NIGERIAN NATIONAL CONFERENCE: AN APPRAISAL; Part one. The on-going National conference elicited hullabaloo from the various strata of the society; inclusive of the optimist and pessimist. A social analysis and appraisal of some of the decisons already taken at the conference becomes imperative, so as to present the public with an insight. The national conference had a broad mandate to discuss and proffer solutions to the woes of the Nigerian Nation. Delegates were drawn from the various strata of the society. As usuall, the North came with a mindset of maintaining the existing status quo, in addition to increased revenue allocation to component states of the federation, and creation of states. While the South came with an agenda for State creation, resource control, and regional autonomy. Am only going to discuss few of the decisions arrived at: 1.STATE CREATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: Many Nigerians are clamouring for the reduction in the cost of Governance, rather than addressing that, the delgates voted to create additional States, neglecting the fact that most of the states we have at the moment are not viable, and cannot survive without federal allocation. Rather than creating additional States, they should have proposed Re-structuring the existing States by merging States that are not viable. On Local Governments, they erroneously voted for the scrapping of the 3rd tier of Government, What many had expected was for them to look at the defects in the present constitution which negates the proper functioning of the Local Governments. Rather than scrapping the system, they should have proposedAutonomyin all ramfication for the Local Governments. 2 RESOURCE CONTROL AND FISCAL AUTONOMY: i conceed to the South-South that they deserve to control their resource through 100% derivation but for the interest of peace they should lower their demand to 50% derivation. Anything less than this is unfair to them. 3 REVENUE ALLOCATION: The existing allocation formular should be ammended. My take is that, the sharing formular should reflect; Federal Government 30%, States 25%, while Local Government 45%. My reaason for allocating 45% to the Local Government is because they are more closer to the grassroots, who are mostly the impoverished, and the most vulnerable in the society. But, for this revenue formular to take place, there has to be an ammendment in the residual, exclusive, and concurrent lists. 4 PILGRIMAGE AND RELIGIOUS MATTERS: Am in consensus with the proposal that Government should stop sponsoring people on religious pilgrimage, Government is not a charity organization! Hence, whoever that wants to perform his religious obligation by going on pilgrimage should be ready to foot the bill rather than Government. Also, Sponsoring of pilgrimage by Government negates the notion that Nigeria is a secular State. As such, the various pilgrimage boards and commissions should be scrapped. As a secular State, my take is that the sharia courts should be scrapped. Also, in order to respect members of other faiths, as well as atheist, a proposal should be made to stop christian and Islamic prayers from being offered at official events. This is based on the fact that, as a secular State, this will infringe on the right of others, such as the atheist and traditional worshippers. TO BE CONTINUED.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 15:44:50 +0000
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