Indeed! It’s time to talk

President Jonathan announced the constitution of the committee during his nationwide 53rd Independence Day broadcast and once that pronouncement was made, and set against the much talked about “prophesy” that Nigeria would break apart in 2015, citizens it appeared, jumped to the conclusion that the dialogue was in the main, to settle the issue, and […]

President Jonathan announced the constitution of the committee during his nationwide 53rd Independence Day broadcast and once that pronouncement was made, and set against the much talked about “prophesy” that Nigeria would break apart in 2015, citizens it appeared, jumped to the conclusion that the dialogue was in the main, to settle the issue, and finally, the national question of our oneness, once and for all.
From all indications, Nigerians want to talk. There are issues that citizens feel strongly about, that do not seem right, and need to be addressed in all sincerity. In announcing the dialogue Committee, President Goodluck Jonathan revealed that the 13 members would be headed by former Senator Femi Okoruonmu, with Akilu Indabawa, a former PDP youth leader, as secretary. Other members of the committee included former Ambassador to the U.S., Prof. George Obiozor, renowned constitutional law luminary Prof. Ben Nwabueze, articulate former Senator Khairat Gwadabe and Timothy Adudu.
Others are Mr Tony Nyiam, a retired Colonel, and implicated in the Gideon Orkar coup attempt against President Ibrahim Baban-gida, and significant because had the coup succeeded, parts of Northern Nigeria would have effectively been excised from the country. There were included also, Prof. Funke Adebayo, Mairo Amshi, Abubakar Siddique, Buhari Bello, Tony Uranta and Dauda Birma. All the members of the committee are very well known, and much as many of them are linked politically with the Presidency, they have expressed at one time or the other, views on contentious issues that indeed mark them out as nationalists with a clear measure of patriotic zeal. My future appears safe in their hands and one could trust that they would offer to us the dialogue formula, and the membership.
The inclusion of Abu-bakar Siddique, Dauda Birma, and Senator Khairat Gwadabe balances Tony Uranta, Funke Adebayo, Tony Nyam, and Nwabueze, who has unfortunately indicated that he was indisposed to participate. But it is an effort worth a chance. Much as one would wish to resist, there is a genuine clamour for a dialogue on several national issues which in the end could be capsuled into a renegotiation of the terms of being Nigerians and the country existing as a country. So why not, if not?
President Goodluck Jonathan has assured Nigerians that the proposed National Conference will firm up the country’s unity and not threaten its corporate existence. He has allayed the fears of those who think the Conference will call the integrity of Nigeria into question. According to President Jonathan, the National Discourse “will strengthen our union and address issues that are often on the front burner, and are too frequently ignored”.
Yet there were no no-go areas, for which Chairman of the committee, Dr Femi Okoruonmu commended President Jonathan, happy that this opened up for discourse all aspects of our present constitution and national life”. Dr Okoruonmu declared that the conference will aggregate opinions of all Nigerians in order to make the country a better place.
I ask, did it not seem that this dialogue Committee was to look into whether to have one or not, and if yes, the setting of modalities for a national dialogue, specifically, the how and with who?
But I have jitters. Why do I have jitters? For nearly one year now, the nation has watched President Goodluck Jonathan struggle rather unsuccessfully to take control of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, rather like a child building blocks of some complicated structure and exhibiting frustrations at how often times he failed to accomplish his desires and like a wanton boy, scattered his toy bricks for a harder fresh start. The attempt to take control of the Governors’ Forum led to the setting up of the PDP Governors’ Forum in a bid to weaken and gain the upper hand of the uncompromising Amaechi-led one. Now we all agree, the PDP Governors’ Forum is all but useless for his purpose and has equally all but been jettisoned. The Governors Forum is for now split into two, one supported by President Jonathan, unable to legitimize its existence, and the other, on its own, adamantly holding its grounds and for now apparently setting the agenda. Things are definitely not the way President Jonathan would have loved for them to be.
We are presently aware, matters got to a head at the PDP mini Convention where the nation watched again as President Jonathan got from the convention, a result far worse than what he tried to mend. The ruling party split into two with the walk out of the rebelling Governors who added thrust with the clambering aboard of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar weakening dreadfully, what should have been under the control and to the advantage of the incumbent.
There is instability in the ruling party that spells doom for the country given the clear inability of the President to hold things together. In the horizon looms the full entrance of the opposition parties into the fray of the bid for 2015 and we are bound to be awed. Not to forget the lingering security situation in the country, with what seemed a touch-and-go challenge proving embarrassingly impossible. There is also the ASUU strike which could balloon to include other restive unions such as doctors, workers in the power and oil sector.
In the midst of this socio-political rough weather in which we see President Jonathan struggling not only to stabilize the flight  of our nation state, but to land it safely, an added task over which we are certain to have rancorous debate did not seem a wise move. It is alright if a mule adds to its own burden, but not to owners of the perishable goods who must fear that the mule may cave under the weight and the fall would cause irretrievable damage, hence my anxiety.
We must admit that a generation is in place for who the Nigerian project is irrelevant. How do you explain the lopsided poverty index in the country between North and South? For how long would “indigenes” wake up one morning and massacre “non-indigenes” in one’s country? It would certainly pay well were the dialogue handled with more sincerity than we have ever handled anything before.
I worry that President Jonathan has failed to exhibit a capacity to handle the expected rancour, for there will be flack that touches on the fundamentals of our being. If handled the way we have seen of insecurity, administration, and politics, the prescription or even the attempt at diagnosis will prove worse than the disease.