LETTER TO CONFERENCE DELEGATES II

Dear Delegates – once again I have cause and occasion to address this esteemed gathering of auspicious importance. It could well be better if those who are still awake can kindly and gently wake up those who are already sleeping, for I am, without pride, sending an important letter to you on behalf of many […]

Dear Delegates – once again I have cause and occasion to address this esteemed gathering of auspicious importance. It could well be better if those who are still awake can kindly and gently wake up those who are already sleeping, for I am, without pride, sending an important letter to you on behalf of many of our people.
We understand that you are now calling for memoranda from the public. This is good, but be very careful lest ‘hidden agenda’ plus ‘public memoranda’ may equal recipe for national hullabaloo. But your call is well taken, and some of us are already ready with our Memos.
Almost exactly two years ago, when the National Assembly announced they had begun final work on amending the 1999 Constitution, this Column submitted a memorandum suggesting far-reaching amendments that would hopefully make this country a much better place. Alas! Two years down the line and up the Dome, nothing of significance has been achieved in the amendment. In fact, it is this abysmal failure to quickly amend the Constitution (and insert, for example, a single term of xyz years) that so frustrated the Executive making them call you to do the exact same thing, and more. Therefore, here is the Peoples’ Memorandum:
SOCIAL SECURITY: Social security must be introduced in this country. In order not to reinvent the wheel, Nigeria can do well to adapt Brazil’s Programa Bolsa Familia, roughly translated as ‘Family Grant’, which was launched in October 2003 as former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s flagship social welfare intervention. The programme provides financial aid to poor and indigent Brazilian families (and payment is made only to MOTHERS, not FATHERS) on condition that the children must attend school, be clean in body and environment, and be vaccinated when due. The programme reduced short-term poverty by direct cash grants, and fought long-term poverty by increasing human capital among the poor. Bolsa Familia reduced poverty in Brazil by 30% during Lula’s first term in government.
PUNISHMENT FOR CORRUPTION: In the whole world, no country can continue to experience the despicable corruption on the scale of Nigeria’s and still survive. We have not finished with fuel subsidy when kerosene subsidy came up, and a ministerial jet flew in. The bane of fighting corruption in Nigeria is in the punishment. As long as people steal and get away with no more than a pat on the wrist, people will continue to steal.  We must adopt the Chinese solution: one looter, one bullet. In China, if you steal a certain amount and you are found out, you are tried, convicted, and shot. All assets are then forfeited to government, and heirs would not even inherit the loot, and will have pay for the government bullet used. Let Five Million Naira theft (or ‘misappropriation’) be the threshold in Nigeria, and amputate the hands of those below that.
PUNISHMENT FOR RAPE: There is a phenomenal rise in rape cases in the nation, especially of minors, many of whom are also killed as collateral wickedness. Death penalty should continue to be applied for wilful taking of a life in any event, and especially in the case of rape and murder, whatever the number of rapists. There should be special tribunals for this despicable crime, with appeal only to the Supreme Court, lest the Western-backed-and-paid human rights lobby delays justice for victims. For rape affecting post-puberty victims, the rapist must be made to forfeit the tool used in committing the crime. In plain language, rapists must be neutered, castrated, eunuch’ed. This can be the only deterrent, a permanent one. And we should all unite and not allow any those busy-body rights groups shout NO! on behalf of their paymasters.
PUNISHMENT FOR KIDNAPPING: The extant law of Edo State concerning kidnapping, which prescribes the death penalty for the crime, should be adapted nationwide. Here, the death penalty should be applied whether the victim survives the kidnapping or not, and whatever the number of kidnappers, remote and immediate. There should also be special tribunals for this despicable crime as in rape, with appeal only to the Supreme Court, lest the Western-backed-and-paid human rights lobby delays justice for victims. Here also, we should all unite and not allow any those busy-body rights groups frustrate us.
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: This should be unicameral, a single chamber to be called The National Assembly. There shall be no Senate and no House of Representatives. Members shall be elected from every one million population, to the nearest million, using the still-relevant 2006 Census. With the current national population estimate of 170 million, there then shall be a National Assembly of 170 members. Members must be real honourable people, gainfully employed (from where they take leave of absence) and they should be reasonably educated. No member should be below forty and no unmarried males (for females, marriage an added advantage). Membership should be a single, unrepeatable term of three years. Thereafter, members return to their places of work. They shall assemble Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and return to their constituencies Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, worship with constituents in the local mosques and churches. Constituency contact shall be part of the legislative calendar. Members should be paid no more than the salary of a Director in the Federal Civil Service, plus transport and accommodation. They can travel abroad once a year, to Mecca or to Jerusalem, not both.
NATIONAL JUDICIARY: There shall be a National Judiciary of honourable people. There shall be no repeat of the trial of the fugitive Dubai-London ex-Governor, or plea-bargains, or trial of The Bankers (six months’ sentences or discharge and acquittal for ‘lack of diligent prosecution’). Any judicial officer found wanting (as in ‘wanting to collect something’) must be shown the way out (as is gratefully being done now by the current Top Judge). When shown the way out, strip them bare – allow no gratuity, no pension, no ‘MON’, let alone add ‘EY’. And people learned in religion, both Muslim and Christian, should be appointed among judges. So are people known and adjudged to be honest. People so appointed can have lawyers as Special Assistants to assist. We shouldn’t be held to ransom by lawyer-types.
NATIONAL PRESIDENCY: There should be a Presidential Council of six really distinguished, honourable members, one from each Geo-Political Zone. Each Member of the Presidential Council shall be elected from within the Zone and sent to the National Capital for a single three-year term. The members’ qualifications shall be a degree higher (no, not MSc) than a member of The National Assembly, and at least 50 years old. Chairmanship of this Council (earning, therefore, the title His Excellency, the President) shall be in rotation alphabetically by Zone (NC, SE, NE, SS, NW, SW) and by region (North, South) for a period of a single six-month term. Should a Member of this exalted Council become otherwise incapacitated, a bye-election shall be held for replacement in the particular Zone. And if by that time the Zone is Mr. President, it will go to the next Zone and return to the bye-electee at the end of the tenure, to conclude their Zonal term. Salary shall be equivalent to a Federal Permanent Secretary.
“Oh God of creation, direct our noble cause…!”