ANATOMY OF A NATIONAL CONFAB Written By Former Ambassador, Oladele Akadiri OON WHEN the long-awaited National Conference engineered by President Goodluck Jonathan eventually convened in Abuja a few months ago, all Nigerians held their breath, hoping that national salvation had come at last. Such was the level of anticipation, and the expectations that a new Nigeria was about to be born. And that hope was further enhanced by the extraordinarily high quality of representation from every corner of Nigeria and from every conceivable social, political, professional, religious, cultural or business organisation. That assembly of the cream of Nigeria’s intellectuals and eminent nationalists was presided over by the Hon. Justice Idris Kutigi, a retired jurist of international repute, assisted as Vice-Chairman by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, an erudite and equally respectable intellectual of international fame, a former Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic. The participants included former Ministers, former Ambassadors, retired army Generals, uncountable professors in all imaginable disciplines, as well as eminent Constitutional Lawyers. In short, the nation’s hope that a major break-through in Nigeria’s prolonged debility was in the offing was, at least prima facie, justified. The primary purpose of this write-up is to ask, now that the Confab is over and we all have the benefit of hindsight, was that widespread national optimism indeed justified, and were the achievements recorded at the National Confab which has just concluded its work commensurate with the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians? Or, in other words, was it a case of the proverbial pregnant elephant that delivered a mouse? In my view, and considering the quality and high level of representation at the Confab, as already stated, Nigerians had every right to hope that national salvation was just around the corner. On the other hand, however, I find it extremely difficult at this stage to say that the achievements so far recorded by the much-awaited Confab are anywhere commensurate with national hopes and aspirations, unless and until we hear more than the nation has so far been told. In arriving at such a critical conclusion, I have adopted as my criteria the high-lights of our national problems upon which the strident and prolonged demands for a national Confab rested, and which, to the best of my recollection, could be summarised as follows:- Constitutionally: Lots of Nigerians deeply resent the 1999 Fundamental Law of the Land which was concocted under the aegis of an undemocratic military dispensation, and which was eventually proclaimed and brought into force by a military dictator. In short, they want a Constitution “of the people, (truly made) by the people, and for the people”. Further, Nigerians are universally dissatisfied with a Constitution, under which perhaps up to 85% of national resources goes into filling the bottomless pockets of the political class by way of emoluments, salaries and allowances, and undeclared perquisites, leaving virtually nothing to ameliorate the conditions of grinding poverty under which the vast majority of the people live, or to close the gaps of perpetual underdevelopment. Furthermore, Nigerians desperately want to correct an inherent contradiction under which Nigeria is a federation only in name, but a unitary state in practice, dominated by an octopus Federal Government that also controls virtually all the viable economic resources in all the 36 states. Socially And Economically: Life in Nigeria has been dominated by the multiple-headed vices of Corruption, Dishonesty, and Indiscipline, which together have virtually brought the nation to its knees at home, and earned for Nigeria the worst possible image abroad. Nationally, even before the commencement of the National Confab, Nigeria had completed a hundred years of Amalgamation, and 53 of Independence, and had little to show for it in the form of a common nationalism, a common identity, a common interest, or even one common national language that all her citizens could understand and speak, to the exclusion of aliens and non-Nigerians. In brief, these are some of the major defects in our national life which one had expected a National Confab to address, in order to propose effective solutions for Nigerians to accept or reject in a national referendum. Regrettably, our eminent delegates were apparently so pre-occupied with a plethora of isolated individual national problems that they failed entirely to distinguish the forest from the trees on the national landscape. Constitutionally, for instance, the nation expected to see at least the draft of a new document that would correct not only the problems of power sharing, resource ownership, and asset distribution, but also the larger problems of structural disequilibrium as between the central government and the federating units. In my view, the Confab could easily have attained that desirable objective, with an imaginative management of the time at its disposal, e.g. by confining the replies to the President’s address to no more than two days, if just one or two delegates had spoken on behalf of each of the six existing zones, or if efforts had been made to minimise the long breaks and recesses. In the end, the most bizarre achievement that emanated from the national Confab was to propose the creation of 18 more States from the existing 36, to make Nigeria a 54-state federation! Without any doubt, Nigerians have a right to hear more about such an extravagant proposal which, to me, looks like a direct contradiction of what the Confab was established to achieve, viz, a more workable and economically more viable structure for Nigeria. But now, more precisely, is the proposed creation of 50% more states calculated to reduce the cost of governance, as the Nigerian predicament requires? Or, in any case, how is such a proliferation compatible with the national objective to evolve stronger federating units vis-a-vis the present federal mammoth? Similarly, the much-anticipated National Confab has failed to address perhaps the greatest social evils which have made it impossible for Nigeria to attain its economic and political capabilities and potential over the past fifty-four years since Independence, or one hundred years since Amalgamation. Such evils are Corruption, Dishonesty, and widespread Indiscipline in national life and, as historians and sociologists say, these are some of the most potent ingredients from which state failure is made. If unchecked, they will do to Nigeria what they have done to other nations that are today listed worldwide as failed states. More precisely, one would have expected our eminent and distinguished confabulators to set up, or at least to propose, a national machinery on the platform of which the eradication of these triple maladies could be pursued, both as short-term and long-term objectives. This could mean the establishment of a high-profile National Orientation Commission, invested with an independent status similar to INEC’s, and charged with a mandate to pursue Corruption more aggressively, as a short, medium, and long-term objective, and to evolve modalities, on the basis of a concrete blue-print, to gradually combat, and eventually eradicate Dishonesty and Indiscipline from Nigeria’s national life within a 10-year programme. Finally, such a Commission could also be charged with a mandate for national consolidation in areas such as evolving one common language for Nigeria, by making Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba compulsory in all schools in Nigeria, with a national objective that, within 10 years, most Nigerians must be able to understand and speak at least one major Nigerian language apart from his/her mother tongue. The Confab and its future prospects: As already announced in the media, the National Conference has reconvened to finalise their reports and recommendations. Whether or not they will produce a truly historic document remains to be seen. But what is of great interest, even now, is whether those numerous resolutions and recommendations will have any perceptible effect on the future of Nigerian life, or whether they will share identical fate with other voluminous verbiage from yesteryear now lying under the dust of presidential archives. As of the moment of writing this article, a majority of national commentators are of the view that the outcome of the National Confab should be submitted to a national referendum for approval or rejection, while millions of others believe, with equal passion and honesty, that that power belongs to the National Assembly. Without any hesitation whatsoever, I pitch my tent with the former camp, because it seems difficult to believe that any inspirational passion or nationalistic fervour could persuade our honourable Representatives and distinguished Senators to embrace recommendations that could severely curtail their current suprapresidential salaries, allowances, and unseen perquisites, and reduce the National Assembly itself to a unicameral institution, as proposed by the Confab. Similarly, it seems difficult to believe that that same body would readily accept a substantial down-sizing of the federal behemoth, as also proposed, in order to redress the existing political and economic disequilibrium vis-a-vis the federating units. In short, it seems obvious to me that to remit the outcome of the National Confab to the National Assembly for consideration is to kill the entire process. On the other hand, however, since Nigeria at present has no legal machinery or modalities for the conduct of a national referendum, what are the chances of evolving these within the desperately short time available between now and the national elections which are barely six months away? Also, even if the factor of time was not so important, we would still need the National Assembly to make the necessary laws to facilitate a referendum. Would the honourable Representatives and the distinguished Senators gladly oblige? Finally, by October 1, this year, Nigeria will be gripped by the throes of a national election fever, and one wonders how many politicians, including the President, are likely, from that date, to indulge in the politics of a National Confab, to the detriment of a looming general election? Considering all the factors above examined, one hopes very sincerely that all the expectation, the heat, and the passion that preceded or accompanied the National Confab, along with the billions of Naira that went with it, shall not have proved a colossal waste and an egregious political irrelevance after the imminent general elections. • Akadiri, OON a former Ambassador, wrote from Akure, Ondo State. THE GUARDIAN Thursday, 14 August 2014
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 04:55:14 +0000