Senator flays calls for sovereign national conference
The name “Nigeria” was a result of the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates by Lord Lugard. Professor B. J. Dudley is of the view that “before 1960, Nigeria was merely an arrangement in which fierce unwilling rams looking in different directions were shackled together”. Some people argue that the government of 1914 […]
The name “Nigeria” was a result of the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates by Lord Lugard. Professor B. J. Dudley is of the view that “before 1960, Nigeria was merely an arrangement in which fierce unwilling rams looking in different directions were shackled together”. Some people argue that the government of 1914 did not seek the views and consent of the people before grouping them into one country.
In the Parrot Newspaper, October 12, 1960, Sir Ahmadu Bello said, “The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather, Othman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the north as willing tools and the south as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us and never allow them have control over their future”.
In December, 1964, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe said, “I have one advice to give our politicians. If they have decided to destroy our national unity, then they should summon a round-table conference to decide how our national assets should be divided before they seal their doom by satisfying their lust for office. I make this suggestion because it is better for us and many admirers abroad that we should disintegrate in peace and not in pieces.”
Obafemi Awolowo, in his “Path to Nigerian Freedom”, Faber & Faber London in 1947 stated, “Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no Nigerians in the same sense as there are English Welsh or French.”
On June 13, 2011, some media reported that Chief Ayo Opadokun enjoined President Goodluck Jonathan to convoke a sovereign national conference to enable him address the imbalances in the system.
There may be more serious reasons for a conference today but my puzzle is what kind of conference and at what level? Who shall take part in the conference? The discussion on whether or not to create many countries out of the existing Nigeria may not even be the solution to our ancient and modern challenge.
My experience in Ewu and Igbanke on Tuesday October 23, 2012 on my way to Onitsha revealed to me how limited my freedom is even in my own state, Edo. I was terribly harassed and abused by the so called Local Government Revenue Collectors to the extent that the boys in Igbanke forcefully collected N25, 000 from me and gave me a fake receipt even though I had complete papers for mobile advert from Abuja.
Their colleagues in their next “check point” revealed this to me and took me to the police station to report. The police intervened but the much they could do was to make me write “a statement”. The boys refused to follow the police to the station and abandoned their “check point”.
My questions from this experience are numerous but the most pertinent is why the papers from Abuja cannot be valid in other states. Why must the local governments use thugs to harass innocent travelers in the name of revenue collection? Why do these thugs refuse to take “their suspects” to “their office” to pay this money? Where is the unity of Nigeria in terms of inter-state relationships? Even within the states, to what extent do governors and local government chairmen develop their immediate constituencies?
If a state in Nigeria is for instance created an independent country, will that change the plight of the poor by providing good roads, potable water, electricity, qualitative education and other social amenities? Will that heal the wounded memories and hearts of many people who have been rendered orphans and widows through all forms of violence and abuse? Does speaking the same language necessarily point to unity, dynamic sovereignty and functional structures? Perhaps we can try “intra” state and “inter” state reconciliations in the form of intra-state dialogue and inter-state dialogue.
May I draw the attention of the protagonists of the national sovereign conference to conferences that had taken place in the past! What was the outcome of the Aburi Conference of January 4-5, 1966? Why was this conference held in Ghana? How come this conference could not serve as a proactive measure to stop the civil war that lasted from July 6, 1967 to January 15, 1970?
Perhaps we may draw from the comments posted on the internet by Max Siollum on May 20, 2007 that: “Many do not realize that Nigeria has already had half a dozen constitutional debates – none of which has ever resolved the nagging problems which have dogged Nigeria from independence till today. Nigeria has wasted billions of naira on constitutional debates and constitutions that are no longer in use, and a future sovereign national conference is unlikely to discuss anything that has not already been covered in the previous constitutional debates.
“Ironically the best recorded of these constitutional debates was never implemented and Nigeria has been paying the price since. To plan for the future, Nigeria might do well to go back into its archives and learn from the sovereign national conferences which it has already had.”
From the above reflections, I would like to recommend that what Nigeria needs today is deeper than a national sovereign conference. Some Nigerian youths have been so brainwashed to the extent that any value attached to life has been deflated. Many Nigerians have “sold their heads to buy a cap” to an extent that they are robbed of the capacity for any form of debate in any form of conference.
Therefore some Nigerians of today need mental reengineering and reconstruction of attitudes to life. If some past leaders and elders in Nigeria who have turned themselves into “untouchable” evildoers cease to devour God’s people as if they were eating bread (Psalm 53, 4), apologize to Nigerians in their different regions and call upon God for pardon and forgiveness, the space for dialogue in any conference at different levels will be created in the hearts of the people that have been manipulated for so long.
May God deliver Nigerians from evildoers and save us from bloodthirsty people (Psalm 59, 2). May the present political and religious leaders be ever conscious of the fact that they are responsible to God and the people!
Fr (Prof) Omonokhua is the Director of Mission and Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Abuja and Consultor for the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims (CRRM), Vatican City, Rome