What manner of national conference?

Nigerians are still divided over the proposed National Conference. While a section has hailed the proposal, another  has expressed caution and reservations because of the timing. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN highlights the conditions for a credible and successful national dialogue. 

President Goodluck Jonathan’s proposed National Conference has not been taken hook, line and sinker. Although some stakeholders have applauded the President for his sensitivity to the strindent calls for it, others have expressed reservations, based on past experience. The timing has been faulted, even by pro-National Conference agitators. However, some people also believe that Nigerians can insist on some conditions for the dialogue to become credible and successful.

For decades, pro-National Conference advocates have argued that, Nigeria, a homogeneous society, can be re-negotiated by the ethnic nationalities. They believe that the former colonial master had decided to amalgamate them into a country without due consultations. Also, they argue that economic interest motivated the colonial authorities to lump them together. After, the amalgamation, the country wobbled on in disunity.

The Governor-General between 1920 and 1931, Sir Hugh Clifford, described Nigeria as “a collection of independent native states, separated from one another by great distances, by differences of history and traditions and by ethnological, racial, tribal, political, social and religious barriers”. This description vividly captures the problems of Nigeria.

Under normal circumstances, the amalgamation should have provided a firm basis for establishing closer cultural, social, religious, and linguistic ties. Instead, there were division, suspicion, unhealthy rivalry and disparity in development.

The ethnic nationalities have a grouse. They claim that they have not made inputs into, accepted or rejected any constitutional framework through a referendum. Thus, the advocates of constitutional conference have always disputed the basis for peaceful co-existence.

Conference without sovereign powers

A university don, Dr Tunde Ogunyemi, described the proposed national conference as step in the right direction. But he faulted President Jonathan’s approach, saying that, by hand picking the 13-member advisory committee headed by Dr. Okunrounmu, the conference will lack a “sovereign status”.

Ogunyemi said the national conference is not the prerogative of the President, but the responsibility of all Nigerians. The Obafemi Awolowo University teacher said, before the announcement, the President should have consulted the critical ethnic groups, including the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Afenifere, Ohaneze Ndigbo, Ijaw National Union, and other political interest groups.

“The planning should involve the critical mass of the population, who are found in ethnic representation, such as Afenifere, Ohaneze, Ijaw union, Arewa Consultative Forum and political leaders. They should also include technocrats, bureaucrats, lawyers, medical practitioners, academics, technical personnel on defence, foreign affairs and religious groups.

“The President missed the point in setting up the planning committee without carrying the people along. It is unexpected because this government is known for taking decision before thinking. It hardly consults on critical issues before making pronouncements,” he added.

Despite the shortcoming, Ogunyemi implored Nigerians to embrace the idea to rebuild the collapsing foundation. He said this is necessary to move away from the brink and to prevent the experiences of Rwanda, Burundi, Sri- Lanka, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia in Nigeria.

A lawyer, Tony Emordi, observed that many have deluded into thinking that the conference is critical to the resolution of the country’s problems, unmindful of the fact that the fashionable political theory being badied about in the country today is that past conferences have failed to achieve this objective.

Emordi noted that Nigeria had wasted billions of naira on constitutional debates and constitution making without success. He feared that the current exercise may end in fiasco, unless lessons are drawn from the experience of the past.

Critics are worried about the prospect of a national conference without “sovereign power”. They argue that, without a sovereign power, the conference resolutions may end up in the archives.

Civil rights activist Shehu Sani has labelled the proposed conference as diversionary and a waste of time and resources. According to him, any decision taken the conference is not binding on the people. He said Nigerians are not asking for a mere conference, but a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) that will give teeth to all issues that will be discussed and the outcome of such conference must be respected.

His words: “Nigerians are not just asking for a conference, but a sovereign one. It is not the usual conference that will come out with a communiqué, but a conference with a resolution that is binding on the Nigerian people.

“Right now, the country is operating under the military constitution authored by the Abacha and Abdulsalam military regimes. We need to use the opportunity of our centenary to freely discuss all issues that bother the Nigerian state, to strengthen our unity, democracy and enhance the wellbeing of our people”.

Emordi also shared this view. He reiterated that the Sovereign National Conference is the only option left to save the country from disintegration, adding that that it should be convoked as quickly as possible. Emordi said the primary duty of the SNC is to address and find solutions to the key problems afflicting Nigeria, since 1914. “The concern is to remove all obstacles, which have prevented the country from establishing political justice, economic justice, social justice, cultural justice, religious justice and to construct a new constitutional framework in terms of the system of government-structurally, politically, economically, socially, culturally and religiously.

“The SNC is to rebuild the country from scratch and establish a new constitutional structure for a new Nigeria where every ethnic group will find succour; and where the masses, the neglected, the persecuted, the deprived and the cheated will find solace”.

But Professor Itse Sagay (SAN) urged Nigerians not to be carried away by the proposal. He said that it is painful that the conference lacks a sovereign power. Yet, he advised Nigerians to embrace it because it is better to start from somewhere.

Sagay said: “If it is National Conference without sovereign powers; it is okay, it is a good development. Although a Sovereign National Conference is preferable, what is important is that there is the need for the people to sit down and dialogue on the problems affecting the country. We have never really met to discuss the future of our country. But we were compelled to live together, first by the colonial administrators, and later by the military that foisted constitutions prepared by them on us.

“It is necessary for us to meet and decide for ourselves how we want to live together, how we want to move the nation forward. It is then, that peace and tranquillity would prevail and there would be development.

According to Sani, government needs to be educated about the sovereign conference. He said: “A sovereign conference is not a talk-shop; it is also not a musical gathering. It is an assembly of Nigerians to discuss issues and come up with the best possible means of addressing and proffering solutions to problems. There is no need for us to hold a conference that its decision would not be binding.”

 

Agenda for National Conference

 

Many stakeholders want the conference to deliberate on everything under the sun. They frown at the attempts to erect no-go areas. To them, the unity of Nigeria is negotiable.

Ogunyemi raised a 10-point issue for deliberation at the conference. He noted that the structure of Nigeria is faulty with 19 states in the North and 17 in the south. The criteria for state creation, according to him, should be the people, and not the land mass. He said the one per cent allocation from the Federation Account for the development of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, contradicts the Supreme Court’s ruling that it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to finance Abuja from its 53.8 percent allocation. The one percent special allocation to FCT is illegal, he said.

On education, Ogunyemi wants the tertiary education to be exclusive to the Federal Government. State governments should concentrate on primary and secondary education, while the proliferation of private universities should be curtailed to enhance quality’, he added.

Ogunyemi also observed that the governors, who are the chief security officers in their states, lack the power to command state police commissioners. He stressed the need for state police. He also suggested that the 36 states should be grouped into six autonomous regions, with their own constitutions, recalling that that was the structure in the First Republic.

Ogunemi advocated a cut in the power of the President. He described the President as the most powerful leader in the world, pointing out that he controls the army, the police, customs and immigration, Central Bank, the Federation Account, and Prisons. He canvassed for the delition of indigeneship from the constitution, saying that emphasis should be on citizenship.The Federal Government, according to him, should devolve more responsibilities and funds to the states. The centre should hands-off from railway, roads and prisons, he added.

Sani urged the conference to address the issue of ideology, that is, what should be the ideological direction of Nigeria; the relationship between the federating units, especiallyon the issues of economy and political power distribution, production of a new constitution for the country and social welfare programmes.

He said it should also discuss and resolve the character and nature of the economic system for sustainable improvement in the material lives of the ordinary people. The conference, according to him, should be concerned with establishing an economic system that will guarantee economic rights for the rich and poor.

“The ordinary people must enjoy the right to work or unemployment allowance in the absence of jobs, cost-free housing, education, health, water, and electricity in a restructured polity. The access to social services by the masses should be regarded as fundamental rights.

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