The Crude Bid To Hijack National Confab

While the conference is currently considering the reports of its committees and taking decisions on them, a document surfaced at the conference entitled “The National Conference 2014: Terms of Agreement of the Six Geo-Political Zones in Nigeria.” This 102-page document presents the maximum demands of the Niger Delta region, which have the hidden support of […]

While the conference is currently considering the reports of its committees and taking decisions on them, a document surfaced at the conference entitled “The National Conference 2014: Terms of Agreement of the Six Geo-Political Zones in Nigeria.” This 102-page document presents the maximum demands of the Niger Delta region, which have the hidden support of the Jonathan presidency, as a consensus agreed to by “leaders” of various regions. It is not an official conference document and has never been tabled at plenary, but some forces have been trading with it behind the scene and are coaxing, cajoling or otherwise enticing conference delegates from other parts of the country to sign on to it.
Hot on the heels of the expose of this document was another report that conference deputy chairman Professor Bolaji Akinyemi is lobbying delegates to empower him to write a whole new constitution for the country which the conference would then adopt. An attempt will then be made thereafter to ram it down the throats of Nigerians through the instrument of a referendum. While there is no provision in the 1999 Constitution to amend the constitution by means of a referendum, another group working in tandem with this one has been making efforts to smuggle such a provision into the National Assembly’s constitution amendment exercise.
The ill intent of the document is evident from its preface which says, “This part contains all the issues already agreed by consensus as harmonized by the Joint Committee. It is presented in a tabular form.” That the conference never agreed on most of these issues has been attested to by many delegates and the secretariat so it is strange indeed that this document would claim that it outlined issues agreed to by consensus.
All the issues it listed as having been agreed to are highly controversial, with wide disparities in regional perceptions of them. In order to ensure that no sections of the country could ride roughshod over others at this conference, it agreed on the rule that decisions should be made by consensus, or where this is not possible, by a 70% majority vote. Almost all the issues listed in the fake document as “agreed to” are unlikely to garner total consensus or even 70% level of support.
For example, the conference’s relevant committee says in its report, which is yet to be tabled at plenary, that the 13 per cent provision as derivation should be retained in view of the fact that a lot more resources are channelled into the oil producing region through other agencies such as the Ministry of Niger Delta, NDDC and contributions to community projects by oil firms. Yet, the fake document states flatly that there is an agreement to increase derivation’s allocation to 50 per cent.
Equally controversially, the document stated that it was agreed by consensus to abolish local governments as the third tier of government and end allocations to them from the Federation Account. This gambit is clearly designed to further reduce funds accruable to the Northern states in particular, which have a majority of the local governments flowing from expansive territory and a larger population, according to official census figures. There is yet another claim in the fake document of an “agreement” to create an additional state in the South East and thereafter create two more states in each geopolitical zone. This gambit is a sop to win over South Eastern delegates to the hidden agenda.
Last week, the effect of this manoeuvre began to bear some fruit when conference’s plenary decisions began to reflect items already included in the fake document. For instance, the National Conference approved by voice vote last week that states should be empowered to form their own police and that local governments should be excluded in the sharing of revenue from the Federation Account. These decisions were controversially approved by voice vote which is against the rules of the conference.
From what everyone said at the angry plenary session last Monday following the exposure of this illegal document, it became clear who the spearheads of this conference hijacking effort were, including a top conference official. Their gambit is not at all a surprise bcause some months ago, President Goodluck Jonathan privately lobbied leaders of some critical sectors of the Nigerian society to support his bid to write a new constitution.
While there is no harm in itself in writing a new constitution, it must be done within the boundaries of decency and legality. The 1999 Constitution is currently the supreme law and it can only be amended or replaced in accordance with its provisions. The main criticism made against the current constitution is that it was prepared and promulgated by a military regime and is not therefore a “we the people” document. If therefore Nigerians desire to have a new constitution, they can always have one provided there is broad agreement on its contents and there is enough political support to meet the stringent rules for constitutional amendment.
This is not what is happening at the moment. A section of the country is trying to use the combined effect of money and incumbent presidential power to write a Constitution for Nigeria that entirely accord to its taste, with a sop to buy the support of another region. This is a recipe for chaos. Those who are championing this agenda should better desist from it before they wreck the national conference and add to the country’s problems. No one can have all he wants in an exercise such as this one. They should sit down in good faith and negotiate with other parts of the country.