The Central Bank of Nigeria intends to mint 1.3 billion pieces of new Naira notes, as part of a continuing process to move from circulating short-lived paper notes to circulating more durable polymer notes.
I do wish we had spent the last two years discussing the issue of redenomination, and had come to a conclusion on it before embarking on replacing our stock of paper currency with the new polymers. I would hate to think we would come to a decision on redenomination and then have to entirely replace the polymer notes we have been ordering in the present to replace the paper notes.
I did not agree with Professor Soludo's intention to redenomination by a factor of 100. It would be more appropriate to our economy and our continent if we redenominated by a factor of 10 ( but that is a whole other argument, which we can have another day).
One way or the other we should discuss it politically, and come to an open decision ... one way or the other.
And THEN we replace the paper with polymer.
Oh well.
Amalgamation Day in Lagos, 1914
17 September, 2009
14 September, 2009
The New Federal Republic
Six states coterminous with the six major socio-cultural regions, and four federal territories for areas (City of Kaduna, City of Port Harcourt, Region of Ilorin, and the Abuja Municipal Area Council) shared by two socio-cultural zones, or serving as the federal capital city. Six governors, one for each state, and one federal minister for all four territories.
Twelve local administrative districts per state, for a total of seventy-two district assemblies (60 members per district assembly, 40 elected by constituency, and 20 by proportional representation) and four territorial councils, one for each of the four territories (9 members per council, 6 elected from constituencies, 3 appointed by the Minister).
A bicameral Federal Legislature. The lower house will be a 330-member Federal Assembly (220 members elected from constituencies, 110 elected by proportional representation). The upper house will be a 7-member Council of State (comprised of the 6 sitting state governors and the vice-president; it will be chaired by the VP). Full legislative authority over everything except defence and security will be vested in the Federal Assembly; the Council of State will serve as the de facto defence and security council.
Each governor's powers limited to (a) Chairing the state's Land Use Commission; (b) appointing 12 deputy-governors to serve as non-executive and non-voting chairpersons of the District Assemblies; (c) Serving in the Council of State.
Each third-tier legislature (i.e. each District Assembly) has full administrative (executive and legislative) authority over its respective district, subject to the Land Use Commission approval/disapproval only if a project will have land use effects beyond the district's borders. Can make its case before the Commission, or challenge the Commission's jurisdiction over the project in the courts. Governance will be exercised through twelve "departments", six departments for geographic administrative divisions, and six for issue areas (transportation, education, health; there are more issue areas than six, but these will have to be combined into clusters of similar issues to be assigned to single district departments -- the unnecessary and continuous inflation of cabinet sizes must be made unconstitutional).
Each of six Land Use Commissions will comprise 15 members (one each elected by the 12 district assemblies, and 3 members appointed by the federal president with the approval of the Federal Assembly). Each of the six "new" states would in effect be made up of a handful of the currently existing 36 states; each Land Use Commission will assume all assets, liabilities and functions of all the River Basin Development authorities of the defunct states incorporated into each new state; authority to execute RBDA-type projects will nevertheless be subject to the approval of two-thirds of the district assemblies (by simple majority in each assembly).
The federal cabinet will be constitutionally limited to ten full ministries, with a single full minister per ministry. Some of these ministries will have one or more deputy-ministers in charge of distinct-but-included sub-ministries (e.g. a deputy-minister for "Social Welfare" within the Health Ministry, or two deputy-ministers in the External Affairs Ministry, one for "African Affairs" and the other for "Trade Promotion"). What this means is some currently self-standing ministries will become sub-ministries, while others become in effect super-ministries where policy across related issue areas can be drawn up in a coordinated and consistent manner.
The intent is for powers over federal and foreign issues to rest with the federal government, powers over all local issues to rest with the district, and for the middle tier (the states) to serve as a platform to coordinate land use and river basin development across multiple districts, and to be the middleman (through the governor's seat on the Council of State) in the relationship between the districts on one hand and the federal government on the other.
This is only a basic outline. An online blog is hardly the place to provide the fully fleshed version of this proposed administrative structure. The one thing you should note is this structure will reduce the number of elected and pseudo-elected office-holders by more than 60%, while CONSOLIDATING governance and development planning. We would free up billions in cost-savings at all three tiers, funds currently wasted on the the salaries, allowances, and benefits of unproductive political and pseudo-political officialdom, their hangers-on (e.g. special assistants, senior special assistants, office of the first lady, etc, etc), and the godfathers, patrons and clients each of these politically (s)elected and appointed, individuals must financially support directly and indirectly, legally and illegally, from the public purse. We would be MORE EFFICIENT on both the revenue and expense side of budgeting, and more ACCOUNTABLE because the lines dividing the functions of each tier will be clear; in other words, you will know who to blame and penalize electorally if something is not the way it should be (which will become clearer when I speak more on this in future blog posts).
Twelve local administrative districts per state, for a total of seventy-two district assemblies (60 members per district assembly, 40 elected by constituency, and 20 by proportional representation) and four territorial councils, one for each of the four territories (9 members per council, 6 elected from constituencies, 3 appointed by the Minister).
A bicameral Federal Legislature. The lower house will be a 330-member Federal Assembly (220 members elected from constituencies, 110 elected by proportional representation). The upper house will be a 7-member Council of State (comprised of the 6 sitting state governors and the vice-president; it will be chaired by the VP). Full legislative authority over everything except defence and security will be vested in the Federal Assembly; the Council of State will serve as the de facto defence and security council.
Each governor's powers limited to (a) Chairing the state's Land Use Commission; (b) appointing 12 deputy-governors to serve as non-executive and non-voting chairpersons of the District Assemblies; (c) Serving in the Council of State.
Each third-tier legislature (i.e. each District Assembly) has full administrative (executive and legislative) authority over its respective district, subject to the Land Use Commission approval/disapproval only if a project will have land use effects beyond the district's borders. Can make its case before the Commission, or challenge the Commission's jurisdiction over the project in the courts. Governance will be exercised through twelve "departments", six departments for geographic administrative divisions, and six for issue areas (transportation, education, health; there are more issue areas than six, but these will have to be combined into clusters of similar issues to be assigned to single district departments -- the unnecessary and continuous inflation of cabinet sizes must be made unconstitutional).
Each of six Land Use Commissions will comprise 15 members (one each elected by the 12 district assemblies, and 3 members appointed by the federal president with the approval of the Federal Assembly). Each of the six "new" states would in effect be made up of a handful of the currently existing 36 states; each Land Use Commission will assume all assets, liabilities and functions of all the River Basin Development authorities of the defunct states incorporated into each new state; authority to execute RBDA-type projects will nevertheless be subject to the approval of two-thirds of the district assemblies (by simple majority in each assembly).
The federal cabinet will be constitutionally limited to ten full ministries, with a single full minister per ministry. Some of these ministries will have one or more deputy-ministers in charge of distinct-but-included sub-ministries (e.g. a deputy-minister for "Social Welfare" within the Health Ministry, or two deputy-ministers in the External Affairs Ministry, one for "African Affairs" and the other for "Trade Promotion"). What this means is some currently self-standing ministries will become sub-ministries, while others become in effect super-ministries where policy across related issue areas can be drawn up in a coordinated and consistent manner.
The intent is for powers over federal and foreign issues to rest with the federal government, powers over all local issues to rest with the district, and for the middle tier (the states) to serve as a platform to coordinate land use and river basin development across multiple districts, and to be the middleman (through the governor's seat on the Council of State) in the relationship between the districts on one hand and the federal government on the other.
This is only a basic outline. An online blog is hardly the place to provide the fully fleshed version of this proposed administrative structure. The one thing you should note is this structure will reduce the number of elected and pseudo-elected office-holders by more than 60%, while CONSOLIDATING governance and development planning. We would free up billions in cost-savings at all three tiers, funds currently wasted on the the salaries, allowances, and benefits of unproductive political and pseudo-political officialdom, their hangers-on (e.g. special assistants, senior special assistants, office of the first lady, etc, etc), and the godfathers, patrons and clients each of these politically (s)elected and appointed, individuals must financially support directly and indirectly, legally and illegally, from the public purse. We would be MORE EFFICIENT on both the revenue and expense side of budgeting, and more ACCOUNTABLE because the lines dividing the functions of each tier will be clear; in other words, you will know who to blame and penalize electorally if something is not the way it should be (which will become clearer when I speak more on this in future blog posts).
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