EVERY administration, at least in the last two and a half decades, has faced the fury of calls for Nigeria to be run as a federal state, instead of being a travesty of it. Clearly, inherent structural and existential challenges in the polity have made it a ghastly experiment thrown up by British colonial political patch-work of 1914. The situation needs urgent remedy. This was the kernel of a message The Patriots, a group of elder statesmen, forwarded to President Goodluck Jonathan recently.
In its 13-page memorandum, The Patriots emphasised the fact that the country is in dire need of transformation, the type only a Sovereign National Conference would guarantee. But the Ben Nwabueze-led group seems to have inflamed passions with its request. Unfortunately, the President and the Senate President, David Mark, have got it wrong right from the outset with the type of conference they envisage. Jonathan, in his response, said there was nothing wrong in Nigerians meeting for a dialogue. However, he added a caveat: “The limitation we have is that the constitution appears to have given that responsibility to the National Assembly. I have also been discussing the matter with the leadership of the National Assembly.” The Senate President toed the President’s line last week when he endorsed a national conference, yet shut the door against one with sovereign powers.
True dialogue elsewhere, just as it took place in Benin Republic in 1990, redefines national trajectories and reaches decisions to save the country from the precipice. Sovereignty resides with the people; any national conclave devoid of this sanctity is a waste of time. For 14 years, our democracy has been predicated on a constitution foisted on us by a marauding military on retreat in 1999. Its preamble reads, “We, the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” Critics have argued that this is utterly fraudulent as Nigerians never met to produce the document.
However, an opportunity to change the status quo during the 2003 conference was lost because the convener, the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, had a different agenda. As it lacked the imprimatur of the people, the conference did not take the country anywhere. If, therefore, personal interest is the motive for the envisaged conference, then, the conveners should beware! Nigerians have had enough of such chicanery. Sani Abacha, as a military dictator in 1994, also tried to pull wool over the eyes of Nigerians as Obasanjo also tried to do nine years later. Our dream conference must be a no-holds-barred one.
Truly, the Nigerian Union has been shaky; it has been like a ship assailed by turbulent waves. In many parts of the country, felons now question the authority of the State, brazenly kill fellow citizens in hundreds and throw overboard the country’s secularity in preference for rabid Islam-ism and violence.
For instances, in Borno State last week, Boko Haram insurgents, armed with AK 47 rifles, mounted roadblocks and spread bullets on hapless travellers, killing over 167. Security personnel are not spared either in this continuing orgy of violence. Borno State’s case is not an isolated one. It is the same in Yobe and Adamawa states. Ironically, full-scale military operations in these areas that came in the wake of the state of emergency declared in May, have not forced the outlaws to capitulate. This eerie atmosphere has been common too in Kano, Jos, Kaduna, Suleja and Bauchi, due to senseless bombings. Nigeria is indeed at the crossroads, and this is why many citizens no longer feel safe to live in states other than their own.
The masterminds of this mass hysteria are unrelenting in the pursuit of their evil agenda. Even Jonathan was forced to admit last year that their main goal was to drive him underground in the Presidential Villa, Abuja. This is most alarming! This is certainly not the kind of country our founding fathers laboured for. Tony Blair, a former British Prime Minister, who is familiar with the chaos in artificial states, says, “A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in… And how many want out.” According to the 2013 global index of failed states, Nigeria occupies the 16th position, an infamous roll-call it has no business being a part of. Only the predatory ruling class and the hypocrites continue to play the ostrich, or pretend that all is well.
Mark abhors the country’s dismemberment, but the mass murderers and those who steal public treasury dry indirectly make it possible. When 70 per cent of the population live below the $1 per day poverty threshold, amidst plenty, the social milieu becomes volcanic. This is where the nation is now! Both Jonathan and Mark have critical roles to play in saving Nigeria. As we once argued, they must stand on the side of restructuring this skewed federalism that has only delivered crushing poverty to many families and torrents of bloodbath across the land. The fanciful assumption that Nigeria’s corporate existence is not negotiable must be done away with.
Rather than dodging the issue of a sovereign national conference, it is incumbent upon them to come up with ways to smoothen its process. The former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Sudan and Ethiopia, were countries with similar political alchemy with Nigeria. Unless we are ready to alter the shaky political structure, going the way of these countries will become inevitable.
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