At the National Confab, Lets Do It Right 5 November 2013 , By Chiefs Brown Mene and Charles Ikomi, Source: Vanguard In a country as diverse and vibrant as Nigeria it is not surprising to have the mixed and varied reactions that have trailed the announcement by the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, for us to finally have the long-sought-for National Conferernce. Irrespective of whatever motives may have been imputed rightly or wrongly to the President for this bold move, he has blown the start-off whistle and it is for us to get to work for it to augur well for us in our quest to build a nation we shall be proud and glad to call our own. The committee to work out the modalities has since been inaugurated by Mr. President who also gave them a short time frame - one month - within which to conclude their work and revert to him for the conference to be convened, hopefully, shortly afterwards. They have already hit the road to consult with various segments of the country. This can easily be read to indicate that Mr. President means for this project to take off without losing momentum. What remains to vindicate this assumption is the combination of the integrity and the equity that should be evident in determining the participants at the conference, the conduct of the business of the conference and the timely implementation of the conclusions freely reached by the conference. For those of us who are deeply rooted optimists and, therefore, maintain an abiding hope that, God helping us, we shall one day do it right for Nigeria to rise uprightly and stand with the status of greatness that is commensurate with the enormous endowments we have as a country. This chance should be used, all hands being on deck, to enable us get there. We should get to that state where we should be lifted from the doldrums of our hitherto self imposed afflictions that have been crippling us for so long. The thoughts that are expressed here are in this context and they are meant to highlight some of the issues which the committee will do well not to ignore or neglect as they consult and deliberate on the factors that will set us on the right course for this project. Some or all of these may have been presented by others, in which case they will serve to underline and strengthen what might already have been gleaned by the Committee for consideration. We shall still be the better for that,in the end. The long standing problem to address: Given what has been expressed at different fora over the years, our problem has stemmed from the way the different ethnic nationalities of this country were fused together without appropriate input from them. It has been a structural defect. This is what has set the stage whereby we have been operating on the principle of winner takes all. This is the same as the principle of might is right. As this has flowed from the structural defect stated above, so have other problems have continued to spring up which have been plaguing us as a country, making us to keep limping and wobbling till date. The winner is termed mighty and the mighty is termed the winner and to get there, we have relied on headcount majority, money in large enough volume (or its derivatives), guns and related arms, brute force, violence and fraud. Whoever has these (invariably some combination of them) considers himself to have the right to coerce, downtrod, oppress, pillage or plunder. Flowing from this is the culture of impunity which has since become the order of the day as opposed to the rule of law that is applied with consistent even-handedness that harbours neither fear nor favour, inertia or mediocrity. We need no search light to find that these are among us to our detriment. The predominant drive to be a winner or a mighty has been in order to be positioned to take as much as is available for self as opposed to being positioned to give as much value as possible for the benefit of our collectivity. Although this is widely found in all segments of our national life, this has become more prevalent in the political arena of our country. Any country or nation that operates on these principles and practice will ultimately self destruct in only a matter of time. We reject that for Nigeria, not at the level of wishful thinking but by rolling up our sleeves to work assiduously, giving it all that we have for it to be so and, therefore, make Nigeria really great. Where we should and want to be: The Nigeria we envisage and yearn for and for which we should labour to build and, therefore, set the proper platform for achieving is aptly expressed in the words of the third and last stanza of our initial National Anthem which the Obasanjo military regime dropped for the current one. Here are the words: O God of all creation Grant this our one request Help us to build a nation Where no man is oppressed And so, with peace and plenty Nigeria may be blessed We desire and will gladly work to build a nation where integrity, excellence and equity are values that are promoted, nurtured, defended, applauded and rewarded. A nation where the weak and the vulnerable are well protected in every part of the country, where the bully and the fraudulent would be too ashamed to operate. A nation where citizens are encouraged and incentivised to think and do first what will be for the benefit of our collectivity and everyone is welcome every where as a fellow Nigerian where no one will seek to rob Peter to pay Paul. This is the nation with sufficient safeguards deliberately put in place to ensure respect for one another, where all nationals stand on equal footing one with another and talents are allowed to blossom and opportunities explored for our collective benefit. HOW TO GET THERE: The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Let us accept that the proposed National Conference will indeed provide us with the opportunity to chart the course and subsequently take the right steps, one following the other, as one people who have agreed to travel together to the agreed destination in the mutually agreed mode and pace. No structure standing on a crooked foundation can escape being crooked itself as it rises. The higher the structure that stands on a crooked foundation, the more imminent is its fall and the greater its fall. Due care should therefore be given to ensure that there will be no crookedness in the foundation we are trying to lay at the Conference. Representation The point can hardly be over emphasized that the component parts of this country are not the political parties however widely spread and therefore big or small any of them may be. They are also not the local governments, states or geo-political zones as presently delineated. There is no re-arrangement or realignment of any of these that could transform them to become the Building Blocks of this nation. Representation that is based on any of these considerations would make the whole exercise a non-starter. Similarly, no religion constitutes a Building Block of this nation, just as none of the professions has that attribute. That nothwithstanding, we would have a a lot to gain from inputs from these groups as fellow Nigerians. Representation from these groups would only better be on qualified basis as will be shown later. The proposed National Conference should therefore be the CONFERENCE OF THE ETHNIC NATIONALITIES OF NIGERIA at which to lay the foundation for the building of the one nation of Nigeria. Let us here work with the definition of a country being a more geographical expression and a nation being the bonding of the peoples into a people with an espoused common identity, vision and destiny .It is only at the level of the ethnic nationalities that we can derive the mandate to provide the inputs and arrive at the mutually agreed basis of our bonding as a unified nation. This should therefore be a round table conference of ethnic nationalities where no ethnic nationality is the lord over any other. No ethnic nationality should be excluded or given a varied rating from another.There are said to be about two hundred and fifty (250) ethnic nationalities in the country. No effort should be spared to ensure that no one is excluded. Irrespective of the population of one ethnic nationality relative to another or the number of states or local government areas one ethnic nationality may cover in spread or all of one is contained in one local government area, one ethnic nationality should be only one and no more. The temptation to creatively sub-divide any ethnic nationality must be resisted.To yield to such temptation would greatly negate our national need to build trust and confidence in one another. There is nothing sacrosanct about the number of representatives per ethnic nationality.If for the sake of illustration, we have four (4) per ethnic nationality, two should be men, one woman and one youth. Whatever figure is ultimately agreed on, the crucial factors here are that there should be equal representation from each ethnic nationality and that the components should be men, women and youth.Whatever the number of representatives the committee ultimately arrives at, each ethnic nationality should be free to choose their representatives Plenary These should form the core representatives that will have both voice and vote at the plenary sessions on all matters. No one should have a veto or a casting vote. This means that those presiding as Chairman or Vice-Chairman should be outside of the representatives and should only have the functions of moderating at the sessions and facilitating the work of the conference. They also should not contribute to any debate one way or the other by way of canvassing for or against any side of a debate and they should have neither vote nor veto. The Professionals/Specialists We should have groups of the professionals artisans and religion who can only report in the matters referred to them, the report of which will be voted on and passed at the plenary by those who have voice and vote. These groups will work in committees to deliberate on issues on which they specialise and report to the plenary where the decision to accept is taken. Where there are even alternatives or multiple positions on a given matter, they should present all such for consideration at the plenary. Care must also be taken to ensure that the pool of these groups reflect the multiplicity of the ethnic nationalities as well. These experts are to deliberate on and recommend the answers to such matters as are shown below: 1. What form of government(s) would best provide us with the environment to individually and collectively optimize our complimentary potentials or will enable the nation to rise to and be her best in any given field in the Comity of nations? 2. What is the best structure and layers of government(s) that we should have and at what cost to the nation? 3. How do we fashion and provide the environment that will encourage and assist any Nigerian who has the drive and the capacity to reach and be the best in a chosen field of studies, commerce,industry, field of performance, service delivery etc.? 4. What should be the contributory duties and responsibilities of each one in leading public service position, in relation to nationbuilding? 5. What should be the responsibilities of state in caring for and encouraging a Nigerian to blossom in a chosen field of contribution to nation building? 6. What Should be the responsibilities of state to protect each citizen and the corrective and commensurate sanction of deviants? 7. How do we ensure that all state and public matters/business are conducted with transparency, probity and accountability. 8. What should the nation demand and expect from anyone in a position of trust? The above should serve only as samples of issues that would require expert deliberation from which recommendations can be reached and forwarded by the experts to the plenary that only has the final say on such reports. WHEN ALL IS SET AND DONE The reason why people have been calling for Sovereign National Conference is because when the representatives(however chosen) had finished at least with a good measure of consensus on the major issues, those in government would unilaterally expunge some key areas of previous agreement and would impose some others which were neither canvassed nor agreed on. The result was a caricature of a document said to be by the people. That is the major flaw in our present Constitution. For once, we should finally depart from this for the good of the nation we are trying to build The way to go is to present the findings of the plenary of the National Conference to be subjected only to a referendum for the people to vote on it. The outcome would then really be the collective Voice of the people. Then and only then can the resultant document begin with We the people of Nigeria... The National or State Assemblies should have nothing to do with ratifying it. The mandates of the Houses of Assembly were not derived from the ethnic nationalities of the nation. The constituency of each elected member is not any ethnic nationality but a geographical enclave wherein every Nigerian resident there in and who is registered to vote comprised the Constituency.That is very distinct from the profile and definition of the National Conference of Ethnic Nationalities of Nigeria. For once we should let the people speak and for their Voice to be given effect.Thereafter, The nation will be run as the people would have spoken. The Sovereignty lie with the people. May Nigeria truly rise at last from a just and upright foundation laid by the people for the people of Nigeria.God bless Nigeria
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 12:31:09 +0000
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