THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE, 2015 ELECTIONS AND THE UNITY OF NIGERIA: On Monday, 17th of March, 2014, in Abuja, President Jonathan finally declared open the long-expected and much-debated national conference. It was just a ceremonial day of inauguration. But even then, the n 492 delegates gathered from all corners of expired and failed one Nigeria must already have started to feel the enormous gravity of what history has called them out to do. And for the rest of us both the optimists and the pessimists among the 170 million subjects who are staying in our respective homes and in our jobs(if we have any jobs),the finality will gradually become plain in the days to come as proceedings on the floor of the conference progresses. Simply put, this conference irrespective of the canvassed position of some professional skeptics, promises to be failed Nigeria game changer. This time around, something would have to give in. Given the low level to which failed Nigeria has fallen in all directions, and given the very high expectations of so called Nigerian subjects today, never citizens, the possibilities are very high that this conference could change the expired Nigeria radically for the betterment and advancements of its constituent units in whatever forms and nomenclatures. It could engineered a process of vibrant new path to prosperity and greatness among the sections within Nigeria that desires strong developmental competitiveness among the great nations within the global spectrum But, at the same time, certain well-known factors which the ruling class and their opposition contenders must acknowledge is that this factors which if they surface seriously in the conference, could result in the total and sudden disintegration of the no longer wanted one Nigeria as presently constituted. Whatever happens, President Jonathan and his bands of Niger-delta political mongers would seem now to have set the record straight about his true intentions for this national conference. There have been doubts from professional doubters who based their argument on previous failures of government approach to projects of this magnitude in the past which resulted into non-implementation of the resolution of former conferences about what the incumbent president wanted. Some of us have been among those who have asked whether the president was calling a national conference only for the purpose of strengthening his bid for re-election in 2015.We have also been among those who have asked whether the president is aware that the national conference could change the political terrain in ways that could eliminate his chances of being a candidate at all 2015.We have asked “would the president Jonathan want to be president again from 2015, if the national conference results in a weak Federal Government, and a President controlling much less powers and much less money than now” And We have asked “is president Jonathan willing to accept the possibility that the national conference could abolish the presidential system, and conceivably remove him completely from leadership running in Nigeria’s political life? One can say now that “we the people|” have received our hope to the troubling above questions, when the president asserted that” He will let the national conference take its decisions, as it sees fit, in the interests of both the oppressors and the oppressed within their various nations within a new re-invented Nigeria. One was highly hopeful when he said in his speech to the inaugural meeting of the national conference:” Let me again repeat what I have been saying that Goodluck Jonathan has no personal agenda in convening this national conference”. If the president Goodluck Jonathan does indeed see this national conference successfully to the remaking of the failed lopsided Nigerian federation, he could become one of the greatest former public holders and personality, on the African Continent of our times. Fellow Oppressed subjects in neo-colonial Nigeria, there still remain other factors that could destroy Nigeria quickly as we been long be envisaging. In the past year or so, as the debates over restructuring has grown, the political leaders of our Hausa-Fulani north have insistently said that they oppose any kind of restructuring- and that the status quo is sacrosanct. In a visit of the leaders of Arewa Consultative Forum to the Yoruba Unity Forum in December 2012, the Arewa North leadership stated emphatically that the considered the existing structure of the federation as a settled, and they rejected any idea or suggestion that matters that have been settled be reopened. There have been significant Northern voices that have even threatened that any attempt to change the status quo, or to modify the resource control situation, would provoke a war. In the same vein, a conference of the Northern Elders Forum, held on march 10-11, adopted the following stand: “The planed National conference has no constitutional basis, or any form of legitimacy or authority to speak for the people of the North or other Nigerians, as if we the Yorubas solicited for them to make case for our over 50 million people over the acceptability of the conference, (emphasis mine.)The northern Elders want further, saying, its proceedings, conclusions and recommendations are therefore of no consequences and will not be accepted by the people of the North” If such above positions as hold strongly by the north as this were to suffice in the deliberations of the national conference, there seems to be little doubt that Nigeria as We know it, could fizzle out instantly. A Yoruba diaspora think-tank organization, Oodua Foundation, has responded to this statement of the North Elders Forum. Their answer goes as follows:” We must express serious shock about the statement credited to the Northern Elders Forum meeting of march 10-11(concerning the national conference).In the interest of all the peoples and citizens of Nigeria, we must urge the Northern Elders Forum to reconsider this very damaging statement of theirs.( I do not know why our people must begged them not to insist on their positions concerning the conference or anti restructured Nigeria, after all, the British colonial over lords, gave them the southern territories and the middle-belt as slaves cum conquered territories and willing tools respectively, as permanent slaves. emphasis mine)In the history of the constitutional development in Nigeria, the present National conference is perfectly in line with all previous Nigerian constitutional conferences, and it is by no mean inferior to any in legitimacy. These are no times for irreconcilable stonewalling, or for hard postures designed to intimidate. Never again would so called Nigerian subjects be intimidated by any internal oppressors again. The way matters stand today, we may either all join hands and sort out the colossal mess that the expired and failed Nigeria has become, or we separate” From all over Nigeria, and from among so called Nigerian subjects living in various parts of the world, people are speaking up to endorse and support this response by Oodua Foundation. The chances are good for Nigeria to change, reform, and go on to prosper (which could never be without a war, as threatened by the Northern neo-colonial master of the country sovereignty, emphasis mine) but the chances are also strong for Nigeria to self-destruct quickly. Which it will be is in the bosom of the national conference which was inaugurated on Monday. This national conference will change the Nigerian game-either way. The world is watching, so We the descendant of Oduduwa are Prepared.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:30:17 +0000
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