A Dispassionate Perspective on Strident Calls for Restructuring 

Faisal Kurfi 

Nigeria is one of the most complex and diverse countries in the world, with over 350 ethnic communities and about 500 linguistic groups scattered all over the country. Additionally, the land has been blessed with enough potentials to match any advanced nation around the world. This, however, has become a curse rather than a blessing. Leaders have demonstrated incompetence and ineptitude in leadership by failing to harness this diversity, further using it to create regional chauvinism and corruption.

This has caused apprehension, mistrust, and anxiety within these groups and has pushed the country to the brink of collapse. Moreover, many groups are now clamoring for Nigeria to be “restructured” because they believe it is the most viable option to save the country.

Nonetheless, the term has been used for different purposes and intentions. On the one hand, there are those fully equipped to understand the concept, discuss it, and make meaningful contributions to the discourse. On the other hand, some have ignorantly joined the bandwagon for reasons that are far more devastating than the current state of the nation.  Dr. Bukar Usman, in his book Restructuring Nigeria: An Overview, has done an excellent job of presenting the issues of restructuring Nigeria as arguments conceived by different personalities and groups across the country.

The book is divided into five chapters. The first two chapters discuss the due process of constitutional amendments and constitutional developments in Nigeria. The third chapter analyses perceptions and arguments for restructuring Nigeria. The fourth chapter looks back in time to examine how the defunct system of regional governments worked and why it may not work again. Finally, the fifth chapter makes a compelling case for ethical restructuring.

 The author demonstrates his unique writing style by illustrating the crux of the arguments in Chapter 3, outlining them in Numbers 1–32. This has covered a wide range of topics, for example, “lack of effective governance,” “creation of state police,” “fiscal federalism,” “resource control,” and many others as the foundation for restructuring.

This compartmentalisation of the arguments enables the reader to better understand the message and context of each argument. The author supports some of the arguments. For example, he agreed with the idea of the need to establish state police. According to Dr. Bukar, “our modern criminals generally succeed in their hide-and-seek games because the average NPF policeman is a stranger to the community the criminal is very familiar with.” This is one point among many that he submitted in support of the idea.

 Finally, the concluding part of the book presents comments, observations, and the thoughts of many respectable Nigerians about the subject. This equips the reader with something to reflect upon as the pages wind down. Admittedly, the book is well-structured, devoid of sentimental ideas, and has been exceptionally well-edited. For this reason, I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. I recommend it to politicians, leaders of both traditional and religious organisations and every well-meaning Nigerian.

 •Kurfi works is a staff member at Umaru Musa Yar’adua University in Katsina.