The National Conference (2)

Last week I expressed support for the planned conference to discuss Nigeria’s fundamentals because Nigeria’s most important challenges are structural and in its current form, the country is politically, economically and socially unsustainable; Nigeria’s problems will not be solved by any elections (they may in fact restore avowed unitarists to power and worsen the prospects of federalism) but by a restructuring of the federation in line with the desires of its geo-political zones and ethnic nationalities; the National Assembly has neither the credibility nor institutional integrity to perform this task being itself a product of the gerrymandering of Nigeria as proven by the type of irrelevant palliatives and unitarist proposals it has offered since 1999 as constitutional amendments. I am in support of a conference, irrespective of its designation, based on equal representation of the geo-political zones, representative of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities and in which the outcome is submitted to a referendum of Nigeria’s peoples in whom sovereignty resides. I believe that irrespective of the President’s motives (which in any event may not be conclusively improper) we should seize the opportunity to effect positive change in Nigeria’s constitutional arrangements. I am encouraged by published comments attributed to Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State who said in a THISDAY interview, “if you know my background, you will know where I stand on national conference. In my previous life, I was a convener of the Citizens Forum for Constitutional Reform…and I spent the better part of my time from 1999 till I came into politics, working on the constitution. I was an unofficial adviser to the late Chief Bola Ige on the Constitution Review Committee that they set up at one time and we produced a model constitution. I was in PRONACO. I had written extensively about this. I am a federalist. For me, what President Jonathan has done, coming from an earlier position that was utterly negative, is not something Kayode Fayemi can personally be negative about. I cannot! I was actually in the Yoruba Assembly. You only need to google my interviews and other things I have said so it would be opportunistic on my part to say national conference is not appropriate…I’m not going to talk about a motive -whoever set up anything has a motive and there is no perfect time for anything. Whatever anyone does in life, there cannot be 100 per cent perfect time. That is the time you must do it. So people are saying why now, why not another time? It is not for me the essential argument. Again, whether it is called national dialogue or national conference is not really relevant, what makes a conference relevant is the input of the large population of people and that can only be arrived at by a referendum. That is the only vehicle of sovereignty.” I am relieved by Fayemi’s comments which are on ‘all fours’ with my column of last week. I note also that my views are in tandem with representations to the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue (PACND) by all groups from Western Nigeria-Afenifere, Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), Yoruba Assembly, Yoruba Unity Forum, Coalition of O’Odua Self Determination Groups (COSEG), O’Odua Nationalist Coalition (ONAC), Eko Foundation, Atayese and Okun Peoples Forum all of whom seek Yoruba autonomy within a federal Nigeria and a conference of geo-political zones and ethnic nationalities, whose output is put to a referendum. Indeed the memorandum jointly submitted by ARG, Pro-National Conference Organisation (PRONACO), COSEG, ONAC, Eko Foundation and Atayese, and presented by ARG Chairman Olawale Oshun, demands a conference of ethnic nationalities “that seeks to restructure Nigeria in a way that grants Yoruba people, and other ethnic nationalities seeking it, unfettered autonomy to develop it’s region and its own space within the framework of Nigeria’s multi-ethnic federation”. Incidentally Governor Kayode Fayemi (along with Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State) is a leading member of ARG. The memoranda presented by Afenifere (with Chief Reuben Fasoranti as leader and Yinka Odumakin as spokesman), Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF) led by Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi and Yoruba Assembly are in pari materia with ARG’s position. The Yoruba Assembly led by General Alani Akinrinade notes that it is “a welcome development that President Goodluck Jonathan has finally decided, two years after the election that brought him to power in 2011, to organise a national conference” and seeks a conference which allows “Nigerian nationalities to confer and design Nigeria as a federation wherein each of Nigeria’s federating nationalities shall be protected from domination by any other Nigerian nationalities and wherein each Nigerian nationality shall be able to develop its economy at its own pace within the framework of a united Nigerian Federation” The Yoruba Assembly further notes that the “the Yoruba nationalities in Nigeria have for decades persistently called for a rational restructuring of the Nigerian federation, as well as for a sovereign national conference” to address the national question, and points out that “although the sovereign status of the proposed conference is not clear in the swearing-in speech given by President Jonathan, the decision to establish a forum for a national conference is appropriate and a welcome development“ and urges that the conference “should not be subject to the stresses of partisan political party confrontations”.