The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Confab

  • Is the confab really serious about recommending 18 more states for Nigeria?

    Running a state is obviously a very costly business, and it does not include the expenses of caring for the people

    Seriously? Honestly? When I read the report that the confab members planned to include the request that Nigeria create more states, I nearly flipped. I shook my head and immediately thought, surely, either that there are still people here who do not understand the problem, who do not get it, or I am living in Mars. Oh yes, there are people who normally do not get it and they are called, wait for it, the government. Today though, I prefer the other option: that I am living in Mars, because then, I can pretend others who do not get it do not exist. Let’s see now how best I can give the confab members my own opinion on the issue in a way that will not jolt them too much or give them the impression that I am not altogether with them or give them the impression I do not like them or the job they are doing. Now, how can I do that? NO, NO, NO; no more states. Haba!

    Now, how can we explain this problem to them? Let us begin with the most basic implication of this calamitous and precipitous move. It will unbalance my psyche. I will not be able to wrap the fact around my tiny brain that there will now be, what, fifty-five states in Nigeria, what with Abuja being treated as a state with its own government. Listen, things are delicate enough around here as it is without anyone adding to the confusion. That’s it: more states = more confusion. You don’t know what I mean? Let’s see now.

    To begin with, having more states means having more governors. Right now, in this present dispensation, Nigeria has had to cope with governors who went on sick leave lasting more than eight months at a stretch, some lasting for more than one year so far and still counting; governors buying and flying jets from public coffers; governors wrangling over who presides over the affairs of other governors while not having completed their original purposes as governors; governors in perpetual tussles with their godfathers; and governors generally doing all kinds of things but governing. Do we want more of that? Do we really? Wait now, there is more.

    Having more states will definitely mean having more jets in the Nigerian airspace, and that will equally definitely make it more unsafe. Right now, there is an epidemic of the penchant for purchasing jets by public office holders. I tell you, it’s a biting bug, and it’s biting harder each day. So far, no one has told us that five out of six of the more than thirty-something jets currently in Nigeria were NOT purchased with public funds. No one. It is such a strange co-incidence that a goodly number of them belong to public office holders whose ‘people’ are still living in worse than abject poverty because funds meant for their relief are being spent purchasing … jets. Worse, the airspace in Nigeria cannot quite accommodate these excellencies who sometimes wonder why they should not fly their own jets, like cars, as proof that they really own them, like cars. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe there is a governor who is still writhing because he wondered similarly and… Someday, I believe we will hear his story.

    Anyway, we know that a governor must be accompanied by all the paraphernalia of office such as FLs, SAs, FSs, FDs, etc. Just hold on to your yams, all will be made clear. First of all, we do not want to be encumbered with more First Ladies whose credentials to the office do not go beyond the fact that they are consorts to the multiple mini emperors. Listen, many FLs are bad news. No, they have not done me any harm, but they have not done us any much good either. Have you noticed that each one sort of comes with a programme that consumes billions of state funds to execute and as soon as they and their principals are out of office, the programme sort of dies a natural death, along with our billions? I have noticed it and I tell you, it boggles the mind. There is something definitely fishy there that we must examine someday.

    More, we most definitely do not want more Special Advisers to the Governors appointed to comfort the said governor, who is often caught in the throes of so much work he needs loads of them, SAs that is, not more work. We have written on this topic before, so we do not want to repeat ourselves here but we must say this. We hear there is a state that has more than a hundred Special Advisers to the Governor… The less said on the topic the better. Anyway, we all know that these are political jobbers who prefer not to exert themselves too much in the boxing arena called the workspace plying their God-given talents and gifts for their daily meals. No sir; they prefer to answer their benefactors’ summons.

    Now, dear people, you most definitely do not want to add more to the number of first sons and first daughters we already have plaguing the country. Right now, we have chalked up such a huge number of them floating around everywhere in the world schooling, playing, laying and sniffing at the nation’s cost, it will make you wonder. You would not believe that those who are not abroad are here being contractors bidding for the same contracts issuing from daddy’s office as you and I. Guess who usually wins.

    So now, people, there are three ways we can approach this thing. I think we should cancel the idea of having eighteen more states altogether. From what I have regaled you with above, you can see that running a state is obviously a very costly business, and it does not include the expenses of caring for the people. If we were to add that, heaven knows what a state’s bill would look like. Worse, very few of these states are actually generating enough to take care of the bills of the governor’s penchants, his family’s and his SAs. Seriously, nearly all of them have been going cap in hand to Abuja every month to have tea. Well, they have to take something while waiting to be received by the AG. Now, the boisterous atmosphere in the waiting room of that gentleman’s office is leading some of us to suspect they are having a tea party in there when they go, err, cap-in-hand. Let’s go on.

    The second thing we can do is to ask state agitators to prove that the proposed states can cater for themselves. This means that the entire areas must prove that they have enough resources to take care of the apparatuses of the governorship office as stated above and still have plenty left over to distribute to, err, the people, especially during elections.

    The third option is to ask not for eighteen states but nineteen. That number will take care of all your own demands for new states, and also mine. Yes, my dear, I demand a state for myself. And why not? Frankly, if it is possible for me to live elsewhere in order to escape hearing about the grating, irrational deeds of mankind, white or black, I would gladly take the offer. Mars is a good option, but since there is no proof of life there yet, I am forced to settle for demanding a state of my own. Living on a state by myself, I will definitely be immune to demands from people that Nigeria be split into a hundred states. Surely, that time is coming too.

  • ‘Confab’s position on budget may lead to job loss’

    ‘Confab’s position on budget may lead to job loss’

    The recommendation of delegates at the on-going National Conference that the government should be shut in case of a delay in signing the budget by the President, may result in massive lay-off of workers, the Executive Director, African Heritage Institution (AfriHeritage), Dr. Ifediora Amobi,  has warned.

    He said a such shut is similar to a government strike, where provision of social services cease over a period of time, adding that the result is that payment of salaries will be  delayed, government programmes and projects will be disrupted (particularly in health, education and  power) with dire consequences for people who are dependent on these programmes. Also, financing gaps are created in critical sectors such as Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), small scale farm projects, and others.

    The  economist lamented that it is wrong to make the average Nigerians pay for the inadequacies, and to a large extent, the incompetence of those in the legislative and executive arms of government who have refused to do their work efficiently.

    Amobi explained that the government shutdown is a situation created where the executive and the legislative arms of government cannot reach a compromise when it comes to signing the nation’s annual budget, thus creating a ‘funding gap’.

    “During the funding gap period, the government shuts down because there is no money to pay workers, to provide services, and so on,” he said.

    On the economic implications of the action, the AfriHeritage boss noted that the economic cost could be in billions of naira depending on the duration of the shutdown, reduction in the Gross  Domestic Product (GDP) by up to two per cent or more, job losses/layoffs as well as sharp cutbacks in hiring practices, lost man-days nationwide, with very high productivity losses, significant drop in consumer, business and investor confidence and negative image for Nigeria because it will affect visa issuing and passport services.

    He urged the delegates not to copy verbatim the situation in the United States (US) where it happened recently, saying the US constitution provides for an Anti-deficiency Act that requires the Federal Government to begin a shutdown of the affected activities if an interim or full-year appropriation is not enacted into law.

    “My recommendation is that we should not copy the US in toto as their practice also has profound economic consequences. “The 2013 shutdown cost the US government over $24 billion (averaging $160 million a day). With our present monitored system, Nigeria losses an average of $10.9 billion a year to oil theft.

    “Just imagine the grand loss during a shutdown period where the oil sector will no longer be monitored.

    “My overall position Is that the National Conference revisit their earlier rejected amendment to Section 59 (3) of the 1999 Constitution which stated that In the event that the budget is not approved by the 2nd of January, government should operate on the basis of 75 per cent of previous year’s budget as an interim measure to avoid a shut down,” he said.

    Delegates at the National Conference had agreed that to go forward, Appropriation Bills must be presented to the National Assembly on or before September 30 of every year, while the National Assembly must pass the bill within two months for Presidential Assent in December.

    The rationale is to stop any expenditure by the government in the event of a delay in the passage of the budget.

  • CONFAB: Ethnic minorities seek legal shield, abolition of Sharia

    CONFAB: Ethnic minorities seek legal shield, abolition of Sharia

    The Nigerian Ethnic Minorities Movement,  comprising minority groups in the six geo-political zones, has called for constitutional protection for ethnic and religious minorities similar to those contained in the United Nations declaration on the right of minorities.

    The demand was one of over 20 contained in a presentation by minorities comprising about 400 ethnic minorities of Ibibio, Edo, Efik, Itsekiri, Isoko and others in Plateau, Yobe, Kaduna, Kogi, Nassarawa, Gombe, Borno, Niger and so on, to the ongoing national conference.

    A copy of the document signed by 39 ethnic leaders, including the conveners – Mr Edward Ekpoko (Itsekiri, Delta State) and Z.K.A. Bonat, Coordinator of Kaduna Ethnic Nationalities Forum – was obtained by our reporter.

    It stated: “After several meetings andconsultations, we the Nigeria’s ethnic minorities have resolved to work together to ensure our collective survival in Nigeria. For 100 years,the majority ethnic groups in the country have bestridden the nation with little or no regard for the minority ethnic nationalities.”

    They lamented that the political, strategic and economic objectives of the three major ethnic groups have been used as the basis for policies formulation to the detriment of over 400 minority ethnic nationalities, whose population they claimed is more than that of the three ethnic majors put together.

    “There is no doubt that the injustice, deprivation, marginalization and neglect of the minority ethnic nationalities over the years is primarily responsible for the incessant expression of discontent over the structural defect of the country which has resisted and will continue to defy systemic reforms and political engineering until the right things are done to all the nationalities to ensure justice, fairness, equity and respect, devoid of threats, fear, alienation and uncertainty.

    “There appears to be an erosion of trust in government generally: a crisis of democracy. The sort of transformation we articulate here will change Nigeria from a poor unprogressive country that it is today to a rich and progressive one,” it added.

    To this end, the ethnic minorities demanded, among others, that the Nigerian constitution should define, defend and criminalise acts of marginalisation and discrimination against minorities.

    They also called for the creation and enshrinement of a Nigerian Commission on the Rights of Minorities and Indigenous People to empower, protect, promote and enforce the rights of minorities.

    The NEMM also wants a declaration that “Nigeria is a traditional society made up of indigenous people with homelands. An indigene is a person who originates from a particular place – homeland. It is tied to ethnicity.

    “There is a difference between a person who is an indigene and the one who is resident in a place. The person who has residency in a place other than his homeland can enjoy the right of citizenship. Since the Nigerian is psychologically and culturally tied to his homeland, he cannot have dual indigeneship.

    “In the Nigerian context, therefore, there is need to distinguish between citizenship and indigeneship in order to offer some minority ethnic nationalities protection in their homelands or they risk extinction in the face of rapid urban migration by the majority ethnic nationalities from their homelands.

    “Today, the indigenes of Onitsha, the Itsekiri of Warri, the Efik of Calabar and Yoruba of Lagos are facing the threat of losing their homelands.”

    Furthermore, the group sought the abolition of the Islamic code (Sharia) in the northern parts of the country, saying religious, family and personal laws are some of the most invasive areas of law that are used by those in authority to intimidate and oppress minorities.

    “Restriction on building of churches in some part of the North should be criminalized because it violates the freedom of the Christians to worship in the North. Freedom of worship and freedom from discrimination on the basis of religion must be guaranteed, protected and practically enforced.

    “The federal, states and local governments should maintain the secularity of the country. They should not be involved in religious affairs, including building of religious schools, mosques and churches as well as sponsoring individuals for hajj and pilgrimage to the Holy Lands. CAN should keep a distance from government leaders and frown on preferential import duties.

    In the same vein, it kicked against proposed grazing reserves in all the 36 states, remarking that the Northern states should be encouraged to re-establish the 417 grazing reserves designated by the then Northern Region in 1965.

    It described the proposal as akin to condoning “systematic genocidal attacks on minority ethnic nationalities in order to compel the National Assembly to legislate setting aside of land taken from farming communities in states for a major ethnic group to bring their kith and kin from all over West Africa to use as grazing corridor.

    Other demands contained in the document included abrogation of the Land Use Act, full implementation of federal character provisions and practice of true federalism with ethnic groups as federating units.

    “Big ethnic nationalities can form a federating unit, while minority land-owning ethnic nationalities can form a federating unit or a state/region with other ethnic nationalities with which they have geographical contiguity.

    “Each state/region or federating unit should control its resources and pay agreed tax to the federation/union.”

    Nevertheless, it suggested that the Union (Federal Government) should be saddled with legislating only on arms, ammunition and explosives; banks, bill of exchange and promissory notes; citizenship, naturalisation and aliens; customs and excise duties and currency, coinage and legal tender.

    Other tasks for the federation include defence, deportation of persons who are not citizens of the union; election into the offices of President and Vice President; external affairs; maritime, shipping and navigation; passports and visas and prisons.

  • Confab: scripts and speculations

    Confab: scripts and speculations

    Reports from committees are confirming that what the conference has achieved at the committee level is largely a reinforcement of the status quo

    It is hard to ask if the national conference is going as scripted. The reason for this difficulty is that nobody is sure about the plan of action scripted by the planners of the conference. In addition, it is not clear if each delegate or group of delegates from the various constituencies had a script before moving to Abuja. But now that the conference has gotten an additional lease from the federal government, it is no longer premature to start worrying about whether it is heading in any direction that can bring any happy change to most parts of the country and to most of the individuals that made the conference possible.

    There have been many variants of the scripts that might have been central to this conference. One popular variant is that President Jonathan set up the conference in order to gain some electioneering advantage over his opponents. Propagators of such narrative claimed that some disgruntled Yoruba politicians were drafted or recruited to prepare the script that served as plan of action for the conference. The hope that drove that script (according to folk commentators)   was to create the loudest sound bite about a national conference billed to re-design Nigeria for success. It would not matter if at the end of the conference, nothing new happened or the unitary political command system from the centre got reinforced.

    Some more uncharitable narrators even said that the ambition behind convening the conference was to galvanise Yoruba voters to vote for the current president who made a national conference that looks more serious and more credible than the last one organised in 2005 by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo. It was also believed that the conference was to just scare political and cultural leaders from the north who are generally expected to be averse to such conference, with the hope of re-assuring them at the end with reinforcement of the status quo. Such managers of grape vines of unverified stories went further to say that delegates even lobbied with everything at their disposal to get a seat for the principal reason of getting some millions of naira as sitting allowance and also getting opportunity to be in the news as co-participants in an elaborate effort to re-launch Nigeria, and with their new media connection, launch their political career under the president’s party after the conference.

    Mischievous public affairs commentators went further to say that the rule made by authors of conference modalities to the effect that majority decision in the absence of a consensus would be 75% of delegates did it knowing very well that this would be unattainable and thus capable of bringing the conference to an end in a fiasco. It was also believed and peddled that the compromise that put majority vote at 70% was not without similar goal: re-affirming the status quo that has hobbled the country and made it an enemy of nation-wide development since 1966.Such storytellers pushed the narrative of conspiracy which claimed that the shift of the conference from being one of representatives of ethnic nationalities to one composed of nominees of various vested interests was an integral part of the design-to-fail character of the conference. It was such conspiracy, according to folk narrators, that silenced the existence of a Minority report by Chief Asemota until such occlusion was no longer possible. Those who felt that the denial of the existence of a Minority report to challenge the Okurounmu report was deliberate are not likely to be surprised at the ease with which members of the Devolution of Power committee tried to block the hearing of Ms. Ankio Briggs’ Minority report that challenged the position given by the committee’s co-chairmen: Victor Attah and Ibrahim Coomassie.

    Many seemingly unpatriotic Nigerians are even saying, at a time that the conference is almost over, that the claim that all Nigerians consulted at the drawing of modalities for the conference clearly recognised the indivisibility or indissolubility of Nigeria was exaggerated and deliberately crafted to make palatable the imposition of the No-go area that has hobbled the conference from its first sitting: taking the territorial unity of Nigeria as a non-negotiable fact, even at a conference that was charged to work out how to make the multiethnicnation-space work for the good of all constituent nationalities. Authors beholden to stories about conspiracy even claimed that erection of No-go area was to tie the hands of delegates at their backs before they were told to run fast towards getting medals for participating in the country’s most reliable conference.

    Now is the time for speculations. Partisan and non-partisan folk commentators are also already at work on what to expect from the conference. Some have affirmed that the no-nonsense stance of the north as its political and cultural leaders claim to be the backbone and strength of Nigeria falls into the pattern of what was expected by designers of the conference. Once the north, the heir to British colonialists and Nigeria’s ‘landlord’ insists that nothing is wrong with the way Nigeria is currently structured and swears loud that no force can change the status of states as mere administrative units while affirming that no constitution in the country accepts regions as federating units, conference delegates would start packing their things to go back home to enjoy their modest allowances for coming, thus confirming the resilience of Nigeria’s culture of political racketeering.

    Reports from committees are confirming that what the conference has achieved at the committee level is largely a reinforcement of the status quo. The nation’s Cassandras see nothing more than the typical Nigeria Factor (of holding something that is false to be also true or vice versa) in the report about a compromise over the matter of Devolution of powers. Specifically, the decision to put oil matters on the Exclusive list but with a window of opportunity for states to have a say in the exploitation, collection of royalty and tax as well as sharing of such revenue is already being pooh-poohed by pundits as an illustration of the lack of proper focus at the committee level.

    Similarly, the report that the committee on law enforcement has recommended that Nigeria is not ready for multi-level police system is being viewed by critics as another manifestation of the power of vested interests in the matter of security. This is despite the fact that the paper presented at the instance of governors from the north accepted the need for a multi-level police system, despite the region’s reactionary position on all other matters. Could it be true that it was not disagreement among regions about having a truly federal police system that led to the committee’s opposition to state police, but the fact that retired police officers on the committee advised committee members against such a move that fear mongers believe to be capable of endangering the country’s unity? Neighbourhood storytellers are already wondering if any serious-minded conference organisers would knowingly put on such important committee individuals who had retired from a police force that had failed characteristically to protect citizens and their property over the years.

    I know that my readers are eager to know my own feelings about what has been going on at the conference, instead of reporting what other public affairs observers have been thinking. Seriously, I believe it is still premature to pass any more critical evaluation than folk commentators have made in their own style. I just believe I should let my readers know what I have been able to collect in terms of folk-life research since the announcement of the Jonathan national conference. I did keep my cool until the end of the Obasanjo conference. I have no reason not to have the same patience this time.

  • Southeast, Southsouth confab delegates revalue strategy

    Southeast and Southsouth delegates at the National Conference met at the weekend to evaluate committee recommendations at the conference.

    The session organised by the Southeast, Southsouth Professionals of Nigeria (SESSPN) also became a restrategising point for the delegates.

    The session may have been informed by the impression that the south may have last grip of the conference to their north counterparts.

    It is believed that north’s delegates have effectively blocked all items listed for deliberation at the committees on which they wanted the status quo to subsist.

    President of SESSPN Mr. Emeka Ugwu-Oju, said providence had given the delegates role to play to reposition the country.

    The delegates, he said, had been placed in a unique position where their actions or inactions will contribute significantly in reshaping or distorting the country.

    Ugwu-Oju noted that 20 years ago, he was a member of a delegation sent to Abuja by the Eastern Nigeria leaders of thought to meet with delegates from the area at the 1994/95 National Constitutional Conference.

    The delegation, he said, was led by the late Senator Emeka Echeruo while the Secretary was the late Senator Tari Sekibo.

    According to him, it was at the conference that the concept of six geo-political zones was born.

    He said it is the wish of many patriotic Nigerians, especially from the Southeast, the Southsouth and the Southwest zones, that the ongoing conference should recommend that the zones become the federating units for a new Nigeria.

    He said SESSPN decided on an interaction to sow the seeds of better communication and understanding among all delegates to enable them to appreciate more the enormity of the assignment placed on their shoulders.

    He said: “Our country is now at a major crossroads. One direction which, from current trends it appears we might inexorably take very soon, is the route to disintegration and dismemberment.

    “The other direction, could lead to the emergence of a new Nigeria that will have a buy-in by most Nigerians, who will then be prepared to make the necessary sacrifices and commitment required to make the country great. We at the SESSPN, have over the past couple of years been interacting with various groups and peoples of Nigeria to ascertain the type of Nigeria that they want and can believe in.”

    Ugwu-Oju said many Nigerians following the activities of the conference, especially the newspaper reports of the committee deliberations, are very distressed about many of the recommendations and “we feel it is our duty and obligation to bring that to your attention.”

    He said many Nigerians see the conference as an act of God that might save the country a very likely catastrophic 2015 general elections, if the country happens to benefit from a restructuring strategy before the elections.

    President, Nigeria American Chamber of Commerce, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, in a paper delivered at the session said the country should return to the original regional political structure to save the country from further drifting.

    The paper entitled “On Aburi we stand” was presented on his behalf by Denzil Kentebe, President Ijaw Professional Association.

    Ohuabunwa noted that where return to original regional structure was not possible, the country should adopt the six geo-political zones structure currently in place.

    Insisting that going back to the original regional structure “is a fundamental step that we must take” he said that it had become obvious that “the current fragile 36 state structure will not work and we need to understand that, no matter our sentiments and attachment to this.”

    He also said that different zones should be allowed to work out their own constitution after which they will re-federate and then evolve a new constitution for the federation.

    He posited that with the arrangement, power will automatically devolve to the federating units which will decide what role and power to give to the centre.

    According to him, “this is how a true federation is organised so that we can restore stability, orderly and sustainable growth.”

    Ohuabunwa lamented that after 54 years of independence, the country has failed to realise its full potential.

    He noted that much of the time, the country has had to deal with one crisis after another, distracting the country from focusing appropriately on sustainable growth and development.

    “Our thinking supported by our findings is that much of these problems have risen because of the structure of the federation where the ‘tail seems to be wagging the dog.’

    “Since 1966, Nigeria has been running an inverted federation, which is very unstable, thereby stirring up several problems which are stifling growth and giving the nation a wrong image,” he said.

  • Confab: Igbo group tasks northern delegates on national unity

    AN Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ndigbo Unity Forum (NUF) has tasked the northern delegates to the ongoing national conference to consider national unity in their agenda. The group, in a communiqué jointly signed by its President and Secretary General Messrs Augustine Chukwudum and Chinedu Onyebuchi, at the end of its annual convention said: “We call on stakeholders and elder statesmen to be careful of utterances that can lead to chaos in the country. We therefore urge northern delegates to the ongoing national conference to discard tribal sentiment and prove to other regions of the federation that the unity of the country is sacrosanct. “A memo circulated by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to the Northern delegates at the conference whose main objective is to work against the agitation for the creation of an additional state for the South-east region. The reasons given by the Northern delegates lack merit because facts have shown that in the United States of America (USA), whose model of democracy we copied, has many states with varying land masses and population.

  • Confab, revenue formula and status of Lagos

    It is no longer news that a selected group of Nigerians are currently in Abuja to discuss salient issues that could probably re-shape the socio, political and economic outlook of the country. Before now, various groups have been agitating for the convocation of a national conference where sensitive issues relating to the union could be freely discussed. Though many have expressed skepticism about the sincerity of the federal government in instituting the conference, others are, however, of the opinion that it offers better prospects for nation building.

    Whatever the position being canvassed, since the conference has started, it is important that delegates and other stakeholders effectively utilise the platform to draw attention to salient aspects of our union that demand urgent attention and restructuring. One of such is revenue allocation.  The current revenue formula favours the federal government as it takes a lion share of 52.68 per cent of allocation from the federation account. The 36 states share 26.72 per cent, while the 774 local government areas take 20.6 per cent. Oil-producing states share 13 per cent in accordance with the principle of derivation.

    However, current realities in the states and local governments, make a review of the current formula imperative.  The states and local governments are the closest to the people. Therefore , delegates to the confab need to really emphasise  fiscal federalism in their deliberations. The federal government should devolve more powers to the states or regions that make up the federation. Equally, some of the items on the exclusive legislative list of the current constitution such as customs, ports, police etc may have to be shed.  For instance, the current trend of insecurity in the country requires state police that would normally be in a better position to curb crime using the community policing model.  How can the governor of a state be held liable for the insecurity being experienced in his domain when the commissioner of police only reports to the Inspector General of Police and not the state governor?

    In the spirit of justice and fairness, we need to reverse the status quo where the federal government holds as much power and influence as it currently does over the revenue sharing formula as well as other critical sectors in the country because it has little to show for it. We need to revert to the practice of true federalism as it is being done in other advanced democracies of the world. Indeed, for us to reduce the pressure and tension associated with governance at the centre, this is the time to tilt towards the evolution of a weak centre with stronger federating units. This is a main feature of a true federation

    Another critical issue which the confab needs to dispassionately consider is that of according a special status to Lagos State. When the seat of federal government was moved from Lagos to Abuja, there was a subsisting agreement that the city would not be abandoned. Indeed, the late General Murtala Muhammed acknowledged the onerous nature of the responsibility of leaving Lagos alone to deal with the burden of infrastructure that the federal government was leaving behind at the time.

    However, successive governments have refused to take a cue from countries which relocated their national capitals without abandoning infrastructural development of the former capitals. It is now time for Nigeria to imitate Germany, Brazil, Malaysia, Australia and Tanzania, which, after relocating their capitals, did not hold back developmental programmes targeted at the former capitals. From 1954 to 1994, the capital of Germany was Bonn. It was moved to Berlin, following the endorsement of the ‘agreement of movement’ which spelt out the responsibilities of German government for the maintenance of the old capital and which it has been meeting conscientiously.

    Also, Brazil moved its capital from Rio-De Janeiro to Brasilia. Till date, all federal roads, buildings and other infrastructure in both cities are maintained simultaneously by the central government.

    Malaysia has also maintained two capitals. Its old capital, Kuala-Lumpur, has been retained as the legislative capital, where the National Assembly operates. Its new capital, Putrajaya, which is the most computerised city in the world, is the administrative capital. In Australia, the old capital, Sidney, still enjoys special recognition. Although Canberra is the new capital, most activities of government, international conferences, party conventions and meetings still hold in the former capital city. The former capital of Tanzania is Dar-es-Salam. When Dodoma became the new capital, the old capital did not suffer neglect.

    The Lagos State government, in the last 12 years, has invested huge amount of money on infrastructural development, especially construction of drainages, durable roads, beautification and restoration of parks to forestall the negative impact of flooding, erosion and other environmental hazards. However, these efforts are not enough for obvious reasons. A recent study reveals that over 25,000 people, from across the world, move into Lagos for various reasons on a daily basis.  The number of heavy duty trucks and other vehicles that ply Lagos roads on a daily basis is quite alarming. Same goes for the number of pupils in its public schools as well as those that daily visit its hospitals. Consequently, the state spends more on infrastructural upgrading and provision of other basic life necessities than any other state in the country.

    The need to accord a special status for Lagos is a non-political project. There is hardly any Nigerian that doesn’t have a stake in Lagos. Lagos’ special position as the commercial nerve-centre of Nigeria, and indeed West Africa, has its peculiar infrastructural challenges. Its sheer human density driven by an increasing population due to endless survival and economic driven immigration, its ports and waterways, its border with Benin Republic, its  high concentration of banks, industries, companies, and other commercial enterprises makes it a very complex state to govern.

    Being the pane through which the whole world views the country, granting a special status to Lagos remains the best possible way to drive Nigeria’s development as it is the country’s most industrialized city with needs that align with its growth.  No nation grows by treating the needs of its golden geese anyhow since the future growth of the country’s economy is tied to the development of the city which hosts over 85 per cent of Nigeria’s industrial hub, over 65 per cent of its financial nucleus and over 75 per cent of its active workforce.

     

    •Ogunbiyi and Ojo are of the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

  • Nwabueze: confab ‘ll be meaningless without legal backing

    Nwabueze: confab ‘ll be meaningless without legal backing

    Foremost constitutional lawyer and senior advocate of Nigerian, Prof Ben Nwabueze (SAN), has said the ongoing National Conference will be meaningless except there is a legal backing that will make its outcome binding on the nation.

    Addressing reporters in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, Prof Nwabueze said the outcome of the conference must become a law for it to have meaning.

    The legal icon was in the state with other members of Igbo Leaders of Thought to congratulate the governor on his election as the Southeast Governors ‘Forum chairman.

    Prof Nwabueze said he was among those who agitated for the conference – with the belief that it was what the people needed to transform the country to a better place for the citizens and visitors.

    The constitutional lawyer said he had explained in his write-ups the type of confab he expected to see.

    According to him, he expects a conference that should “have a legal basis and framework, which must (also) have the competence to be legally binding”.

    The renowned constitutional lawyer said the confab should have the competence to adopt a constitution, which would be a superior law of the land.

    Prof Nwabueze said he advocated this for the conference but was not seeing this happening at the conference.

    He said: “Though what I advocated for is not what is happening, all hope is not lost. It could still be salvaged. This is what I am working on right now, and there are some things Mr President can do to get it right.

    “…If he (Dr Jonathan) does what requires some measure of courage, because of the stand of the National Assembly on the conference, the situation would be salvaged.”

    The constitutional lawyer noted that if President takes the right step on the conference, he would be showing the nation that he has put pressure on the members of the National Assembly to pass the bill into law.

    This, Prof Nwabueze said, would give the outcome of the conference the legal backing it needs to become binding on the people.

    He said the National Assembly could repeal the current constitution, which became a law through Section 9 schedule of Decree 24 of 1999 by making the schedule to disappear and by so doing the constitution would disappear.

    He said once decree 24 is repealed the schedule would disappear with the constitution and once it does that with the legal backing of the national assembly through an executive bill which would have been passed into law, the outcome of the CONFAB will now be the new constitution.

    The senior advocate of Nigeria however warned that making the decree that makes the constitution a law to disappear should be done in a systematic way, “So that the national assembly will not also disappear like the constitution”.

    Prof Nwabueze noted that Section 4 of the constitution gives the national assembly the right to make the constitution to disappear, “As it was done in 1963 instead of waiting for two thirds majority of the national assembly to do that”.

  • ‘Old generation hampers confab’

    Again, the membership of the National Conference has been called to question. A member of the House of Representatives, Dr. Rafiu A. Ibrahim has said the exercise may end up fruitless because there are too many people there who belong to the same generation of people who have determined the fate of the country for years.

    Dr Ibrahim, who represents Ifelodun/Offa/Oyun Federal Constituency, also expressed reservation on the selection of delegates with old people taking the large chunk of the membership.

    He therefore, urged the federal government to correct the anomaly in order tackle the multifaceted problems plaguing the nation.

    The legislator was speaking to reporters in Offa, headquarters of Offa Local Government Area, shortly after his inauguration as honorary President of Mess Committee of the Nigeria Navy School of Health Sciences, Offa.

    He said, “My major reservation is that the confab is skewed towards the old age. They are too many. Spent forces cannot decide on how our tomorrow will be. That’s the only problem. I’m not against the confab, I’m not against the intention. That one will be judged by the outcome. I’m not against about anybody’s opinion there because we are all Nigerians.

    “But if we must talk about tomorrow, somebody that has no take in tomorrow, somebody that has taken a fixation or position on issues, most of them are there. They had already taken position. If you see me and my brother whereby we have thought an idea, by the time he talks to me I change. The same thing for him. If he’s thinking of something and I enlighten him on it, he changes, because we have take in the future.

    “Now, we have so many old people at the confab. So, we hope that they’ll allow the young ones there to be able to have something concrete.

    The intention of the president is good. The people that are there are prominent citizens. But the only thing is that it is skewed towards old age.”

    He pointed that inadequate representation and leadership inequality has been partly responsible for under-development being experienced in all spheres.

    The lawmaker, who is a member of the House Committee on Navy and Appropriation, said he was determined to initiate programmes that would better the lot of the people and called for more support from the people to be able to achieve the lofty dreams.

  • Confab: Delegates’ week of fury

    Deadly attacks by Boko Haram dominated deliberations at the national conference this week, reports Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan

    Following news of the deadly bomb blast at Nyanya and the abduction of 200 girls in Borno State, the ongoing national conference in Abuja was reduced to a chamber of fury and lamentations as delegates took turn to condemn the dastardly acts individually and collectively.

    It was a week when all the female delegates at the talk shop set aside all differences to turn out in black attire as a sign of mourning what they collectively described as an invasion of Nigeria by agents of destruction. School girls, aged between 9 and 12, were allegedly abducted by unknown armed bandits who drove in a convoy of trucks and buses, invaded the school compound, carted away goods from the stores and carried the girls away.

    This was barely 24hours after an explosion allegedly masterminded by the dreaded Boko Haram sect, killed scores of people Monday at a bus station outside the capital, Abuja. Police confirmed that at least 71 people were killed and 124 injured in the early morning blast. But some local media suggested the death toll could be almost 90.

    A female delegate, Aisha Mohammed Sani Ismail, while  condemning in strong terms what has befallen innocent children, whose only crime was to agree to be educated, urged the federal government to move swiftly to secure the release of the innocent kids.

    Another female delegate, Fati Ibrahim, said the conference must look beyond expression of sympathy and the national mourning and take practical steps to ensure that the girls who have been abducted were returned in good condition.

    “Today is not a day for laughing or smiling because we are all bereaved and so we are mourning and that’s why we are in black. We have not gotten over what happened yesterday; this is another one (abduction of female students) happening today.” She added: “Mr. Chairman, I’m so worried about those girls that have been abducted because we have had cases where women were raped. Some of the security agencies have given reports in the past that some of these girls kidnapped in the past were raped. Our hearts are bleeding today.”

    Mosunmola Umoru (youth), said the abducted girls would go through unimaginable pains and trauma, adding that the implication was grave on the country. She queried what the funds budgeted for security had been used for and called for accountability by security agencies.

    Another delegate, Chief Annkio Briggs said: “I speak as a mother, I speak as a woman,” cautioned against bringing religion or ethnicity into the killing issue. She said the Monday bombing at Nyanya motor -park in Abuja did not differentiate between Muslims and Christians or among Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. “This is no longer about politics, it is about the security of the country,” she stressed.

    Reacting to the Abuja bus station blast, Ebele Okeke, representing retired civil servants, suggested that the leadership, including five women, should visit hospitals where the corpses and the injured from the Nyanya bomb blast were taken to. “We can have two groups with the chairman leading one group and the deputy chairman leading the other group. But it is important that we do not just sit here and talk about it but we should empathise with the victims.

    “Also, these children that were kidnapped, we cannot deceive ourselves, they are going to be serially raped; most of them will not survive and those who survive are totally ruined for life,” Okeke said.

    She urged Nigerians to remember the victims and the abducted in their prayers.

    Ramatu Bala Usman raised the question of whether there are no elders in the communities whose citizens have been subjected to suffering and death, adding that as people who are respected by everyone, the elders should be able to identify those behind and those actually perpetrating the ugly development.

    She said if it were possible to identify the people behind the dreaded Maitasine sect in the past, if it were possible to identify aggrieved youths of the Niger Delta and if it were possible to bring the situation under control, if it were possible to identity the OPC members in the west, then why can’t Boko Haram members be identified?

    Another delegate, Mr. Edwin Clark, said it was imperative that the conference send a message to the federal government on the way forward because the country was no longer safe.

    “I think the issue of my son that was kidnapped is very small now. What is happening in Nigeria is a national issue. Nigerians are being killed day by day. We have a duty to look into this issue and not to play politics with it. It is a national calamity,” he said.

    Clark admonished the conference to know that the existence of Nigeria as a nation would depend on what delegates did with the opportunity the national conference had offered them.

    “We have no other country to go to,” he added, “we hear every day; 200 people being killed and we show no concern; we sit down here deliberating, what are we deliberating about? This conference must send a message to the government,” he stressed.

    He went very emotional and suggested that his daily lunch be monetised and the money sent to take care of those who escaped the bomb blast.

    Speaking on Tuesday, Pastor Tunde Bakare, suggested that proceedings at the conference be stood down as a show of solidarity with the victims of the insurgency. He said it must not be said of the conference that while the nation came under siege, delegates were still sitting and talking, showing no concern. But his suggestion, however was stepped down following counter majority opinions.

    Kunle Olajide in his contribution said events of this week must be viewed with serious concern and demanded that politicians should come together for the sake of the nation to salvage the situation. He said categorically: “It is a state of war. Politicians must take politics entirely out of this issue. There are external sponsors who must be identified.”

    His position was supported by Annkio Briggs, who said: “I speak as a mother, I speak as a woman; I speak as a Nigerian. What is happening in Nigeria happens because of what some people, whether inside or outside, have decided will happen.” She said although one part of Nigeria is principally affected by the acts of terror, it was becoming uncertain whether the killings and bombing could still be contained any longer. Briggs made it clear that it was time for Nigerians to come together and decide on what was best for the country because “this is no longer about politics, it is about the security of the country.”

    Dan Nwanyanwu of the Labour Party drew the attention of the delegates to the bomb blast and lamented; “I think there is conspiracy against Nigeria and the Nigerian people; there must be an enemy within.” He urged the conference to immediately react to the incident by urging the necessary security agencies involved in the fight against terrorism to maximise their efforts in the war against terrorism and end the killing of citizens across the country.

    Chief Segun Osoba and Ledum Mitee offered what some members believed were concrete suggestions towards practically resolving the insecurity which most delegates attributed to infiltration of the Nigerian borders by people bent on destabilising the country. Osoba said Nigeria, at present, is in a state of war; and that gradually the economy and the education system in the northern part of the country were being destroyed in a manner that might be difficult to resuscitate.

    He added that immediate closure of the borders between Nigeria and Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republics as an initial step to curb illegal border crossing. He also suggested that instead of closing down the conference, the secretariat should lead a delegation to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and express the position of the conference to him and the government.

    Mitee, who supported Osoba’s submissions, added that at a time like this, dirty political mudslinging and blame-sharing must give way to decent reasoning among political leaders towards finding solutions to the problem.

    It was also his position that in taking advantage of the human resources available at the conference, the issue of security should crisscross all the committees so that committee members can discuss and make suggestions for the final report.

    “This is not the time to grandstand,” he cautioned, “we may have elders but at a time like this, we need statesmen who should rise up and lead the nation out of this mess. This is no time for politics.”

    Retired General Tanko Ayuba from the northwest suggested a complete overhaul of the security system and agreed with the previous speakers that Nigeria’s borders with some countries should be closed because they were too porous.

    In addition, he said modern surveillance equipment should be acquired and mounted across the closed borders. “The time for talk is over. It is now time to act,” he said.