DO WE NEED A NATIONAL CONFERENCE?
…it is imperative that we arm ourselves and our people
with a genuine revolutionary culture and a discipline and invincible
revolutionary organisation, unshakeably committed to the principles of social
justice and equity, to the liberations of our people from material and cultural
deprivation and implacably opposed to all forms of exploitation of man by man.
-
Dr. Segun Osoba
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At
the first sight of the title above, one would assume the writer was hallucinating
or between sleep and wakefulness to have coined such an unapt title for a piece
of this nature. However, such titles and their inherent meanings are some of
the contradistinctions we have had to contend with as a people in the jumbled
collection called Nigeria, if the hype that has surrounded the convocation of a
national conference in the last couple of weeks is anything to go by.
As
a keen observer of political events in the country, and especially one who has written
extensively on happenings both within and without our polity, I have asked
myself, like every other Nigerian would, if certainly we as a people need a
sovereign or national conference (whichever appellation best suits the
political class). At a time like this where apprehension, tension, commotion,
tribulation and all kinds of challenges confronts us as a nation and people,
should we not be gearing towards a time when we ought to talk to ourselves to
know where the rain began to beat us? At a time when the corporate existence of
the country is being threatened on all sides of the divide, is it not right to
come to the table to discuss the way forward? At a time “when there was a
declaration by the current president that he was going to contest” pitched him
against those believed they were “born to rule”, which eventually fired up
further the insecurity in the north of the country with innocent lives wasting
away through senseless killings and murder, is it not time we gathered
ourselves to clean the Aegean stable? At a time when all the fault lines in the
country seem not to have a probable solution, is it not high time we spoke
truth to power? The question therefore: do we need a national conference?
However,
if one is to juxtapose the president’s Independence Day speech where he finally
decided to allow a conference of nationalities emerge after initially dilly
dallying for close to two and half years and his insistence that the outcome of
such conference was going to receive the scrutiny of the country’s National
Assembly, one cannot but argue that it is a conference already been dead on
arrival. It is no secret that the vast majority of Nigerians do not trust the
assembly to ever do anything right, especially when it is filled with men and
women who gulp 25% of the country’s budget annually (apologies to the CBN
governor). The country’s assembly, according to an observer, is just an
assemblage of men and women, who feed fat on the gullibility of the people,
occupy themselves with triviality and frivolity and pass unnecessary bills that
do not impact beyond the four walls of the hallowed chamber. An assembly that
continues to dawdle in passing the Petroleum Industrial Bill which would have
transformed the way our oil industry works cannot be taken very seriously at a
time a concrete step is needed in ensuring all recommendations of the national
conference are swiftly promulgated.
Unless
we want to deceive ourselves, the decision by the president to send whatever
outcome of the proposed national conference to the assembly is already a failed
project because when we look at the inherent meaning of a national conference,
it speaks much about the desire of different ethnic nationalities, whether
major or minor, to agree on how best or well to live in a multifarious amalgam
without fear of being seen as a trouble maker or outcast. A national conference
opens the path to how diverse people living in a particular geographical space can
live peacefully as one, ensuring everyone lives and co-exist together without
molestation. A national conference brings together you and I who, albeit having
lived together for 53 years yet under an atmosphere of ethnic parochialism,
tribal sentiments, religious intolerance and political suppression and
apprehension, to look for modalities on how best these historical malfeasance
would not debar us from being seen as one Nigeria anywhere in Nigeria. A
national conference is an agreement by all living in Nigeria to respect one
another irrespective of tribe and tongue and just like the People of the United
States “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity,
provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the
Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” These among others are
what a national conference brings to the table. Bringing these to the scrutiny
of a national assembly with parochial interests makes whatever we hope to
achieve as a country in the conference null and void. It makes it a wasted
effort and further deepens the distrust the vast majority of Nigerians have for
the political and ruling class. The question therefore: do we need a national
conference?
I am one
of those very few Nigerians who believe a national conference is now, unlike
some segment of the society who see it as a distraction. There is no such thing
as distraction or what an opposition leader call a “Greek gift” in the
convocation of a national conference. In fact, it is far from it! Nigerians
have seen it all and since the current administration came on board, the vast majority
of people have been able to assess the level of performance or incompetence to
decide where the pendulum would swing in 2015. The convocation of a national
conference would certainly not blind our consciousness as Nigerians to know how
to vote and who to vote for come 2015. It is a year every Nigerian anticipates
and one that will decide the future aspiration of the country. Even at that,
hundreds of thousands of youths who make up an appreciable percentage of
students at the tertiary institutions are still at home as a result of a
protracted university strike which they believe the government of the day is
responsible for, hence at a time of a national election, wouldn’t they be the
ones to first remember how they were forced to sit at home unnecessarily by the
same government who had called for a national conference? Anyone who thinks
Nigerians will continue to be gullible at a time when the future direction of
the country heads to nowhere; such person(s) need to have a rethink.
Having
said this, as a realist, I do not think we need a national conference at the
level with which the government of the day which called it anticipates. Before
anyone calls me a confused element, it is imperative I explain why I have decided
to kill two birds with one stone. For those who understand our historical and
evolutionary process as a country, one would not deny the fact that we all know
where the headache comes from. We know the problem we face as a people while
solutions are right there before us, yet few elements within the polity would
rather not allow things change. What I mean here is that since independence, we
have been faced with one crisis or the other and at the end; several white,
blue or green papers emerge to ensure such crisis did not occur again but
unfortunately, we jettison the reports and go on as if nothing happened. It is
the reason Jos remains a volatile state today. It is another reason Boko Haram
suddenly appeared on the scene tearing the entire north apart. It is the reason
the Niger-Delta struggle would sooner erupt because we have only caged the
problem without locking it once and for all. It is the reason plane crashes
continue to occur and the reason power remains comatose since the 70s. A
thousand and one government white papers, reports, recommendations and what
have you lie dusty in government coffers without anyone giving a damn. The
Oputa Panel is one example of a conference we jettisoned and felt the outcome
was not important to national re-engineering. There was the Willinks Commission
of 1958/59 which looked into the fear of the minority before independence but
never saw the light of the day. Even more recently, the Muhammed Uwais report
on electoral reforms and the Steve Orosanye report all remain dead on arrival
because we do not give a damn. Several other ones too numerous to mention hang
somewhere, with nobody to dust them out of oblivion. Let us imagine for once
that the current crop of leaders had accepted all the recommendations of the
Muhammad Uwais report, wouldn’t our electoral system have been have the envy of
the world?
What we
need at this stage is to bring out all those reports or recommendations from
the time we became an amalgamated entity (because it seemed to appear as the
period our problems began as a nation) till the current time, appoint a
committee of notable, trustworthy and detribalised Nigerians who would assess
all these reports and come out with a template which would see the large input
of the country’s judiciary. The final report should then serve as a guiding
principle for something more intelligible.
Furthermore,
for those who were conversant with the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) of
the late 70s whose duty was to look into how a new constitution would be
written for the emerging Second Republic, there is no denying the fact that
that period marked a missed opportunity for us a country to have gotten it
right once and for all. Simply because the leading members of the political class
in the CDC did not consider in their report how the vast majority of Nigerians
could live side by side each other in a just and equitable society, the Second
Republic came, saw but did not conquer, having been bequeathed with a
constitution that was more elitist than sociably just. However, if those with
the interest of the country had taken note of the “Minority Report” written by
two intellectual minds in the CDC at the time in persons of the late Yusufu
Bala Usman and Segun Osoba and patched it with the Majority Report submitted by
the late F.R.A Williams led CDC, we would have had a constitution which pursues
the yearnings and aspirations of the vast majority of the people and a workable
country devoid of tribalism, ethnocentrism, hate and prejudice. I wish to state
categorically in this article that until the political class revisits that
report written by the late Usman and Osoba, we would only be deceiving
ourselves into believing all will be well. The report is about the only sincere
template which if fine-tuned to meet current realities will not only give a voice
to the masses but take this country towards redemption. I want to believe that
whoever will be nominated into the national conference should as a matter of
urgency see to it that the Minority Report and all other dusty reports are
dusted out of the shelves for strict scrutiny else, we shall just be going once
again on a merry-go-round which certainly will take us nowhere.
Be that
as it may, I am of the view that even if a national conference should be
convened, it should exclude a particular age-grade. A conference where a 60, 70
or 80 year old man or woman is nominated to represent does not augur well for a
country whose youth form more than half of its population. The question which
we all should be asking is why the youth and not the elders? First, the youth
are the future generation of this country who will one day hold forth its
reign. Second, the youth, especially those between the age of 20 and 45 were
born at a time when the country was faced with cracks within its walls and
therefore, understands how the country got to the unenviable stage it finds
itself today. Third, the youth today are more politically conscious and want a
better life for themselves. They want a country that will give them the basic
needs of life and the chance to aspire to whatever position they so desire
irrespective of class, tribe or beginnings. A 60, 70 or 80 year old man has
nothing to aspire for. At such an age, he needs rest and time to pass away
peacefully at the ripe age. Bundling the old guards to represent their ethnic
affiliations in a national conference will only deepen the crisis of leadership
in the country. In a conference of this nature, the youths should take centre
stage while the old guards should serve on advisory capacity. Such linkage will
give the platform a better direction and possibility for effective results. All
these outlined above among others I believe would be less rigorous and less
time consuming to repair the cleavages we face in the country rather than
convoking a conference whose outcome has witnessed criticisms from a large
segment of the society who distrust the government.
The
Goodluck Jonathan administration which initiated the national conference at
this moment of our political history must be highly commended for coming up
with in the first place irrespective of what we think of the government’s intention.
It couldn’t have come at a better time like this. What the vast majority of
Nigerians must however do is to look out for insincerity. If truly the
president believes a national conference is imperative to help find solutions
to the challenges we face in the country, he must personally see to it that
this one does not fail like previous ones. He must ensure that whatever
recommendations given in the aftermath of the conference is pushed rigorously
through whichever means so that the voice of the masses is finally heard.
Anything short of these among others will only make people lose further
confidence and trust in him and the project called Nigeria. If we have to
defend Nigeria’s unity and uphold her honour and glory, we must begin to do the
right things now. Now over to the question: do we need a national conference?
Time will certainly tell!
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Raheem
Oluwafunminiyi wrote via creativitysells@gmail.com
