THOSE AGAINST CONFERENCE ENEMIES OF NIGERIA— PDP The Publicity Secretary, Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, Mr. Taofik Gani, in this interview with LEKE BAIYEWU, faults criticisms of the proposed national conference by the All Progressives Congress A leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has said the proposed national conference is deceptive. Why would you think it is genuine? The best and most popular gift to Nigerians today is this national dialogue. The President has, again, scored another good political point by hearing and listening to the cries of Nigerians for a forum for dialogue. This is beyond the President or his party’s personal interest; this is the interest of Nigerians. And, the President has listened to the cries. This same President reversed the increment in fuel pump price; this same President signed the Freedom of Information Act; this same President agreed to the increment of minimum wage. We have a listening President in the person of Goodluck Jonathan and if anybody, for whatever parochial reason, begin to misinterpret the rue intention of Mr. President, that person is not a patriot. The argument is why did the President, who once opposed it, suddenly made a U-turn? The President had never opposed the dialogue, he only opposed the idea of Nigeria having sovereignty within its sovereignty. He has never opposed the idea that we must come together and dialogue. That he has constituted a committee now is a further vindication of his stand. What he has done now is to give us a committee that will in turn give us the modus operandi for a national dialogue, national conference or whatever name it might eventually take. The President has told us that this committee will tell us about the nomenclature and the set-up. He has never, for once, opposed it. He was only being careful, especially at that point in time that the main crux of the agitators was that Nigeria must divide. No president will want his country to be divided during his tenure. If truly the President wants to listen to the people, and the people ask for the division of the country, will he stop them? The coexistence of Nigeria is non-negotiable and the only reason why this national conference may be very strategic is to look at how we can coexist as a stronger and more united family. If the people say they want to have secession, it is not in the best interest of the nation. Yes, they may have their right for self determination but the reality on ground is that such must be put into a referendum. I can tell you that 80 per cent of Nigerians do not want Nigeria to break. The only few who are clamouring for a breakaway are the same people who have plunged this country into unprecedented poverty; the same people have introduced violence into our polity; the same people who are very parochial and that unless they lead and they are in control, Nigeria cannot move forward. This is unacceptable. Nigeria remains a very viable nation and the real Nigerians – the patriots – do not want this country to break. If the conference is not sovereign, don’t you think its recommendations may not be implemented like the ones from the previous conferences? It is not true. People have misconstrued the idea of sovereignty. It is a semantic thing. I can tell you that if this ‘sovereignty’ is added to the name of this conference, it does no remove the fact that not all agitations will be met. What is the benefit of the sovereignty, where, as a matter of fact, the agitations are not met? Nigerians do not believe in this semantic and the big grammar; all they want is a conference, either sovereign or not, that will come to agree on whether we should have state police, independent power projects, increment in minimum wage, autonomous local governments, etc. The fundamental things that will directly affect the common man are what Nigerians want to address at this conference. You cannot have sovereignty within sovereignty. At this point in time, I want to say that the National Assembly may have given room for this agitation for sovereignty because they, probably, have been derelict in their responsibilities. That is why I must say the President has risen up to the task. Most of the issues that will be raised at the conference are issues that, ordinarily, should have been resolved by the National Assembly, only if it has been very vibrant. But, they have given the room for people to take them as not vibrant and competent to make progressive laws for Nigeria. That is why the agitation for conference continued and has come to see the light of the day. The same National Assembly will now have the responsibility – a compelling one – to pass into law everything that has been agreed to at the conference. They will have no choice. It will be a compelling responsibility and they must pass those issues into law. Can such recommendations be passed without another round of debate at the Assembly and won’t that lead to alteration of its content? They are going to have a modus operandi. National Assembly will have representatives at the conference. If the Assembly has its representatives, it presupposes that it will be part and parcel of the discussions. It will be very immoral of them what has been agreed to at such conference. I think the only salient thing here is to reemphasise that the National Assembly to swallow that pie of ego. They have been negligent and not up to the task in term of providing legislation for the country. And that is why we have many issues lying fallow, which, ordinarily, should have been resolved through legislation. If a national conference is put up now, the National Assembly should not become a cog in the wheel; they should just allow a free flow of the conference and agree to all agreed to at the conference as the opinion and the wish of the people. And they should not tamper with any of the resolutions. If the recommendations will be subjected to National Assembly approval, don’t you think the ongoing constitution review by the legislature is a waste of time and national resources? The review of the constitution jump-started by the National Assembly has not been done properly and may not be done properly. This is why the national conference is the most viable way for Nigerians to have a true constitution. For instance, in my area in Osodi/Isolo, when we were supposed to have the public hearing, the people voted for the independence of local governments. They even voted that the local government elections should be conducted by independent bodies and not by state governments. Alas, what we heard when our representatives went back to Abuja is that people voted the local governments to remain dependent on the state government. This is not true. This type of conference is independent of the National Assembly. We are going to have the type of open hearing that ought to be in a situation like this, when you want to make law, not the type of public hearing organised by the National Assembly, this time around, we are going to have the true representative of the people. Those at the grass roots and their leaders will be there. Those at the National Assembly can be there as observers or participants. I am going to be one of those that will insist that whatever comes out of the national conference must be, as a matter of compulsion, adopted and passed into law by the National Assembly. What about the All Progressives Congress allegation that the conference is diversionary and an attempt to cover up the failures of the PDP government? What is painful to the APC is that they have seen this decision by the President a very rare populist decision and they are not comfortable with it because they know that this will uplift the credit of Mr. President. All Nigerians, even those who are pathological critics of the presidency, have come to agree to that this is a very good decision at this point in time. APC, being a disillusioned opposition party in the country, is expected to raise such petty and unwarranted criticism of this populist decision by Mr. President. They don’t know how else to counter the President, that is why they feel that they must just criticise whatever decisions he takes. By this time next year, I can tell you that APC will not remain as an opposition; it will be begging the PDP to be a part of its government. Another allegation by the party is that the conference is an attempt to elongate the tenure of President Jonathan. Is this true? I can never agree with that because, like I told you, Senator Femi Okuronmu now has the onerous responsibility to also put into consideration the duration of this conference. Supposing the tenure two years, then you can begin to suspect the good intension of the President. But, this is a committee that is independent and has people of integrity. You cannot begin to talk on the elongation of the President’s tenure at this time, when you have not even seen the modus operandi this committee will using. You don’t even know the timeline yet. All this are infantile criticisms and experiments. Politicians in Nigeria must now learn to take criticism as constructive, and not destructive. They are only being alarmists; they want to set the people against the presidency. But unfortunately for the APC, the President’s integrity is growing every day. The love people have for him is growing every day. He does not have the intention to elongate his tenure. This is a man who had proposed a one-term system for the President and said he would sacrifice his second term, if it would not entertain him. If this same man is being touted as working his tenure elongation, it means that those who are raising the issue are, indeed, enemies of Nigeria.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 10:01:29 +0000
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