How to legislate on confab report

Without being irreverent, may I plead to be excused from indulging in the chorus of adulations and commendations showered on the President for the inaugural address.The President has loudly proclaimed that he has no personal agenda in convening the Conference. I believe him. However, there appears to be a bold agenda set by acts of […]

Without being irreverent, may I plead to be excused from indulging in the chorus of adulations and commendations showered on the President for the inaugural address.
The President has loudly proclaimed that he has no personal agenda in convening the Conference. I believe him.
However, there appears to be a bold agenda set by acts of commission or omission. It is a fact that this conference has been designed not in conformity with popular or democratic indices, contrary to the advice offered by the Okuronmu Committee, It is conceived on a novel and very risky rule of the thumb. Its composition is based on a template of criteria that fly in the face of democratic norms that are universal. I admit that many in this august gathering may not offer their varied and rich experience and expertise if they had to submit to the electoral process. Yet, we should not engage in self-delusion. Given our skewed and undemocratic composition, we cannot claim to remove the blatant lie (we, the people) that has too frequently been pointed out to adorn the preamble to our constitution. Being unelected, this Conference lacks the essential brief or mandate to restructure Nigeria with finality. I join all those who have urged us to accept our limited function as just another dignified presidential advisory committee, albeit enlarged.
Some have argued that even the NASS lacks sufficient popular mandate or credibility.  That it is incapable or less favorably disposed to undertake the demolition or profound reconstruction job which Nigeria critically needs. This is on account of the alleged deep flaws in our electoral system and processes that its members have benefitted from, Need one be reminded that the President is himself the product and beneficiary of the same deeply flawed electoral processes. As such, he cannot claim or be ascribed any more legitimacy than the NASS. Yet we recognize his constitutional powers to convene and have responded to his call to participate in the Conference.
Some delegates have deemed it expedient to question the legitimacy of all the census exercises carried out in Nigeria from 1953 to date as being flawed or unreliable. Query: is that an acceptable reason, by a stroke of the pen, to jettison population as a yardstick for democratic representation and substitute it with a potpourri of tangential criteria built on dubious templates? I shudder to speculate as to what other novel and cute indices will be used to conduct the referendum exercise that has been touted in Mr. President’s address.   
Not a few have canvassed for a return to the 1963 Republican Constitution. I have no problem with that. However, in doing so we should not be selective in picking and choosing what to return to. The last check I made on its provisions reveals, among others, following facts:
1.    Of the 312 constituencies making up the federal parliament, it assigned a greater percentage to the North.
2.    There were four regions headed by Premiers, each having its constitution and headquartered in Kaduna, Enugu, Benin and Ibadan respectively
3.     Sovereignty over territorial waters and ownership of all resources beneath it belonged to the federation, by implication to all federating units, and not to littoral areas.
4.    The regional constitution, for instance, enabled Kano Province to run its schools efficiently, tax and spend. It empowered Borno province to establish its Native Police who ensured law and order.
To ensure that the outcome of this Conference does not suffer same fate as similar exercises in the past, I propose the following measures:
1.    Conference must draw up a very clear road map that spells out the necessary legal and institutional frameworks to guide the implementation of its resolutions.
2.    A dedicated Committee of the Conference should be established to attend to this from the onset.
3.    All conference resolutions requiring legal and constitutional expressions must be carried out in accordance with the 1999 constitution and extant statutory provisions.
4.    Conference must propose draft legislations for enactment and implementation by the NASS.
5.    Policy proposals and options should go to the Executive arm.