BAYO'S PERISCOPE

Samuel Bayo ArowolajuWednesday, March 18, 2015
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NIGERIA 2015: THE CHANGE WE NEED (PART III)

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Continued from Part II

"The difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician thinks about the next election while the statesman thinks about the next generation" - James Freeman Clarke

e concluded from the first two parts of this write up that the surest and best road to true unity, peace and development of Nigeria is to allow each group of its indigenous peoples, the full free will to choose who they will want to "associate with either as a people or, and government at least at the regional levels. This may only be limited by observable limits of geographical contiguity��thereby guaranteeing a truly developed, united but diverse people and country though tribes and tongues may differ". We also pointed out that Nigeria's failed attempts at the British and American systems were due in part, to our own structural failures to have superstructure in place, which would have strengthened and sustained our borrowed systems. Thus, the fault is not in our stars but in us all.

Our failures are the results of our lack of planning; whereas, the British and American succeeded because they had built their systems upon solid foundations of planning and forecasts. For instance, we cannot plan for our infrastructures because we don't know how many we are. How can the head of a house feed the house members without knowing how many mouths to provide for? Our population censuses figures have become the most contentious in the world due to corruption and fraud in every attempt to count ourselves. It is for the same reasons we cannot have accurate voters' register, Permanent Voters' Card and conduct free and fair elections. Yet, the systems we copied blindly, always have accurate current and projected population figures including other demographic data.

In the United States of America, Census Questionnaires are mailed to households for head of homes to complete and returned to the Census Bureau. Nobody tell lies about how many they are or they are not because there are no reasons to do just that. Whereas in Nigeria, some regions deliberately inflate their household populations in multiples, while others count heads of cattle, goats, sheep and rams to outnumber other regions. Stories abound of where enumerators are induced to just sit down in one place and write down as many fictitious names as their forms could take. All these fraud and corruption are done with the impunity, and the connivances, inspiration, instigations and encouragements of community leaders, politicians and government officials, who will benefit from the largesse these fictional figures will bring from the national cake.

It defiles logic and good reasoning that people living in very harsh weather and climatic conditions can always have more population figures than those living in very naturally clement and conducive climatic conditions. It is only in Nigeria that this kind of absurdities can happen. And it's only because in fraud and corruption many of us were conceived in our mothers' womb. These are part of the reasons we have been having faulty planning, skewed or lack of development in Nigeria. Those who will correct these kinds of abnormalities and absurdities are the change agents we need in Nigeria today.

On May 1, 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain was created but not without a National Conference with the nationalities of the Wales, Scottish and the English people. This was what culminated into the Treaty of the Union of July 22, 1706 and ratified by the Parliaments of the constituent units in 1707. That is, their amalgamation was not arbitrary but with the consent of members of the Union. The American experience is not lacking of adequate and elaborate process and planning that led the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, such as the Delegate Conferences of 1774 and 1775. In the same way, the American Constitution underwent deliberations in conferences and conventions, metamorphosing from the Articles of Confederation of each constituent or State to the final document which today is the American Constitution of 1787. It is on good record that it has since been the only Constitution, which has become an enduring institution today in American, though with amendments when and where necessary.

Unfortunately the case for Nigeria has been an exception. Until now, Nigerians have never had a National Constitutional Conference since independence. In pre-independence era, we had conferences organize for us, supervised by the colonialists who determined what they wanted for us even if at variance with our collective national interests. The Military in the post-independence Nigeria has performed the same functions as the colonialists. This has been the bane of our problems till today. This is why Nigerians have never had the "Peoples Constitution"

THE PATHS TO THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE

In July 1966, General Yakubu Gowon abrogated the Unification Decree 34 that made Nigeria Unitary System. Gowon restored the Federal nature of Nigeria however defective it might be. This singular act fired up the discussions on the future of Nigerian Federalism. Gowon initiated an Ad Hoc Constitutional Conference which started in Lagos on September 12, 1966 attended by regional delegates. No acceptable federal formula was reached before riots started in the Northern Region, followed by reprisals in the East all of which snowballed into personal differences between Lt. Col. Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Governor of Eastern Region and General Gowon, the Head of State, which quickly rolled into the unfortunate civil war. That was the beginning of the failures of all other post-independence Constitutional Conferences.

General Murtala Muhammed nominated the so-called '49 Wise Men' into a Constituent Assembly inaugurated by General Olusegun Obasanjo after Muhammed's assassination. That gave us the 1979 Constitution and a democratic government in 1979. General Muhammadu Buhari overthrew the government and the constitution in January 1983 and didn't listen to any agitation for constitutional rule before he was also kicked out by General Ibrahim Babangida in 1984. Babangida set up a Political Bureau to prepare Nigeria for democracy. The group came up with thirty nine issues for discussion but the basic and fundamental issues on how we should live together was a 'no go area'. That alone killed the whole agenda before birth in 1989 as it became mere pieces of paper titled Constitution, which didn't really constitute any tangible thing.

Babangida a well-trained infantry officer shelled and destroyed the democratic house he built himself by annulling a democratic election conducted on June 12, 1993; just few hours to announcing the winner. Babangida later set up an Interim National Government (ING), the most confused and ill-conceived political melodrama in Nigeria if not anywhere in the world.

This was how the agitation for a Sovereign National Conference got a big boost especially from the South West. Every national, tribal and ethnic group got interested in the Nigerian political re-engineering that will lead to political reforms, true federalism and resource control; regional autonomy and constitutional redress for marginalization by aggrieved peoples. General Sanni Abacha soon kicked out the infamous Interim National Government and also began his own mockery of National Constitutional Conference which produced another Constitution in August 1995 but became a Military Decree after Abacha's death and the inauguration of a new civilian government on May 29, 199, which was euphemistically, tagged Democracy Day.

Sadly and most unfortunately, the Military fraudulently copied the preamble to the American Constitution, and usurped the Sovereignty of the Nigerian peoples by stating:

"WE THE PEOPLE of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

HAVING firmly and solemnly resolved:

TO LIVE in unity and harmony as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation under God, dedicated to the promotion of inter-African solidarity, world peace, international co-operation and understanding;

AND TO PROVIDE for a Constitution for the purpose of promoting the good government and welfare of all persons in our country, on the principles of freedom, equality and justice, and for the purpose of consolidating the unity of our people;

DO HEREBY MAKE, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES the following Constitution."

This is a very serious case of deception. There were nowhere the peoples of Nigeria firmly and solemnly resolved to live in any particular way or form. Unfortunately there was no freedom, equality and justice for the people. There was no unity to be consolidated, and there was nowhere the people decided to make, enact and give to themselves the constitution. Those issues were considered "No Go Areas" for discussion by the Military who thought they know the best for the country. The whole thing was the making of the Military and their chosen few.

The Bible says: Righteousness Exalts a Nation but sin and corruption bring shame to a people (Proverbs 14:34). Shamefully, the whole superstructure - the constitution of our own nation was built on lies, deceits, corruption and falsehood; and therefore unrighteousness. How then can we be exalted or developed? No wonder we are where we are today and not where we should have been. It is the unrighteousness, which is the foundation of our nation that is not allowing our nation to be exalted. This is why we need to dig deep to the faulty foundation and rebuild the entire structure and not merely changing the laborers. To do this, all the so-called "No Go Areas" must now be revisited and made the head corner stones in a fresh discuss for a new constitution that will usher in a New Nigeria. This is the change we need now.

It will be recalled that General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1994 vociferously called for and supported the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNG) as cited in Part II of this write up. When he had the whole opportunity in the whole world to actualize his dreams, he faltered and chickened out. Instead, a new President Olusegun Obasanjo, who saw himself as the Sovereign convened what he classified as "National Political Reform Conference" in 2005. It was Obasanjo's new wine in an old wine skin. Made in the likeness of Abacha's Constitutional Conference of 1995, it was destined to end up the same way.

The cardinal problem of Nigeria is not only the Constitution. Every constitution the world over, always provide for its own amendment without setting up any jamboree. What we need is the discussion on the corporate existence of Nigeria leading to agreement on how to live together - we need true federalism, regional or state autonomy with power sharing and responsibilities, economic resource management, and all other issues concerning the multinational, multilingual, multicultural and multitribal nature of Nigeria all embodied in the Constitution, which will be the supreme law of the land. These are what were expressed in 1994 by citizen Obasanjo as against what President Obasanjo did in 2005.

Another very interesting development came to play in the Nigerian search for a Sovereign National Conference. In 2005, sensing the failure of the Obasanjo's National Political Reform Conference a group, Pro-National Political Reform Conference Organization (PRONACO) decided to organize an alternate conference. They were trying to mimic what the Civil Societies did in Benin Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo that succeeded in not only changing the constitution but the governments. But Nigeria should not have been compared with countries whose population and complexity are a no match for only Lagos state in Nigeria. The patriotism and honesty of PRONACO or any Civil Society group may never be in doubt, yet, they cannot muster enough legal frameworks for their actions or the outcome of their efforts. They can only contribute as interest groups. It is the job of the Nigerian Ethnic Nationalities.

The latest contributors to the efforts at the convocation of a National Conference was the Committee of Patriots; some respectable distinguished elder-statesmen who called on the National Assembly and the President to hid the call for a National Conference of Ethnic Nationalities to sit, discuss and decide on the ways and means of living together without strife but in peace, unity and development. The Patriots are also on the side of a Nigeria characterized by justice, equality and freedom for all; a country that is governed by a constitution of truly "We the People" since it will derive its authority from the people of Nigeria. Above all, like most us, the Patriots were concerned about what happens in Nigeria after the 2015 elections.

Very unfortunately, in 2012, the Nigerian Senate arrogated Sovereignty to itself through the chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Review. The chairman of the Committee, Victor Ndoma-Egba while inviting 'submission of views', erroneously believed and arrogantly said: "The Committee reiterates the fact that there can be no other sovereignty that can be derived from the Constitution. While the Senate recognizes the right of Nigerians to hold opinions and freely associate, the insistence by certain quarters for Sovereign National Conference is untenable as there can only be one sovereignty".

The Senate and its Committees should take note that Sovereignty in Nigeria does not reside in or with the Senate or the National Assembly or the Constitution as they wrongly believe. It's almost intolerable on my part that a chairman of a Senate Committee on Constitutional Review doesn't know where Sovereignty resides in a State. This is what I learnt in Pol.101 and thought in Elements of Government many decades ago. None of my numerous students can be such intellectually deprived. Then, one wonders, how such a person would have steered his committee of the Senate to success.

By a simple conceptualization or definition of sovereignty, the Senate and no any institution in Nigeria or any other State not even the Constitution is qualified to arrogate or be arrogated with the powers and attributes of a Sovereign. It was the same error of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2005. The Sovereign exercises the power of Sovereignty that commands all obedience from all but never takes obedience from anybody. In simple terms, Sovereignty resides with the people, who should make the Constitution that creates every other institution in the State including the National Assembly, the Presidency and the Supreme Court. That is the source of the slogan: "Power Belongs to the People" but not only in words alone but indeed.

Unfortunately, it is this type of usurpation of peoples' right and power to exercise sovereignty that has made nonsense of all our efforts at making a deserving constitution all these years. Giving the National Assembly the sovereign power over the people is like giving the big cat supervisory powers over a group of rats. By the same token or the same reason(s); the National Assembly has no moral or political rights to decide the content of a constitution that will determine the elections, tenures, powers, functions and remunerations of members. These and many other issues concerning the National Assembly have become very uncomfortable problems of Nigeria today.

As a matter fact, in our opinion, the National Assembly is one of the greatest problems of Nigeria. Information has it that most of the so-called distinguished and honorable members still keep their full time jobs or businesses while still collecting their undeserving humongous salaries and allowances. So, many merely appear on the floor of their chambers only when they have time for relaxation, socializing and sharing money. The power they have, have been so misused and abused only for their selfish ends for allocating immoral and indefensible salaries and allowances to themselves. Their so called oversight powers are used to corner contracts from Ministers and ministries and even by extension to the State and even Local Government levels. No wonder, elections for members of these Assemblies have become a do or die affairs.

Restructuring the National Assembly by seriously reducing their numbers, powers and functions, salaries, and allowances among others is part of the change we need today. It is just been charitable, otherwise one would have described the National Assembly as a waste to the commonwealth, where waste is defined as anything that consumes resources without adding value. The questions therefore might be, what value has individual Nigerians derived from the National Assembly since 1999 compared with the Trillions of Naira in commonwealth that has been spent or wasted on the institution? How many private members' bill has been passed into law since 1999? Their greatest job is approving budgets and appointments but not with empty hands but with 'Ghana Must Go' as 'Brown Envelop' has become too small.

To be continued.

Continued from Part II

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