Tag: Adamu

Abdullahi Adamu, chairman of Northern Senators’ Forum obviously played to the gallery when he told his audience why the 2014 recommendations of the National Conference cannot be implemented by the Buhari administration.

Toeing the line of those who had sought to disparage the report on spurious and self-serving grounds, Adamu said it would be unfair to expect the president to implement the recommendations of a conference convened by the former administration when he was not privy to its underlying philosophy and primary objectives. Hear him, “You cannot compel the president to implement a report he is not part of”.

He further boasted that those who put their thrust in the report have not even read it even as he claimed the report has nothing radical to offer the country as it does not provide the solution to a restructured Nigeria. Abdullahi who expects the forum to discuss restructuring also queried the legitimacy of the conference in keeping with extant laws of the country.

He was apparently reacting to resolutions of southern senators who after their recent retreat, urged President Buhari to as a matter of urgency summon a conference to consider the report of the 2014 National Conference. In the communiqué after the meeting, they urged President Buhari to convoke a meeting of the National Assembly leadership, governors and the leadership of the state Houses of Assembly to a brainstorming session to commence implementation of that conference report.

My reading of the southern senators resolution is a passionate appeal to the president to provide the lead by driving the process to review the recommendations of that conference with a view to adopting salient aspects as may be agreed upon by all the parties to the discussion. It is a patriotic call for a quick commencement of discussions that will culminate in the restructuring of the country using the recommendations of that conference as a working document.

And in this review, the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly will have the crucial role of determining which items in the report should be given the final nod. The main objective is to fast-track the constitutional amendment process, conserve valuable time and resources that stand to be wasted by an entirely fresh conference. This view seems to draws ample credence from incremental theory as it seeks to work on existing documents to arrive at consensual agreements that will save our federal contraption from the systemic stress into which it is seemingly irretrievably mired.

If this represents a fair interpretation of the content of the southern senators’ position, then Adamu went off tangent in some of his assertions and conclusions especially if they were directed at the resolutions of his southern colleagues. His contention that Buhari cannot implement the conference report because he is not privy to its underlying philosophy and primary objectives is not only cheap but an indictment on the president.

For one, it is inconceivable that a former military head of state that thrice made a bid to be elected a civilian president of this country can safely claim ignorance of the issues and wider dynamics of the recurring agitations for a national conference. These issues have been there and constitute both the primary objective and the philosophy for seeking platforms to construct durable framework for the survival of this unity in diversity. It will be a huge disappointment for any person who has led this country or aspires to lead it to feign ignorance of them as Adamu would make us to believe. So that argument does not add up.

For another, it is not an issue of compelling the president to implement a report he is not part of. Buhari has been part of this system. As at the time the conference was being nurtured, he had an ambition to rule the country. His party, the APC also had restructuring in its manifesto and sought election on that promise. So the same philosophy and principles that made his party promise restructuring, influenced both the 2014 discussions, those before it and extant agitations.

He must not be a participant at the conference before he understands what it recommendations are all about. That document was handed over to him by his predecessor and the minimum demand of his office is that he ought to go through it irrespective of whatever reservations he may have. Going through it will aid him tap into the temperament of the nation on some of the vexatious issues of our federal order. He could come up with different perspectives on some of the issues. And he would be entitled to them. But to dump such a vital document into the dust bin on grounds of some of the reasons adduced by Adamu would amount to crass insensitivity to the yearnings and aspirations of the people.

Again, nobody is expecting Buhari to take up the report and decree it into law. He lacks such powers under constitutional democracy. Neither have suggestions been made to that impossible effect. Southern senators were conscious of this reality when they asked him to drive the process by convoking a meeting of all relevant bodies to constitutional amendment with a view to sieving salient aspects of that conference recommendation and passing them into law. That should take care of the issue of legitimacy highlighted by Adamu and those who have hidden under such reservations to sabotage the process.

Beyond this, we are not doing this country any good dissipating valuable energy finding faults with genuine attempts to fashion out suitable framework to stabilize this country for unhindered development. It is not enough to find faults in genuine attempts by others to move this county forward. If the recommendations of that conference fell short of what the constituents needed to live in harmony, Adamu and his colleagues ought to provide the alternatives instead of this constant relapse into morbid fear for real change.

It is obvious that some sections are profiting from the convoluted federal order. It is no less a truism that the fear of loss of influence, undue advantage and power is at the heart of the stringent opposition against restructuring. But the system as presently constituted has not fared well. Not only is the defective order at the root of the festering corruption in the land, the acrimonious and deadly competition for the presidency is directly linked to it. The same phenomenon accounts for the rivalry and competition between the central authority and the primordial units for the loyalty of the citizens. Such loyalties denoted by the variegated ethnic and sectional groups are bound to diminish with true federalism both in content and practice. So those opposed to some measure of restructuring are not helping the country. They do so in the knowledge that some of the distortions wrought into this polity by the military are difficult to redress without the consent of those benefiting from them. But there is a limit to the patience of constituents that have been at the receiving end of these convoluted and suffocating structures.

Those genuinely desirous of the country’s continued existence must come to terms with the reality that we have not fared well with stereotypes that have not served our collective being. And for this country to make real progress, it must be disentangled from those systemic defects that have overtime held it prostrate. The structure of the federation is at the center of it all.

It is not just a matter of the south intimidating the north or the north being afraid of restructuring as Adamu is inclined to believe. It is a patriotic desire to move the nation forward by dismantling all the imperfections that render national integration and the forging of a common sense of national identity illusory. It is a desire to unleash the creative energies of the constituents for rapid and unhindered development.

Good a thing, Adamu has admitted that the north will support restructuring provided it “guarantees justice, equity, fairness and the unity of all Nigerians”. That is the essence of the conversation. So let the discussions commence!