During
his Independence Day broadcast on October 1, President Goodluck
Jonathan announced to a somewhat surprised nation his intention to
facilitate a “national dialogue” on the future of Nigeria.
To this end,
he set up a 13-member Advisory Committee which was inaugurated a few
days ago. It is understandable if Nigerians have mixed feelings about
the national conference announced by President Jonathan considering his
opposition to such a conference in the past. I shall return to this.
This intervention has become necessary
for a number of reasons. Whenever the issue of Sovereign National
Conference comes up, some people become agitated and defensive. First,
let me note that the hysteria that has gripped the opponents – and in
some instance, proponents – of the SNC is completely unnecessary.
Second, it is important to respond to the crippling ignorance of those
who ought to know but would rather obfuscate this issue, just as it is
imperative to highlight the insufferable indifference of those who are
in a position to act, but have refused to do anything.
Third, we need to confront not just the
arrogance and hypocrisy, but the egregious folly of those who think this
piece of real estate called Nigeria is their grandfather’s barnyard.
Once the issue of the SNC is mentioned, all you hear are weasel words
and fear mongering: “We want Nigeria to break up”; “Nigeria won’t break
up”; “We are not afraid of break-up”; “We will survive if Nigeria breaks
up”. These have become the refrain of ethnic chauvinists in our midst.
If you ask them to define who this mythical “we” is, they can’t offer
any coherent answer.
Of course, unless we sit down to have a
sincere and meaningful national dialogue, this country will disintegrate
before our very eyes, but not in the way some people envisage. That is
why the SNC is imperative. The SNC comes about when a nation is faced,
as we are currently, with a lingering and intractable crisis. The basic
aim is to rescue the nation.
The SNC will not “solve all of Nigeria’s
political and social problems”. The SNC is not meant to address – as
some people erroneously think – the problem of corruption, the crisis in
the education sector or other sectoral problems plaguing Nigeria. These
are minor problems in the scheme of things. It is the survival of the
country that is at stake. As a matter of priority, we need to build a
nation out of the contraption fashioned almost a century ago; what we
didn’t do at independence some 53 years ago and have refused to do ever
since. Until we do that, we’ll be wasting our time talking about
corruption and other social ills that have become part of our national
ethos.
Nigeria is not working, and here, I
don’t mean the collapse of education or public infrastructure. I am
talking about the very essence of nationhood which ensures that even
though we may not have a “common descent, history, culture, or
language”, after decades of being an entity, we ought to have developed a
common future, national identity and philosophy. Unfortunately, we have
not been able to do this basic thing. That is where our problem lies.
Who is a Nigerian? What does being a
Nigerian mean to any person who accepts that tag? Fifty three years
after independence, we have managed to alienate one another so much so
that people still see themselves as northerners, southerners, and
everything in-between. And yet we want to tackle corruption; we want to
fix our education and health system and solve the issue of impunity and
the security challenge across the country.
Very few people believe in this country,
never mind the hypocritical verbiage that emerges daily whether from
the Presidency, the National Assembly, or the sundry institutions
erected to create a semblance of national cohesion. That explains the
mindless looting of the national treasury and the attendant impunity.
Don’t get me wrong. The SNC is not a
silver bullet. We may convoke one and realise that we have more problems
than we imagined, in which case the resolution may be far-reaching and
radical. But we have to convoke it anyway because there is no greater
self-delusion than to think there is any other meaningful way out of the
current quagmire.
Back to Jonathan and his national
conference. Those who accuse the President of insincerity may have a
point. It is possible, as some people have argued, that the President
wants to use the conference as a diversion from his incompetence and the
2015 elections. All this, however, is in the realm of conjecture. Let’s
give the President the benefit of the doubt and wait and see what he
actually offers.
Clearly, what Nigeria needs is a
Sovereign National Conference. For those who oppose the planned
“national conference” because it does not have the term “sovereign”, I
would say it is not for the President to determine ab initio the nature
and structure of the proposed dialogue. This national dialogue or
conference should and ought to go beyond President Jonathan. The
President may have facilitated it, either because he genuinely believes
there is no viable alternative or because of personal interest, but he
would be mistaken to think he can tamper with it to suit certain
interest or for partisan political reasons.
The focus, therefore, should be on the
Femi Okurounmu-led advisory committee and the first four points of its
terms of reference: (i) To consult expeditiously with all relevant
stakeholders with a view to drawing up a feasible agenda for the
proposed national dialogue/conference; (ii.) to make recommendations to
government on structure and modalities for the proposed national
dialogue/conference; (iii) to make recommendations to government on how
representation of various interest groups at the national
dialogue/conference will be determined; (iv) to advise on a time frame
for the national dialogue/conference.
The President has merely set in motion a
process for us to talk. It is left for Nigerians to decide how they
want to talk and what they want to talk about. We’ll wait to see how the
committee goes about the onerous task of collating the input of
Nigerians. Clearly, six weeks is not enough time to undertake this task.
When the conference does take place, the outcome, for it to be
meaningful, can only be altered by a referendum, not by the National
Assembly, not even by the President. It is not in the interest of the
new Nigeria we envisage to give the National Assembly or the President
such powers.
For me, the one thorny issue about this
national dialogue is representation and the selection process. But I am
clear about one thing: Ethnic nationalities should take a “back seat” in
this conference. Let me reiterate the point that this conference should
not be about our ethnic nationalities. Even though ethnic nationalities
form the bedrock of our nation, “Nigeria is greater than the sum total
of its ethnic nationalities”.
It is important, of course, to build an
egalitarian society that addresses the needs and concerns of the diverse
groups and interests that make up Nigeria. And many of these needs and
concerns can be addressed when citizens have access to and are in
control of their resources. If we can find a way to ensure this happens
then Nigerians can begin the arduous task of harnessing these resources.
Top on the agenda for the national
conference, therefore, should be how to restructure Nigeria to make it
work. And one way of doing that is to get the states to work. Let every
state take control of its resources: natural, human, etc., and
contribute to the Federal Government. Every state in Nigeria today can
boast these resources in abundance. Let states decide the number of
local government areas they desire. Let them have their own electoral
bodies as well as police and make laws for the good governance of their
states, subject of course to federal laws where applicable. Above all,
let every “Nigerian” have the right to claim and reside in any state of
his or her choice.
by Chido Onumah(conumah@hotmail.com)
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