Jonathan and the conference of doom

How Nigerians have become so sceptical about the conference is really baffling. Why are people so afraid about the conference and projecting a bitter outcome? Why are we saying that the President’s intentions for the conference are far from being sincere? Why are people projecting the conference as a conference of doom that is capable […]

How Nigerians have become so sceptical about the conference is really baffling. Why are people so afraid about the conference and projecting a bitter outcome? Why are we saying that the President’s intentions for the conference are far from being sincere? Why are people projecting the conference as a conference of doom that is capable of breaking this country?  All these are baffling in a country that things have stopped working at all.
Let the conference hold no matter what evil intentions are behind its organisation. Obasanjo tried to scuttle the democratic ideals of Nigeria when he came up with the national political reform conference during his time and Nigerians had the feeling that the motive was to elongate his tenure to become a life president. The conference failed to give Obj what he wanted and nobody ever heard anything anymore from the proceedings of the conference.
Nigerians have all along been aggrieved with one another and until lately, Nigerians have been quite patient with one another. Since the time of independence, there had been these ill-feelings amongst the different geo-political sections of the country. People had been defining the coming together of Nigeria in 1914 as a miracle of the British and up to today, there has always been the clamour to part ways by those who have ulterior motives. Some people in the country welcome foreigners who exploit their resources much more than they welcome their brothers and sisters from other sections of the country. Name calling is common, and the North especially is being called a parasite in the federal arrangement because the north is not allowed to exploit its abundant mineral deposits so that it could add meaningfully to the national pot that we (?) all eat from.
People who fear sufferings are already suffering from what they fear, posited one philosopher. Some people are entertaining the fear that the conference might suggest breaking the country and what they have at the back of their minds could not have been anything more than the oil revenue. If anything, the oil revenue has only succeeded in creating super thieves and warlords in the country. How has the oil revenue helped the common people when access to education, healthcare, electricity, security, agriculture, pipe-borne water and all requirements of a better life are denied them?
The percentage of those enjoying and exploiting the oil revenue compared to those that suffer its consequences is minimal. If you think the common people care the least about the oil revenue or even know of anything like its uses, then it is apparent that you are living in an illusion. So if the conference will even suggest states’ control of their resources, that will be welcomed as it may rid us of the super thieves that the oil revenue keeps on creating year in and year out. People steal resources meant for the common people’s welfare in such a magnitude that only senseless, heartless and inhuman characters do. Yet the common people suffer the consequences of the ill-actions of these criminally minded people.
Every meaningful development that has come to the north was a result of agriculture and every curse as a result of the oil that the northern agriculture has paid to explore. So if the conference will address such sensitive issues to let people have exclusive control of their naturally endowed resource deposits, then I strongly welcome the president’s initiative. This will surely help us get rid of future thieves or reduce their number drastically. And it will mean that the available resources lying in waste in the north for quite a long time will be harnessed.
What needs watching is the fact that the president may use the avenue to exploit the outcome to the disadvantage of others. And he will not be the first to try to do that. Matters of the heart should be discussed openly and judiciously. People should be given equal footings to the attendance and equal position in terms of the contributions they are to make. Let the conference address holistically all issues that have been disturbing Nigerians no matter how bad they may sound. It is from hearing people out that solution could be arrived at for their plights.
The Nigerian treasury is as homeless as one can think an economy can ever become. The anti-graft agencies of Nigeria, the EFCC and the ICPC, have become institutions that exist only as policy instruments that the leadership use and misuse. Nigerians await such a time when these agencies could do their statutory work as constitutionally defined devoid of influence from the ogas at the top.
Every looter of the treasury that supports the president’s bid to succession is a hero. If the constitution allows Jonathan another contest, then why not? It is his constitutional rights to do so but I am sure the world over, only in Nigeria will a leader be so care free and still enjoys another day on the throne. The common people do not care who sits on the throne but do care that the ideals of leadership are exhibited by that person.
Nigeria has experienced a civil war in its early years of existence and yet it managed to come out of it and built a system that restored the confidence of the people in one unified Nigeria. Those leading the country today are unaware of the challenges our heroes past went through and that is why they are beclouded by sentiments. Any right thinking person can guess the direction towards which things are moving in Nigeria today and if any leader that has led this country from independence to date has behaved this way, I wonder where the leaders of today will find themselves.
A president who does not give a damn about the reactions of his country people on his policies and actions, the lesson we all should have learnt from him is not to give a damn about what he also does. We have suffered damning consequences from subsequent leaders of Nigeria and we are suffering a more damnable consequence presently. Seriously, I personally don’t give a damn about the outcome of the conference.
Let me say this here now. The fear all of us entertain with this conference is the fact that it may lead to the split of the country into pieces. Germany was once split into east and western Germany and later, the two countries found separate existence unbearable and decided to become one again. The experience they had in separation became a hell of an experience. Recently, Sudan after decades of war opted for a referendum and split into two. Today, both countries are having a bitter experience of their actions. The people of these countries innocently respected the wishes of those they see as their leaders and this fact landed them in the trouble they are in today. The leadership and their families enjoy excessively in absolute state protection and welfare while the followers live dejected lives.
If Nigerians could not learn the lessons of history, well so be it. I am confident that those who entertain the notion of wanting to break Nigeria will be the ones to suffer whatever consequences that may arise.
May God in His infinite mercies rid Nigeria of those who feel their interests are greater than the interests of a corporate Nigeria.
Wabi can be reached at: [email protected]