The Nation Newspaper

Tag: National conference

  • National Conference’s fissuring tendencies

    National Conference’s fissuring tendencies

    IT is not clear how the chairman of the national conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, will resolve the contentious and foundational issues punctuating confab deliberations, but there is little ambiguity where the conference appears headed, and what kind of rabble-rousing and philippics the delegates are themselves capable of. There will be thunderous reasons for disagreements in the near future, when the conference gets properly underway, but for now, the disagreement centres improbably on the issue of voting method, whether it should be by three-quarter majority as directed by the president when he inaugurated the conference, or by two-thirds majority as constitutional purists thought realistic and reasonable. The choices seem to have hardened roughly along regional lines of North and South, obviously indicating differing political cultures and regional suspicions.

    It may be too early for opponents of the conference to feel justified that their misgivings are beginning to manifest disagreeably, especially considering how stridently they had warned that the conference was both misjudged and mistimed, and President Goodluck Jonathan himself motivated by ignoble and prehensile goals. But given the hardening of views and positions, much of these dating back to the politics and cultures of the First Republic, it is indeed difficult to see signs of amelioration in the immediate future. Justice Kutigi will be hard put to rein in contrasting and conflicting views from the regions, some of which are expressed alarmingly along ethnic, militia and religious lines. Indeed, Justice Kutigi himself was the first to sail near the wind when Tunde Bakare, activist Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly church, took him up on his idiosyncratic manner of lacing his opening remarks with religious invocations. There are no reports of whether the Justice was irritated or whether he took Pastor Bakare’s intervention gamely.

    But it was right after that that the voting method brouhaha broke out, for which the rules of voting whether by consensus, three-quarter or two-thirds proved ironically incapable of resolving. Forty-nine wise men, whom some have dubbed supermen, have been assembled to help cut the Gordian knot, though not without the unhelpful hint by some cynical observers that the ‘wise men’ were united more by their age and jaded ideas than by any endowment of wisdom. Some even went as far as describing the 49 as participant wreckers of the earlier republics. Barometer won’t venture into psychology whether psychology of politics or political psychology. If conference leaders feel the 49 are wise and will deliver on the assignment, Barometer is prepared and willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

    By far the most portentous event in the conference last week, if not quite the most poignant, is the calculated outburst of the Lamido Adamawa, Muhammadu Barkindo Mustafa. Riled by what he saw as the hubristic determination of the South to change what seems a difficult and more embracing three-quarter majority voting method into a more accessible and achievable two-thirds, Dr Mustafa harshly reminded his fellow conferees that if push came to shove, his people would have a soft landing in the neighbouring Cameroun. Some have described this threat as a veiled message from the North, though former Governor of Borno State, Mohammed Goni, in his attempt to underplay Dr Mustapha’s dire statements, argued that achieving consensus in the North over such a weighty matter was problematic. However, the visit to Aso Villa by the Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar III, leading other Muslims to complain of underrepresentation of Muslims in the conference, was truly indicative of underlying fissures both nationally and in the conference.

    The conference is just getting underway. In the coming weeks, it will be obvious that by allowing political, ethnic, religious and social divisions to harden over the decades without serious check, past and present leaders may have engendered a dangerous stalemate capable of triggering a major explosion. It also remains to be seen whether President Jonathan has not unwisely transferred responsibility for defusing this time bomb an act he could have done sensibly and calculatingly to a cacophonous mass of 492 men and women, many of them embittered by past grievances, the frustrations of age, and deep loathing for either the staid conservatism of their northern opponents or the feisty progressivism of their southern enemies.

  • The national conference: things it will talk about and things it will not talk about (3)

    The national conference: things it will talk about and things it will not talk about (3)

    May Allah provide for you so that you can provide for us!
    The ultimate supplication of the almajaris and talakawa of the North to the rich and the powerful. Its origins date back to the precolonial, precapitalist, feudal epoch.

    In this concluding piece in the series that began in this column two weeks ago, perhaps it is best to start the discussion by quoting directly from the concluding sentence of last week’s essay: “At the end of JNC, whether we will have a looser or stronger federation is only one part of the epic drama of the times we are living through now. The more important thing is the fact that our peoples will always have to live together. If we are to live together in peace, justice and equality, what unites our peoples beyond their imagined and real differences must take precedence over what the political elites broker as appeasements to their greed, their megalomania and their bankruptcy.”

    Please make no mistake about it, compatriots, what will emerge from the JNC will, in one form another, be appeasements to the demands of each formation of the power blocs of the ruling elites of the country. Whether what emerges is a stronger or a looser federation, the fundamental thing is that some factions of our elites will feel more satisfied and others will feel considerably dissatisfied and aggrieved. If a reasonably high proportion of our elites feel satisfied, then the status quo of looting and squandermania would have bought some more time for itself. I personally think that this is highly unlikely, but I may be wrong. What is more likely is that a much larger proportion of our political and economic elites will walk away from JNC highly dissatisfied and disgruntled. Why is this the more likely scenario that we will get at the conclusion of the deliberations at JNC? The reason for this is simple in outline but considerably complicated in its substance: we have reached the limit of how much social peace and cohesion can be “bought” by the sharing of power and wealth exclusively amongst the elites, with the concomitant massive exclusion of the vast majority of Nigerians from all parts of the country. That’s it: we have reached the limit; we in fact reached the limit a long time ago of the quotient of tolerable cohesion and social peace that can be bought and prolonged on the basis of the economic and political marginalization of the overwhelming majority of Nigerians through the exclusive sharing of power and wealth among our elites. If that is the profile in its simple outlines, what is the nature of the more complicated substantive dimensions of this conjunctural crisis in which looting, squandermania and patronage peddling can no longer either secure cohesion among our elites or “Pax Nigeriana” in the country as a whole? Allow me to carefully elaborate what this entails.

    As I remarked in last week’s column, long before the peoples and cultures of our country were “amalgamated” by colonial administrative diktat into one country, our peoples had made deep and wide cultural, linguistic and economic exchanges amongst themselves. Incidentally, they had also made wars of conquest and domination against one another. But even through those wars, the exchanges sustaining life and civilized existence continued. From this, I repeat one of the central observations that I made last week: whether at the end of the JNC confab we have a stronger or looser federation, whether or not the crisis of power and wealth sharing among our elites is resolved, our peoples, our societies will always live together in this national and regional patch of the planet as they have done for more than millennium. However, local, regional and global capitalism has massively impacted upon the age-old patterns of economic and cultural exchanges between our peoples. In particular patronage peddling by the elites to the poor and the marginalized as a means of maintaining social cohesion and inter-group peace can no longer work in the epoch of modern regional and global capitalism.

    I do not wish to mince my words on this particular point. Those who among our progressive and radical comrades who denounce the present looting frenzy and wanton squandermania of our political elites as a form of capitalism are not exactly accurate in their denunciation. The kind of looting with utter shamelessness and impunity that characterizes the political economy of our country at the present time is “capitalist” in name only. Capitalism is justly famous and even celebrated by its defenders for creating wealth in vast proportions. Its fundamental flaw is the vastly unequal and exploitative nature of the distribution of wealth generated. Capitalism that squanders wealth and that is fundamentally based not on the generation of more wealth from oil revenues but the sharing and dissipation of the oil revenues as loot is no capitalism. To give a particularly apt illustration of the crucial point I am making here, permit me to briefly explore the profoundly non-capitalistic nature of the use of patronage peddling as the primary means of “sharing” their non-productive, looted wealth with the masses of ordinary Nigerians by our elites. In doing this, I wish to invoke the system and practice of the so-called “trickle down economics” that is the hallmark of the bastions of capitalism at its most conservative and recalcitrant in the sharing of wealth with the majority of workers and the poor in even the richest capitalist countries in the world.

    Trickle down economics is fairly easy to understand, even if admittedly it is extremely difficult to combat. Basically it means through extremely low rates of taxation, through loopholes that favour the rich in the regulation of how wealth is produced and shared, an extremely small minority of the very rich keep the lion’s share of the total wealth produced in a nation’s economy, but making sure that they do not consume the whole of the social surplus, that some fraction does “trickle down” to the majority of the populace. In some cases, 5 to 10% of the population keeps 80 to 85% of the social surplus, of the total wealth produced. At the height of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, the activists and spokespersons of the movement symbolically chose 99% of the population of the United States as the fraction to which 1% of the social surplus “trickles down to”.

    On the surface, the manner in which our economic and political elites keep the lion’s share of our oil wealth while doling out mere pittance to the majority of Nigerians everywhere in the country seems to be another example, another form of “trickle down economics”. The President, the Executive Governors, the Ministers and Commissioners, the Senators and Honourables, the Chairmen and Chairwomen of the local government authorities, they all take their respective jumbo shares of our oil wealth, but pass some of it, a little portion of it, to their constituents, their “people”. The wealth has trickled down, hasn’t it? We are practicing our own brand of trickle down economics, aren’t we?

    No, we are not! For the simple but crushing truth is that in our context, all the wealth, all the oil revenues, are consumed, the small, infinitesimal proportion that goes to the masses of ordinary Nigerians as well as the lion’s share that our elites keep for themselves. Looted, squandered wealth is not real, productive wealth, whether in its bloated incarnation among our elites or in its ridiculously and insultingly small handouts to the masses. In truly capitalist economies and nations where real trickle down economics is practiced, factories don’t close down in their hundreds of thousands because the wealth has been consumed; millions of young school leavers and graduates don’t face mass unemployment and a bleak future because oil wealth is mostly looted and squandered and not put to the production of more wealth, more productive economic activities. No, we are not practicing trickle down economics; what we are practicing is “evaporation economics”: the crude oil turns to oil wealth; and the oil wealth evaporates and vanishes.

    “May Allah provide for you so that you can provide for us”. So goes the epigraph to this piece. We must not judge this supplication that degrades both the giver and the receiver in the light the values and processes of modern capitalism. In pre-capitalist and feudal societies, obligations of the rich to the poor did not generate new wealth but neither did they evaporate the wealth that was produced. But in the age of global capitalism, to continue to distribute the wealth of the country along the lines of this feudal supplication of the poor to the rich is to condemn our country to a long, endless form of “capitalism” that will never generate wealth but only “evaporate” it.

    For those who might think that I am ending this series on a note of an apologia for capitalism, let me reply strongly by saying that that is not the case. Capitalism is not the end of the story in the unfolding of history in our country and our world. And there are various forms of capitalism. The ones that I find the most admirable and the most humane are the social democratic societies and economies of the truly capitalist world. There does not seem to be the ghost of a chance that deliberations at JNC will free us from “evaporation economics” and deliver us to a capitalism that we can begin to work on. So this seems like crying in the wilderness. Sometimes, in a single human life or in the lives of entire communities out of wilderness come new possibilities. More importantly, the true wilderness in our country at the present tine is in JNC and what it represents. If much of what I have written in this series is correct, JNC will fade quickly into the oblivion of history. And we shall continue the search for a country in which all our peoples, all those that constitute the vast majority of the excluded and marginalized will find restitution under a different order of organization of life and its possibilities that does not rest on “evaporation economics.”

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • The national conference: things it will talk about and things it will not talk about (2)

    The national conference: things it will talk about and things it will not talk about (2)

    I concluded last week’s originating piece in this series with the claim that the topic of power and wealth sharing amongst our political elites and between our elites and the masses of Nigerians throughout the country will be the biggest thing that the Jonathan National Conference (JNC) will not talk about. I said, I asserted that JNC will be entirely, perhaps even exclusively dominated by deliberations on power and income sharing among our elites. Of course, I should have added that at the JNC confab, they will not call it power and money sharing amongst the wealthy and the powerful of all ethnic groups and geopolitical zones in the country. No, they will give it other names, other designations. They will call it “fiscal, political and administrative federalism”. They will call it power sharing between the North and the South, between major ethnic groups and minorities. They will call it “rotational presidency”. They will even call it replacement of the 1999 Constitution with a new, more truly “federal” Constitution. But compatriots, don’t be fooled by these fine-sounding appellations: the bottom line, the overriding subject of deliberations at JNC will be how to share power and wealth amongst our elites, to the unanimous and almost complete exclusion of the sharing of power and wealth between our elites and the vast majority of Nigerians from every part of the country.

    My suggestion, my claim in this series is that since they will not talk about this all-important subject at JNC, all truly democratic, patriotic, progressive and fair-minded Nigerians must talk about nothing else during the duration of JNC and even after it has ended. This is not only because it is too important a subject to exclude from conferences and deliberations on the future of our country, but also because in virtually all forms of representative democracy throughout the world, equitable and “civilized” power sharing and wealth and income distribution between elites and the rest of society is the cornerstone, the foundation of good governance, social and economic justice, peace and sustainable development. This means that we cannot talk of one and exclude the other; we must talk simultaneously and substantially about both, power and wealth sharing amongst the elites and between the elites and the rest of society that actually constitutes the demographic and human majority of the country’s citizenry.

    In making this observation or claim so assertively, I have in mind the fact that many progressives, democrats and radical activists are of the view that all fair-minded and patriotic individuals and organizations in our country should completely ignore JNC and have nothing to do with it. I am not unsympathetic to the reasoning behind this stance, this being the largely indisputable fact that Nigerian elites and Nigerian ruling class parties and politicians are, with few exceptions, completely indifferent to the economic and social conditions of deprivation, immiseration and suffering of the majority of Nigerians in every part of the country. But while I readily acknowledge this fact, nonetheless I think it would be a mistake to completely ignore or be indifferent to the deliberations at/of JNC. We must take issue with any and all deliberations on power and wealth sharing among the elites, the purpose being, unambiguously, to show its lack of connection with power and wealth sharing with the vast majority of Nigerians. Let me explain what I mean by this carefully.

    Power sharing and wealth and income distribution among our elites is a subject that massively dominates political discourses in our country, even and especially among the masses of Nigerians who are themselves substantially excluded from the sharing of wealth and power. Which person reading this piece is unaware of the fact that Nigerians of all walks of life, elite and non-elite alike, are obsessed with the sharing of power and high political offices between the North and the South, between “Christians” and “Moslems” and between major ethnic groups and minorities? Who is not aware of the largely unwritten but nonetheless ironclad, nation-wrecking post-civil war “agreement” between politicians of almost all the other ethnic groups that the time is not yet ripe to have an Igbo as the President of Nigeria? Which person reading this piece is not aware of and perhaps not disturbed by the fact that across the length and breadth of the country, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Nigerians, perhaps even millions, are ready to respond to the calls, the mobilization of professional politicians of their ethnic group and religious affiliation to come out and protect the interests of their ethnic group or religious community in the sharing of the country’s wealth and political power? Aren’t we all fearful, perhaps even terrified of what looms ahead of us in the forthcoming elections of 2015 precisely because many politicians have been threatening Armageddon if power does not come to their part of the country? And who is not aware of the fact that outside Nigeria in the wider world, most commentators and analysts see the sharing of political power in our country precisely along these same lines of deep cleavages based on ethnicity, regionalism and religious fanaticism? Indeed, don’t we all know that when the American government, through its State Department or the CIA, makes its periodic prediction on the looming breakup of Nigeria, it bases itself on “tribe”, “region” and “religion” as the ineffable political fault lines?

    But as the late Chinua Achebe, basing himself on an Igbo proverb, used to say, “where one thing stands, another thing will stand beside it”. For side by side with the tendency of the masses of Nigerians to let themselves be mobilized and manipulated along the lines of “tribe”, region and religion, Nigerians also know, they know in their millions that apart from ethnicity, region and religion, they are divided by power and wealth. They know, in every part of the country, that while a few hundreds or thousands have power and wealth, the populace in its millions lack power and wealth, lack the basic necessities of a dignified existence. Nigerians know also in their tens of millions that they are united by the operations of market forces; they know that if the paths of trade and commerce between the different parts of the country are impeded or blocked, people will suffer all over the country. For this numberless masses of Nigerians, it is not the 1914 amalgamation of the North and the South that united Nigeria since most of them have never heard of Lord Lugard; rather, what effectively unites Nigerians is the concrete fact that we trade and do business across the different parts of the country and moreover, have a dominance in economic and commercial relations over the whole of the West Africa region. Finally, the Nigerian masses in all parts of the country have a deep distrust, a deep hatred of the looting frenzy and incurable squandermania of our political rulers and public officeholders.

    Like the CIA and the State Department of the American government, the Jonathan National Conference is only driven by considerations of the things that cause quarrels and disunity among our political elites. In this, they are bolstered by the fact that, as I have remarked earlier in this discussion, they are often able to mobilize and manipulate the passions of the Nigerian masses around ethnicity, region and religion. But if the CIA and the State Department cannot see that Nigerians in their millions are also acutely aware of the things that unite them, things like the forces of the market and their deep anger and resentment of the looting frenzy and squandermania of the political elites, why cannot the JNC see these things? Why are the handpicked delegates to JNC so sure that this time around, as in previous cases, they can exclude from their deliberations these things that unite the masses of ordinary Nigerians in their powerlessness and their faith in the forces of the marketplace? These issues will be the composite starting point in next week’s concluding piece in the series. In concluding this particular essay, let me give a short preview of what I shall be discussing more substantively in next week’s piece.

    Nigerians in all their ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity lived together, traded together and made cultural exchanges together long before British imperial and colonial amalgamation of the North and South administratively “united” the country. [We must not forget that they also made war against one another]. Moreover, Nigerians have been active along trade routes across the whole of West Africa for at least a millennium before modern relations of regional and global capitalism became the dominant framework of national, regional and continental affairs. At the end of JNC, whether we will have a looser or stronger federation is only one part of the epic drama of the times we are living through now. The more important thing is the fact that our peoples will always have to live together. If we are to live together in peace, justice and equality, what unites our peoples beyond their imagined and real differences must take precedence over what the political elites broker as appeasements to their greed, their megalomania and their bankruptcy.

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Magic wand that National Conference is not

    SIR: If there be anything found wanting within the nebulous body of men and women known as the Nigerian leadership class, intelligentsia and indeed, a section of the civil society; idealistic postulations of solutions to the myriad of problems confronting the country, certainly, cannot be one of those failings..

    I have always found it quite farcical seeing a number of Nigerians who lay claim to belonging to the intelligentsia subscribing to a position not popularized or arrived at by any process of critical scientific reasoning but by the bare fact of such position or thinking merely wearing, for instance, a tinge of novelty.

    Let me start from the not-too-long-a-distant past of the heydays of the mad rush for company share acquisition. Even holy sanctuaries of worship were not spared, as lectures on share acquisition almost became part of the liturgy. Then came the tsunami of global meltdown and subsequently, Sanusi’s bank reform which helped to expose the rump of the chicken. Now, we all know better.

    Enter the late President Yar’Adua. At the outset of his administrations, when little was known about the man, many had already gone to town to regale us of how independent minded he was, and it spread like wild fire. Even when the nation almost came to a stand-still, consequent upon the late President’s ill health, a section of the leadership class and the intelligentsia could still afford to regale us with tales that the late president was meticulously studying the situation on ground in order to come up with a lasting panacea. Then, death came calling, exposing the hidden cabals behind the mask. Now, we know better.

    And, now, enter once again, the much acclaimed political elixir called National Conference. While it is conceded that the agitation for National Conference has been with us for some time now, the government of the day suddenly became conscious of the significance and renewed resonance in the agitation as its tenure winds to a close and with that came the imperative of bringing the same body of men and women, the intelligentsia and political class to “brainstorm and fashion out the way forward” for the beloved country, Nigeria.

    While the fact cannot be gainsaid that there is nothing wrong for a people to hold regular talks among themselves in a bid to forge ahead, it is however, worrisome to begin to regard such avenue for discussion as an end in itself and a substitute for action. For whatever National Conference may be worth, it will be quite delusional to think that it is the magic wand we all need to get ourselves out of the systemic decay we have found ourselves.

    Pray, as lofty as the idea of the National Conference may appear in concept, certain questions beg answers: what hope there is in practical terms for honest and workable solutions to emerge from the motley crowd of men and women who got selected through the same well-worn means of leadership selection – the same procedure that has now become our albatross, that our so-called present elected representatives emerged?

    In the unlikely event of workable solutions emerging from the jaw-jaw, who implements the decisions of the participant at the conference? The same present government saddled with the responsibility of implementing the plethora of findings of the numerous panels of inquiry and fact-finding committees whose graves litter the shelves of all the government ministries, departments and agencies in our polity?

    •Chris Edache Agbiti, Esq.,

    Abuja.

  • Our expectations at conference, by delegates

    Our expectations at conference, by delegates

    Fiscal federalism, resource control, regionalism, devolution of powers and state police are likely to top the agenda of the national conference, which was inaugurated yesterday by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    However, many delegates from the North canvassed national unity, cohesion and equity, unlike their counterparts from the South, who clamoured for decentralisation of power and the re-design of the defective federal system.

    The population of the delegate is a blend of old and young politicians, technocrats, traditional rulers and other statesmen. Many old delegates, including former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), who could not stand for a long time or walk alone, were assisted by aides into the National Judicial Institute (NJI) venue. Other aged delegates-Prof. Jibril Aminu, Senator Edwin Clark, and the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Kolapo Gambari-were also accompanied by aides.

    Pro-Jonathan campaigners also invaded the venue, displaying presidential villa badges. One of them, former Bayelsa State Diepreye Alamiyeseigha, displayed the badge copiously as he move round to welcome co-delegates on the accreditation crew. The platform also offered a reunion of sorts for former governors and ministers, who exchanged banters.

    Clark, who spoke with reporters after his accreditation, said that, while he supported the unity of Nigeria, the national understanding can only be fruitful in an atmosphere of equity, fairness and justice.

    The Ijaw leader said that the national conference can only be meaningful, if it can restore true federalism. He added: “The South-south is for true federalism. You can call it resource control. We also need to de-emphasis states and have regions. We need to return to the 1963 constitution. As delegates, we will come up with resolutions that will also end corruption in the country”.

    A retired soldier, Gen. Geoffrey Ejiga from Benue State, said that he would articulate the rights of the minority groups at the conference, adding that the country is incomplete without them. He said: “We should use this opportunity to resolve Nigeria’s problems. Delegates should discuss frankly and with open minds so that we can resolve our basic problems. The constitution should be re-written so that it can satisfy our yearnings. This is my expectation”.

    Ejiga added: “One Nigeria is my agenda. Proper federalism is my goal. I am from Idoma, a minority tribe from Benue State. The minority should be given their rights to rule themselves in a peaceful Nigeria. In those days, we had the Idoma Native Authority, with its police and prisons. Such arrangements will give minorities to express themselves”.

    Former Lagos State Military Governor Raji Rasaki compared military and civilian administrations, saying that democracy is better. But, he said to foster popular rule, there is the need to re-design the federal structure to give room for the defense of peculiar interests.

    Rasaki said that he looked forward to a conference of issues and understanding, where the right decision that can propel Nigeria forward will be taken by delegates. He also spoke on the agenda dear to his mind, saying that regionalism is the answer to the lopsided federalism.

    He stressed: The zones should function well and states can operate under them. The six zones can become the component units. Then, you can change the state to another nomenclature”.

    Akinjide spoke on Nigeria unity, saying that it is non-negotiable.

    Dismissing the insinuation that the conference will be another jamboree, the elder statesman added: “The leadership of the country is committed to this initiative. The report will see the light of the day.”

    The President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Abdulwaheed Omar, said that labour representatives at the conference will canvass the retention of labour matters in the Exclusive Legislative List to prevent untoward hardship in the hands of the governors.

    He also said that the NLC delegates will insist on the unity of Nigeria, adding that it has been the pre-occupation of the labour movement since independence.

    Omar added: “Something good will come out of the conference and Nigeria will move forward. This is a conference with  difference because of the way the delegates were selected. It may not be a perfect selection, but, it is a deeper form of selection and representation. Labour representatives will canvass the unity of Nigeria at the conference. We will also canvass the need for improved security, freedom of expression and the need to review this form of government”.

    The Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Gambari, who spoke with reluctance, avoided the contentious issues, saying that he will only lend his voice on the floor. He supported the move to submit the report of the conference to the National Assembly, pointing out that it is in order.

    The retired jurist added: “Subjecting the report to the National Assembly is in order. The members of the National Assembly were elected”.

    Former Ambassador to Spain, Alhaji Yusuf Mamman, who represents the Arew Consultative Forum, said that the national question would be brought to the front burner. He added: ‘We are here to discuss the contentious issues. I am representing the ACF here”.

    Former Senate President Ken Nnamani said: “True federalism is the minimum outcome expected from this conference”. He lamented the inequality of zones, pointing out that the Southeast has been marginalised in the distribution of states. He added: “The zones should be equal. That is why we are asking for two more states in the South. They have more states in the dry land than where we have vegetation. The Southeast is densely populated. It is not only one state we need more; we need two states”.

    Nnamani dismissed the fear that the National Assembly may tinker with the report, following its submission by the conference. He said: “I don’t think so. The National Assembly will not tinker with it”.

    Former  military governor of Rivers State and Amanayabo of Opobo Kingdom, King Diette Spiff, said: “What we need in Nigeria is true federalism or what you call resource control. We also need to debate this presidential system of government and parliamentary system to know which is better. Our founding fathers practices parliamentary system and there was a role for traditional rulers. We need a House of Chiefs for traditional rulers”.

    A delegate from Ondo State, Prof. Femi Mimiko, said that the sessions may be stormy, adding that truth can emerge from the frank deliberations. The Vice Chancellor of Ondo State University added: “We need to redesign the federal structure so that we can have truefederalism”.

    Former Afenifere Publicity Secretary Mr. Yinka Odumakin said that the conference should be able to make suggestions on how to curb corruption in the country.  He also spoke on the mode of ratification of report, saying that referendum is the best. He added: “the main issue is that federalism has been basterdised and the solution is that we should return to true federalism. There is the need fpr the devolution of power. Unitarism has led to s strong centre to the detriment of the component units”.

    Former House of Representatives Speaker Ghali Naa’ba supported the ratification of report by the National Assembly, which he described as the custodian of sovereignty. He said: “Nigeria did not elect us as delegates. The National Assembly is elected by the people. Therefore, it is good to subject the report to the National Assembly”.

    The Accord Party (AP) leader, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, said that, although he is representing the party, he would articulate the grievances of Oyo State at the conference. He noted the Southwest’s clamour for regionalism, saying that it has limitations. The former governor said: “They are calling for regionalism. Will Ondo State share its oil with Oyo State under Western Nigeria? This is the issue we should look at”.

    However, he reiterated his commitment to the struggle for the creation of Ibadan State, saying that it is long overdue. He added: ‘I don’t think state creation is on the agenda of conference. It is already a constitutional matter. The guidelines are spelt out in the constitution”.

    A delegate from Ogun State, Chief Bisi Adegbuyi, said that there will be stormy sessions at the conference because of the fundamental issues on the front burner. He decried the lopsided federla arrangement, saying that a powerful centre is counter-productive.

    Adegbuyi, a lawyer and politician, said regionalism is the solution to the defective federal system, stressing that it will offer opportunities for self-determination.

    Former Anambra State Governor Chukwiemeka Ezeife called for the equality of zones, adding that it is a factor in national unity. He also said that fiscal federalism should be the irreducible minimum outcome of the conference.

    The former governor objected to the proposed ratification of the report by the National Assembly. He said: “I don’t support the submission of the report of the conference to the National Assembly. The people of Nigeria should receive the report.”

  • The national conference: things it will talk about and things it will not talk about (1)

    The national conference: things it will talk about and things it will not talk about (1)

    Over the last two decades, the calls had been for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC). What has finally emerged is the Jonathan National Conference (JNC). Praise be! Since the JNC is not and can never be the SNC, please don’t bring the expectations of one to the other, the expectations of the SNC to those of the JNC. To clarify what this means, I have outline below the things that the JNC will talk about and the things that it will not talk about.

    Money sharing (or “fiscal federalism” and the principles of resource control and derivation): JNC will talk a lot about how oil wealth should be shared between the three tiers of government – the federal government; the state governments; and the local councils. There will be a lot of quarrelling, a lot of squabbling concerning what proportion of oil revenues should go to each of these three tiers. The oil producing states will argue passionately for an increase above the current 13%; the so-called “core” North will vigorously oppose that demand and will insist that population should be the main criterion of the share that goes to each state and each geopolitical zone of the country; the Southwest and the Southeast will in principle support the criteria of derivation and resource control, but it will be a weak, dithering support. Altogether, there will a significant pressure by most states and geopolitical zones for reduction in the share kept by the center, by the federal government.

    Money sharing as an issue of great importance at JNC will be completely silent on the paltry and insignificant share of our oil wealth that goes to workers, farmers, the poor, the unemployed, old age pensioners and the millions of jobless youths. This is the fundamental cause of economic insecurity and backwardness in our country, but JNC will not talk about it. It will not talk about it for several reasons. First, the great majority of the handpicked delegates to JNC have never shown the slightest awareness of the fact that the poverty and economic insecurity of the overwhelming majority of Nigerians is a problem, a problem of crisis proportions. Secondly, JNC will not talk about it because the delegates are perfectly satisfied with how our oil wealth is currently being shared, that is primarily among the elites with a trickling down of a mere pittance to the masses through patronage. Thirdly and finally, the majority of the handpicked delegates to JNC are so fixated on ethnic nationality and geopolitical zones as the basis of money and power sharing in our country that where they should see concrete, living and suffering human individuals and groups, they see the “tribe”, the geopolitical zone and the religious community as the only valid criteria and agents of negotiation.

    Power sharing (or “political and administrative federalism”): This will almost certainly be the most dominant issue of deliberations at JNC. The effective line of division will be between those who want the present order of a centre that is much stronger than the federating states and zones to continue and those who want considerable devolution of power and responsibilities to the federating units. At the core of this division between what we might designate the “unitarists” and the “federalists” is the presidency itself and the presidential system as compared with the parliamentary system. Jonathan has picked delegates to his JNC with an incontrovertible numerical advantage to the “unitarists” but at the end of the deliberations, concessions will be made to the “federalists”. At any rate, compatriots, expect to hear and read much about a “rotational presidency” at JNC.

    But don’t expect that deliberations on power sharing as a subject at JNC will extend to true and genuine empowerment of the masses of Nigerians. Don’t expect to hear passionate and genuine respect for the rights of free association, of assembly, of rallies and demonstrations to be expressed at JNC. Don’t expect calls for building an active, mobilized and civic-minded populace as an inestimable expression of true democracy at JNC. Least of all should you expect that popular sovereignty, as contrasted with the “sovereign” power and authority of the President and the Executive State Governors, will be articulated at JNC. In the last four decades in our country, both the idea and the practices of popular sovereignty have been massively eroded, first by the run of military autocrats and then by their civilian legatees since 1999. Without exception, all the incumbents of Aso Rock Villa since 1999 have greatly feared any mass gatherings of Nigerians in their hundreds of thousands if and when such gatherings are not for religious revivals or in support of the government or a ruling class party. Without exception, when politicians and ruling class political parties in our country think of and talk about power sharing, they mean, quite unequivocally, power sharing only amongst themselves!

    Will the terribly backward and ever regressing state of education, science and technology in our country be an important topic of deliberations at JNC? Don’t expect it, compatriots! On a per capita basis, Nigeria is one of the most irresponsible, even most delinquent countries in the world when it comes to public spending, public investment in education. If one makes an exception for a few state governors, spending and investment on physical and institutional infrastructures for education, science and technology in our country are abysmally inadequate. In a modern state – any modern state – this is like deliberately committing cultural and economic suicide. There ought to be an inviolable constitutional provision for this, that per capita spending and investment in education, science and technology that is consistent with UNESCO guidelines for developing countries should be enshrined in our Constitution.

    But don’t expect that this will be an important topic of deliberations at JNC. Why not? Well, have any of our rulers, any of our governing elites, shown the slightest concern, not to talk of panic, about the terribly inferior performance rates of secondary school leavers at NECO exams? Have they shown the slightest concern over the fact that Nigerian universities don’t rank high either in Africa itself or in the world at large? Do they have any inkling as to why our university lecturers and professors have not given up but continue to mount protests against this indifference, this neglect – against all the calculated attempts to demonize them and delegitimize their rights of protest and strikes?

    Let there be no doubt about JNC and what it portends. About slightly less than a year ago, Nigeria officially overtook South Africa as the country with the largest economy in Africa. Many economist and technocrats, either of the establishment itself or with an establishmentarian mind, rejoiced mightily over this “achievement”. But deep down and below the surfaces of growth without development, this “achievement” means little or nothing, either for the masses of ordinary Nigerians or for the Nigerian economy itself. For in the main, Nigeria continues to lag far behind South Africa and indeed most countries in Africa in per capita income. Nigerians living below the absolute poverty line still constitute the overwhelming majority of the populace, both in the urban centers and in the rural communities. The percentage of installed capacity for industrial production that is working is still very low as the aggregate cost of production, the aggregate cost of doing business in our country continue to be very high. Against the background of this array indices of growth without development, of the largest economy in the African continent that is also the most skewed and lopsided in its operations, our rulers and ruling class parties are extraordinary in their complacency, their mediocrity, their indifference to the plight of the great majority of Nigerians. JNC, in terms of the relationship between the things it will talk about and the things it will not and cannot talk about, JNC is the expression of this defining complacency of our political elites.

    I do not in the least with to imply that the things JNC will talk about and those things it will not and cannot talk about are unconnected. For instance, power and/or wealth sharing among the elites and between the elites and the generality of Nigerians should be the concern of all true democrats and progressives. Indeed, I contend that we cannot or should not talk of one without talking simultaneously of the other. This observation has concrete, practical implications. Let me briefly spell out some of these implications in a provisional non-concluding end to this essay that will be more fully elaborated in next week’s continuation of the series. In the first place, democrats, progressives and radicals picked by Jonathan for his “national conference” should go there only or precisely to raise issues that JNC will not talk about. It is also okay for some of such progressive and democratic citizens who do not wish to join the JNC confab to decline the invitation, but to do so not in order to retreat into either silence or a jeremiad against the things that JNC will talk about. The great task before us is to show how power and money sharing among the elites connects to power and money sharing between the elites and the vast majority of our peoples. This will be the starting point in next week’s continuation of the series.

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Deaf community demands inclusion in National Confab list

    The deaf community in Nigeria under the umbrella of Voices of The Deaf Coalition has protested their exclusion from the National Conference commencing on Monday, March 17 in Abuja.

    At a press briefing in Lagos on Wednesday, the group lamented that deaf persons in the country have been marginalized since the independence in 1960.

    The Secretary General of the coalition, Adewale Adeyanju said it was unfair that they have been denied the opportunity of participating in the National Conference where all issues pertaining to the present lopsided structure of the country will be tabled and discussed.

    “Out of the six slots allocated to the Disability Community in Nigeria which include the Physically challenged, the spinal cord injury, the deaf and hard of hearing, the intellectually  challenged, the blind or visually challenged and lepers for the conference, nobody is representing the Deaf Community and four of these slots are from the Northern parts of the country.

    “When it comes to position and contribute meaning solutions to the challenges of the country that is when government sideline the deaf and see them as unimportant people, they never honour most of our programs, we don’t know their plans for us”, Adeyanju stated.

    He said if they deaf  are included in the conference they will share equal opportunities, inclusiveness and mainstream that government has been “talking  about so much but found hard to implement.”

    “They will as part of their inalienable human rights, get full information of proceedings by participation, promote sign language interpreters as lingua franca of the deaf will be assured, address issue of marginalization and abuse of the deaf and sundry issue that affects them.

    A lecturer from Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo, Dr Tola Odusanya, who is a member of the coalition, said there are two options to get the deaf community involved in the conference.

    “It is either two of the physically challenged delegates are removed for the deaf persons to take their places or the two deaf persons should be added to the list so that eight disabilities will represent the Disability Community in the country”.

    The Chairperson of the Association in Lagos State, Lukman Agbabiaka pleaded with the government to make necessary amendment in accordance with the call by the deaf community.

    “We are citizen and we have same equal rights with Nigerians in different strata. We want government to help us to ensure that the deaf Community is at the conference for the betterment of the disability Community in the country” he pleaded.

    Agbabiaka warned that unless their request is granted, members of the group will be forced to protest against the commencement of the conference on Monday.

  • FG amends National Conference’ delegates list

    FG amends National Conference’ delegates list

    The Federal Government Thursday carried out some changes to the list of 492 delegates released last week for the proposed National Conference.

    President Goodluck Jonathan is scheduled to inaugurate the three-month national conference next Monday in Abuja.

    A statement by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, while announcing the changes to the list invited former Presidents and Heads of State, leadership of Political Parties, members of the National Assembly, State Governors, members of the Judiciary, members of the Federal Executive Council, members of the Diplomatic Corps, religious leaders and traditional rulers to attend the inauguration ceremony.

    According to him, the number of delegates still remains 492.

    The statement titled ‘Corrigendum on the National Conference Delegates List’ reads: “Following the release of the list of delegates to the National Conference, some updates, changes and adjustments have been effected as follows:”

    On the Elder Statesmen list, Dr. Kunle Olajide from Ekiti State replaces Chief Afe Babalola, SAN.

    For the Traditional Rulers list, His Royal Highness, Alhaji Ibrahim Yaro, the Etsu of Bwari replaces His Royal Highness, Alhaji Ismail Danlami Mohammed, Sarki of Karshi on the request of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria.

    Based on the request of the National Council of Women Societies of Nigeria, Mrs. Millicent Okoronkwo replaces Mrs. Love Ezema Women Group list.

    On the list of Political Parties, the nominations of Chief Chris Ejike Uche and Dr. Sagir Auwal Maidoya to represent APGA were withdrawn to allow the Party resolve the issue of its nominees.

    Amendments were also made on South West Geo-Political Zone under the Socio-Political/Cultural and Ethnic Nationality Groups with Prince Rabiu Oluwa replacing Supo Sonibare and Oba Kehinde Olugbenle replacing Barr. Niyi Akintola, SAN whose name is retained in the Oyo State delegates list.

    For the National Academies list, Professor Layi Erinosho was nominated by the Academy of Social Sciences to fill the one (1) slot allocated to the Academy.

    The statement also said that the former Governors Forum has nominated Alhaji Mohammed Goni from Borno State to fill the slot for the North East Geo-Political Zone under the former Political Office Holders (Former Governors) list.

    It said that the following State Governments have submitted a nominee each to fill the vacant slot in their respective State’s delegates list: Delta State -Chief Isaac O. Jemide, Edo State -Prof. Eddy Erhagbe, Oyo State -Chief (Mrs.) Onikepo Akande, Rivers State -Chief Sampson Agbaru and Yobe State -Engr. Abubakar Buba Galadima all under the State Governments and FCT list.

    Also on the list of delegates are Hon. Wole Oshun, Mr. Ledum Metee, Barr. Mike Ozekhome, Barr. Anthony Akika, Alhaji Sule Iyaji, DIG (Amb) Abdulmumuni M. Abubakar (rtd).

  • ‘Delegates list does not represent Yoruba’s best’

    Some Yoruba groups have decried the Southwest’s delegates’ list to the national conference, saying it’s not the best the region can offer.

    In a statement, representatives of each of the eight groups said the list departed from stakeholders recommendation that the region must send its “First 11” to the conference.

    The groups and their representatives are: Afenifere Renewal Group (Mr. Olawale Oshun); Oodua Foundation (Prof. Banji Akintoye); Oodua Nationalist Coalition (Grp. Capt Adesoji Aderemi (rtd)); Agbekoya Reformed Society (Chief Kunle Oshodi); Oodua Peoples’ Congress (Edward Olusola Ajayi); Atayese (Chief Adekunle Olaiya); Covenant Group (Dr. Kola Afolabi) and Afenifere Youth Forum (Dotun Atilade).

    The statement, titled: “Southwest’s Confab Delegates List: Is this our ‘First 11’?”, described the list published by the Federal Government as a “gathering of the good, the bad and the ugly.”

    It said the controversies trailing the list “suggests that some delegates were forced in against the wish of the people.”

    The statement reads: “While we cannot speak on how delegates from other ethnic nationalities and interest groups emerged, we owe the people a duty to provide some insight about the delegates from the Southwest. Not doing so, in our view, may be misinterpreted as an endorsement of the process.

    “We could have sent our list to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, but we did not. We put the region’s interest above any other consideration to create a united platform that will best serve the aspirations of Yoruba people. “This decision seemed right, considering the advocacy from every quarter that the region must send its “First 11” to the conference. This informed our decision to participate at the Ishara unity meeting and the Grand Yoruba Summit in Ibadan.

    “However, it is difficult for those that masterminded the final list or anyone for that matter to prove that the list truly represents the Yoruba’s ‘First 11.’ The selection process got so convoluted that people who did not expressly endorse the harmonised Yoruba Agenda for 2014 National Conference made the delegates list!

    “This is a worrisome development that gives some credence to the rumour that the delegates might have been selected for other reasons at variance with the plan to restructure the country and find solutions to our problems.

    “Should this conference fail to meet the expectations of our people – which is to attain true federalism – let every Yoruba son and daughter know where the betrayal emerged form. We are still asking ourselves if there is truly an unspoken agenda that the President wants to achieve by convoking this conference and we would wish the answer was negative. But the myriad of controversies trailing the Federal Government’s list suggests that some delegates were forced in against the wish of the people.

    “Certainly, there are some delegates, whose credibility and loyalty to the Yoruba agenda and the pursuit to restructure Nigeria is unwavering. There are also those who are perceived, largely due to their antecedents, as reactionary elements, who would rather want the retention of the status quo. We hope those in the latter category can prove their worth at this conference and put national interest above any parochial interest.

    “However, we would like to remind delegates of Yoruba extraction that the people have set an agenda for the outcome of this conference and it would be in the interest of all that the agenda is pursued and realised.

    “Finally, as a group that is committed to freedom and development of the Yoruba, we shall focus on the opportunities that the conference presents and continue to work and press for the interest of our people at the national conference, believing that delegates, no matter their platform, would see reason to use this opportunity to change the misfortune of the country and put it on a path of development and purposeful governance.”

  • Too many geriatrics, too few 30-50s; Don’t be silent about true Federalism

    Too many geriatrics, too few 30-50s; Don’t be silent about true Federalism

    He come to the crunch with the 2014 Non-Sovereign National Conference. It may have national spread. However the conference delegations from state and federal are uncomfortably and disproportionately filled to overflowing with geriatrics, 70-80 year olds veterans of too many political and military battles. Many were participants and perpetrators of Nigeria’s ‘unity’ problems when they were 30-50years old. Nobody called them youth then.  Now, as ‘elders’, they fill the seats of Nigeria’s current 30-45 years olds who have been demoted from often grey haired ‘adults’ to ‘Youth Leaders’- dancing in Abuja Stadium-mumu. The old should have stepped aside.

    Why, 100 years on, are we still talking about the need not to talk about unity or worry about domination? I am doctor and when patients complain one makes a diagnosis of disease. Nigerians complain of ‘Unhappiness’ at Nigeria’s political, administrative and fiscal systems without equity, justice and the non-recognition and welfare their family and ethnic group. The diagnosis is ‘Malicious False Fiscal and Administrative Federalism’. The international not local prescribed cure is ‘True Federalism’. When and where did the meetings take place that institutionalised these aberrations? Not in Lagos or Enugu. Certainly the widely known ethnic military decisions of yesterday to ruin the South for 40 years are still in the mind-set of politicians yearning to recreate the wicked past after Jonathan leaves. Many have military background and seem still to take orders from military dinosaurs with ethnic agendas. Hence the unhappiness of the people with Nigeria.

    In all sincerity Nigeria’s political and retired military classes must understand that Nigerians are very easy to make happy but no one has tried. No one can force Nigerian to be happy. Happiness comes from love, equity and justice. Nigerians demand those from this conference.

    Pray, what are the issues that unite us and why threaten murder and stoning for those who loudly proclaim that they are unsatisfied by that unity. Perhaps Nigerians are not mere robots but have sensitivities, like human beings and have feelings of oppression, discrimination, truncated achievement, being uncomfortable and uncared for, feel neglected, question the wicked implementation and mal-practice and mis-practice of our ‘unity’ causing disaffection and also administrative and fiscal rape of many different groups? If such boasted ‘unity’ is achieved by a master-servant relationship, who will be happy with such forced unity? If it appears to be a shackling with the iron chains of a militarist constitution questioned by the citizenry what is that unity? Nigeria did not invent unity or federalism.

    It is time to listen carefully to ‘the other’, unhappy citizens crying for simple rules and rights in a normal society and country and nation -equity and justice. What really unites us? Shamefully most will answer ‘football’ If we have to stoop as low as football in our search for uniting factors and the mere fact of amalgamarriage, then we have a clearly recognisable problem –political, administrative, fiscal and social, and not just sports. Amalgamarriage conferred responsibilities to care and share, not rights to overlord-ship of one over the other as has happened. Over the last 50 years who is first at the table of governance? This is the test of unity. Surely ‘True Federalism’ would unite not divide us. ‘Allowing’ a Southerner to head the Federal Capital Territory is symbolic unity but the person should have power. Returning the LGA system to the states to create, administer and fund would unite us. Regionalisation, reducing central power would unite us. A fairer revenue sharing formula would unite us, though some say it is a ‘no go’ area. Why? Nigerians would love to love Nigeria but Nigeria through malicious secret policies slaps Nigerians in return.

    The clamour for ‘True Federalism’ urgently requires your immediate full and personal ‘shout out’ attention. If this opportunity is abandoned on the altar of compromise or slips by, our children will curse us as we cursed our parents for allowing ‘false federalism’ to spread like a cankerworm. Tell the Nigerian world your opinion. Do you feel cheated as a Nigerian by the Nigerian state? Does Abuja belong to all Nigerians? Is Abuja ‘ruled’ in rotation by Nigerians from all ethnic and religious groups in the spirit of ‘True Federalism or a fiefdom? On your expressed opinion depends the future suffering as a slave or the feeling of belonging of your family within Nigeria. Be fully aware that ‘True Federalism’ is life and ‘False Federalism’ is death for the 2014 Non-Sovereign National Conference outcome. Those who strangle us must relinquish their hold now or it will be death for all of us by government ‘False Federalism’ strangulation. Do you hear ‘The Silence’ coming from some quarters of power on the question of ‘True Federalism’? Put the areas that are silent of the clamour for ‘True Federalism’ on a map of Nigeria to see at a glance those ‘False Federalism’ has benefited. The silence is a sign of unfair benefit at the expense of others. We only want to be equal, not better. The permanent practitioners of ‘False Federalism, Fiscal and Administrative have for 50 years enjoyed ‘stolen goods’, eating other peoples share, and leaving them deprived. This conference must address these issues so that all may leave ‘Happy’ with the rights and responsibilities of being a Nigerian in Nigeria!