since Nigeria tasted federalism in 1954, under the Lyttleton constitution, its appeal has remained irresistible and this is understandable. It is understandable because a multi ethnic and multinational country like ours can only optimize its diversity in a federal arrangement.
History is not wrong about this.
As our world changes with technology and innovation advancements, we will learn more about our world, about ourselves and seek to alter our governance arrangements. These are some of the things that have happened in the last 25 years and continue to happen today.
Our constitution continues to change by judicial intervention such as the famous resource control case, the creation of local government case, the case about the rights of states to control physical and urban planning in their territories in the same way that some constitutional amendments have brought those changes in the search for a perfect union.
Embedded in the quest for the perfect union is the quest for more resources, more representation, more political and economic power and so many other demands.
It is a hallmark of our civilization that we can achieve all of these changes with our large population and diversity without bringing down the house.
Electric power generation, transmission and distribution, railway operations, and correctional systems which were firmly and exclusively under the grip of the federal government have all opened up to states’ participation in our pursuit of a more perfect federal union.
It is hoped that wages and salaries will join them in no distant future as we currently find our way through the maze of wage review to make life better for millions of our vulnerable compatriots.
The missing component of multilevel law enforcement by way of state policing is happily now on the conversation table. This is another step towards a more perfect union.
Hopefully, the control of internal waters, lagoons and creeks which are the blood vessels of coastal states for commerce will join the list.
And I can only remind us of how tedious the process can be, because the matter of creation of local governments remains outstanding and unresolved in spite of the valiant contributions of the Supreme Court to the efforts.
There is certainly a lot of work to be done and we must not surrender to revisionists or anarchists because it is tedious.
We must roll up our sleeves in or out of government, we must make our voices heard in a civil and temperate way in this household and family conversation.
The quest for a perfect union is a most worthy cause. It is, for a federal community like ours, the call to nation building, we must heed the call and embrace the task with all our might.
This is a noble way to celebrate the sacrifice and memory of the martyrs of our democracy.
Let us re-dedicate ourselves to the task in earnest; and those who come after us will look back with gratitude for what we have done.
Happy 25th Anniversary Celebrations
Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, CON, former Governor of Lagos State and ex-Minister for Works, Power and Housing, delivered this lecture at a special cocktail party to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of Democracy in Nigeria organised by the Lagos State House of Assembly
Wednesday 12th June 2024
