What national conference cannot achieve

President Jonathan’s government is increasingly confused by unfolding developments as it fights on many fronts. The national conference is an attempt to seize the initiative from those the administration considers enemies and change the narrative as 2015 speedily comes into view. The decision of the government to call a conference is an admission that transformation […]

President Jonathan’s government is increasingly confused by unfolding developments as it fights on many fronts. The national conference is an attempt to seize the initiative from those the administration considers enemies and change the narrative as 2015 speedily comes into view. The decision of the government to call a conference is an admission that transformation is a fraud and impossible to achieve under Jonathan. If transformation has been achieved or is succeeding, there wouldn’t be the need for a national conference. The conference is a much needed distraction for Nigerians as they will not be able to hold Jonathan accountable to the uncountable and unfulfillable promises that he made and continues to make.
Get the scales off your eyes kontryman; national conference cannot stop massive oil theft. Oil theft is tolerated by a government that has no qualms with it, a compromised navy and other security agents who look the other way while the country bleeds. During his media chat, the president rather than tell those who asked him what he could do differently to stem this criminal activity actually defended it, saying it was not like it was perceived, and that every “country has its own challenges”. Oil theft is our own insurmountable “challenge” and there is nothing a national conference can do to stamp it out.
National conference cannot stop corrup-tion. Corruption is either promoted or demoted by those who lead. There is absolutely no magic about it; if the leader is not corrupt, the followers cannot be corrupt, and if the leader discovers them to be corrupt, he hands down serious punishment that will discourage others. The Ministers of Justice and Attorney-General of the federation, Muhammed Adoke Bello; Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke; Federal Capital Territory, Bala Muhammed; Niger Delta, Godson Orubebe and Trade and Industry, Olusegun Aganga, all have allegations of corruption hanging on their necks. No national conference can decide their fate, it is the person who appointed them that could do so and he needs not to wait for any conference to do the right thing. Can a national conference stop a cabinet from awarding contracts with inflated figures?  Can such a conference stop a Council of State from accepting recommendations for the pardoning of criminal political godfathers? Indeed, can a national conference achieve something as simple as getting a sitting president to replace those members of his cabinet that he has sacked? Really, if a president cannot constitute or reconstitute a cabinet, what can he do?
The conference cannot remove Mbu Joseph Mbu from his duty post in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, if the president feels otherwise. What happened to the National Assembly resolution that Mbu should be redeployed from Rivers? The continued standoff between governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and Police Commissioner Mbu and his sponsors will have nothing to do with the recommendations of any silly national conference; it has much to do with whether a sitting president can take a wise counsel and act in accordance with his oath of office to serve the country faithfully, without favour or malice, to put national interest over and above personal benefit and be fair to all manner of people.
The national conference cannot make the Hausa man love an Ijaw or an Igbo to love Yoruba or Tiv to love Idoma or Urhobo or an Ibibio to love Annang or decree a single religion for all; it is the leader who by showing love to all and acting justly, giving everyone equal treatment and a sense of belonging, inspires everybody to love everyone. That is what the leader does; he leads, and he needs not to blame others if he fails to lead. The leader is condemned to lead, and if he cannot lead for whatever reason, he quits quickly and reverts to a follower. Was he not a follower before he began to lead?
Seriously, can a national conference eliminate kidnapping and armed robbery or arson or prostitution? Which one of the above can a national conference tackle? But there is an antidote to each of the above; social justice, there is complete absence of social justice in our country. Do you need a conference to be just with your friend, neighbour or co-worker?
You are robbed of your property and sometimes your life at gun point, just as you are robbed of your property and your life at pen point, by someone fully paid by government. There is only one thing that matters; money, and you’d do well to get it, by any means necessary – and so you may have to kidnap. How many people will keep their money and allow their loved ones to remain in captivity, and so you negotiate, not from zero kobo but from seven figures upwards in order to get the kidnapped released.
Which national conference can ban strike, whether it is embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) or Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) or National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) or the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) or NUPENG or PENGASSAN or NURTW? Which conference can force an unwilling government to prevent strikes or end them through faithful negotiations?
What manner of national conference will provide employment for 40 million Nigerians looking for jobs at the moment? Which conference will graduate 70 million Nigerians out of poverty and into the sunshine of dignified living standard? Can a national conference decree jobs for all?
Here is what President Jonathan’s national conference will achieve: nothing. Jonathan’s government is not trusted, it does not inspire confidence, and it lacks the sufficient objectivity to midwife a useful conference. The conference is a conduit to fritter the much needed resources, waste the country’s time and explore an avenue for President Jonathan to stay beyond 2015. The conference is an irrefutable proof of the absence of good governance. Nothing came out of Obasanjo’s conference. This conference, no matter how much it is peopled by sycophants, cannot delay or change the dates of election or swearing in ceremony of elected officials. This conference lacks the capacity to help Jonathan continue in office. This conference cannot disunite the opposition because they are united by the desire to remove Jonathan and the PDP from power in 2015 election.
Is the conference going to provide Nigerians basic things such as clean water, regular supply of electricity, motorable roads, functional hospitals, good schools for their children and the right to live in dignity, irrespective of creed?