Restructuring Nigeria : Beyond Political Rhetoric and The Moral Panic
International Journal of Humanities, Art and Social Studies (IJHAS)
ABSTRACT
Renewed debates to restructure Nigeria have enjoyed a lot of currency in the political circle and media outfits, both in print and online immediately after the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 General Elections. Since after the Nigerian civil war in the 1970s, Nigerians from different backgrounds called for the rearrangement or restructuring of the composition of the existing federal system. However, as at 2018, there are a lot of political brokers and power-mongers that revived the call to restructure Nigeria based on the incessant violence between alleged herdsmen and farmers in central Nigeria, Southern Kaduna and parts of South-East. Similarly, the cattle rustling menace and kidnapping in Birnin Gwari, Kaduna, Sokoto and Zamfara States, remained the gravest challenge for the entire security circle and leadership in Nigeria has provided a cogent excuse for the agitators. The core demands of the cheerleaders of restructuring are devolution of power from the federal government on security and resource control to State Governments that is to strengthen the states and weaken the central government. The last National Conference before the 2015 General Elections has not yielded any result beyond a waste of resources whose recommendations are yet to be implemented. To restructure a country that was unified more than a century ago, it must go beyond the political rhetoric of politicians who hide under the canopy of restructuring to advance their political ambition so as to gain cheap popularity and score political points. It is evident most of the private media are owned by the political elites, therefore, they set the agenda; create a moral panic and zoomed the call for the restructuring out of proportion in order to garner support from the citizens. In this regard, to restructure a complex and heterogeneous country like Nigeria, it requires an in-depth discussion among the holders of the stake from all ethnic nationalities, religious and interests groups whom the political elites, mass media and social media handlers do not represent. This would enable the country to have a workable system that could address the leadership and infrastructural problems through adherence to democratic traditions and act of patriotism.
KEYWORDS:
Nigeria, Restructuring, Political Rhetoric, Media, Moral Panic
Original Source URL : https://airccse.com/ijhas/papers/3318ijhas04.pdf
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