STAKEHOLDERS' CONVERGE: A
task that must be accomplished
by Dozie Ikem Ezeife, Esq
A national conference
(by whatever Nome de plume) is an idea whose time is long overdue.
Critics of this call have argued that the National Assembly is
well-suited to discuss and handle any matter any section of the
country feel needs to be taken up. I disagree. Election to the
National Assembly does not ipso facto elevate a politician to the
status of a community leader. Various segments of the country should
select representatives from their leadership to attend this conference
on their behalf. These leaders need not be politicians and could
include traditional rulers and religious leaders.
This conference is
very crucial given the fact that most of the Constitutions that
Nigeria has operated were basically hoisted on the nation by one
military junta or another. Nigerians have never had a real chance to
debate and agree on a form of government or the provisions of their
constitution. A national conference would offer an opportunity for
Nigerians to confront and resolve most if not all of the lingering
controversial issues bedeviling it; issues such as religion, revenue
allocation, rotational presidency, political system: federal, co
federal or unitary, etc. The legal luminary Chief Rotimi Williams,
SAN aptly summed up this point in the following words:
“I have always believed
that if at any stage we Nigerians find ourselves operating under a
constitution which is not of our own making, that constitution can
only be treated as no more than a temporary arrangement which must and
will eventually be replaced by the duly elected or accredited
representatives of the people of Nigeria…They are matters, which go
beyond the competence as well as the mandate of the National assembly,
or any of our Houses of Assembly constituted under the 1999
constitution to tackle. This is why all the issues in question ought
to be brought before a national conference to be convened as soon as
possible. To ignore the call for a national conference is to ignore
serious defects in our system of government any of which can lead to
the disintegration of our nation.”
The various nations
and peoples that make up the political entity known as “Nigeria” have
a need to meet and review the state of their nation and decide how the
country should operate for the next hundred years. The various
inter-ethnic, inter-tribal and inter-religious conflicts and
misunderstandings that are ailing this nation, must be confronted,
discussed and cure found for. If this were not done, these wounds
would continue to fester and would ultimately result in the amputation
of the various limbs that make up the country.
The conference should
discuss the state of inter-tribal relationships. The various tribal
conflicts, the causes and the effects should be tabled and
exhaustively analyzed. Appropriate reparations and/or compensations
for victims should be placed on the table. The recurring religious
conflicts and violence in Nigeria should be on the agenda. Lasting
solution and modalities for resolving future conflicts must be found.
Victims of past religious conflicts and violence ought to be
compensated. Minority communities in Nigeria especially those
that inhabit the Niger Delta and the Benue corridor have been
marginalized for the past several decades. They must be given a sense
of real and equal membership and must be solidly reassured of their
place in this union. Every federating unit in Nigeria must in fact and
in law be entitled and have a real chance to provide leadership for
the entire country. If Bill Clinton from one of the smallest states in
the United States can preside over that great nation for eight years.
There is no reason why an indigene of Ogoni not rise to be the
President of Nigeria. No unit should be allowed to feel that it has a
divine right to lead the rest of the country.
The national
conference should make a decision as to what type of political system
is best suited for Nigeria and its various entities. Federalism,
Confederation, Unitary System or perhaps some sort of hybrid should be
discussed and agreed upon. A discussion must be had on a genuine
rotational presidency as well as the rotation of other senior
political positions amongst all sections of the country not merely
among the three dominant tribes.
The conference should
discuss appropriate revenue allocation formula for Nigeria. The
prevent system which fails to fairly compensate the “goose that lays
the golden egg” is unfair. Minority communities of the Niger delta and
Benue-Plateau corridor ought to receive adequate recompense for past
neglect given the fact that sizeable portions of the nation’s foreign
revenue are derived from those areas.
The reason a certain
section of the country is opposed to the idea of a national conference
is this climate of fear in that area that a national conference will
provide a venue to discuss the breakup of Nigeria. I do not believe
that a national conference will necessarily result in the discussion
of a possible breakup of Nigeria. The truth is that all tribes and
sections in Nigeria are genuinely interested in maintaining the
political entity called Nigeria. Too much have been invested in this
nation in terms of blood, hard work and enormous resources to just
throw it away without a real effort to make it work. The surge in the
call for a national conference is informed by the present unfair
political arrangement that seems to stack the deck in favor of the
north. The rising call for a national conference is synonymous with a
call for fairness and equal opportunity. I agree entirely with I.B.
Gashinbaki when he says in his “Should the Axis of Evil
(North) secede? that:
“Ours is rather a case
of mutual suspicion between regional groupings; the North/South, or
cultural diversity. If we agree that people are the products of the
society, and the society is also the creation of people. Then, we can
reason, that a typical Fulani man from Sokoto cannot be homogenous
with the Calabari man from Rivers State. Their beliefs and values are
different, their orientation and perceptions to life and what it
offers are different. How then can we forge a common identity with our
diversity? This is why we have to understand our differences rather
than to pretend to forget them. We have to appreciate our diversity
rather than to acknowledge its absence. It is quite revealing to know
that even successful states are less homogenous than they claim. Many
developed countries…. Have recognized the existence of regional
cultures or regional diversities. Therefore, we can argue that
nationhood, or sense of common identity alone does not guarantee the
stability and viability of a nation.”
The apparent
opposition of a certain section of the country to a national
conference is fuelled by reckless pronouncements of some people from
the south. These types of irresponsible and combatant rhetoric serves
no real purpose other than to further fan the embers of suspicion and
insecurity. In a lecture delivered at Ibadan in June 2001 entitled “Goodbye
Nigeria: Hello Oduduwa”, a scion of the famed Fani-Kayode
lineage, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, said:
“And lest they forget let
our ‘AREWA’ brothers be reminded of the incontrovertible fact: the
only reason that the Yoruba nation is not on the march today is simply
because a fellow Yoruba man, as misinformed and misguided as he is, is
sitting on the throne. Yet the truth is that, Obasanjo or no Obasanjo,
when the time right, the militant march of the Yoruba nationalists
will rent the air and shake the very foundations of this country. It
is at that time that we will once again be in a position to achieve
our wildest dreams and our greatest ambition. It is at that time that
they will know who we really are. Until then, I encourage every Yoruba
man, woman and child to stand firm, to stand tall, to be strong, to be
courageous and never to give up because ultimately WE WILL PREVAIL.”
If people insist on
personalizing and trivializing the call for a sovereign national
conference by making it an avenue to pursue ethnic and sectional
cleansing, we will miss the real idea behind that process. People
should learn to divorce their personal feelings or ill feelings
towards other tribes from the discussion as to whether or not a
national converge is necessary. These distractions only serve to
overheat the polity and will result in further polarization of the
various nations in Nigeria. We all have our individual problems with
other tribes but we must try not to use the call for a conversation on
our future as an avenue to pour vituperations on our brothers and
sisters from our sister tribes. On this score, I wholeheartedly
endorse the comments of Mahmood S. Musa in his “National
Conference: The Great Debate (1 and 2)”, that:
“Whichever section of
Nigeria thinks that it has a monopoly of grievances will be in for a
shocker. We all have our strengths and weaknesses just as we all have
our good and bad sides. And let no one be deceived into believing that
the usual instruments of blackmail and intimidation will achieve the
desire of bringing about a sovereign national conference without every
section fully understanding its implications or knowing its
consequences.”
President Olusegun
Obasanjo appreciates the crucial nature for the call for a supreme
national conference but he only uses the threat of a conference as a
political tool to blackmail the north. Recall that he initially said
he was against it and was critical of those, especially from his
Yoruba kindred, who advocated it. However, since he started having his
difficulty with his sponsors from the North and with a possible
impeachment dangling over his head like the sword of Damocles, he has
turned a full 360 degrees and has started muting the idea in an
apparent bid to blackmail his northern nemesis. This kind of shameless
about face in a major policy decision does a lot of damage to the
noble call for a true national dialogue. This is not what one expects
from the leader of our nation when an issue as pivotal and as critical
as the “national dialogue” is being raised. He is expected to show
leadership and to reassure all sections of Nigeria. He is not expected
to use the call for a national dialogue as a tool to pursue political
vendetta.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo
was reputed to have described Nigeria as a mere “geographic
expression”. It is now time to make Nigeria a true “nation” in name
and in substance. Enough said. Let us set the ball rolling.
[back
to Top News]
