In spite of the seemingly convincing argument of those opposed to the National Conference, President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday inaugurated the conference in Abuja. In the next 90 days or so, the over 490 delegates and supporting staff members of the conference will sit down in the calm conference room of the National Judicial Institute, Abuja, to carry out their mandate. In this kind of conference, there will be absentees – those who just came to collect the allowances of the confab or what a friend yesterday described as “loot” – and there will also be those who will be committed to their assigned responsibilities. Expectedly, the socio-political and economic life of the nation’s capital, Abuja, will surely swell in the next three months as a result of the activities of the confab’s delegates and their aides. The many hotels in Abuja will surely smile to the banks on a daily basis; club activities will increase and, of course, the sex workers will get their own share of the loot.
However, as the confab kicks off, there are some noticeable fears among some people from a section of the country. They believe, rightly and wrongly, that the confab was quickly put together by Jonathan’s political strategists to swell support for the president’s 2015 undeclared presidential ambition. Some believe the “illegal conference” – that’s how a regional daily described — was summoned to tear the country apart. For some political reasons, some of these delegates also strongly believe that the confab would, at the end of the day, be a waste of huge financial resources and that, in spite of this, they decided to be part of the “wasteful exercise” in order to witness it.
Surely, some of these fears could be located within the context of our past experiences. Similar conferences had been put together in the past without the desired results. So, this one cannot be an exception, they reason. But there are also those who believe that the call for this confab is timely and appropriate. I have listened to my very good friend, Mr Yinka Odumakin, the national publicity secretary of the Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, who had argued severally that those who are opposed to the confab are the real enemies of this country. He had consistently maintained that strong view and cautioned those who are opposed to the confab because of their 2015 ambition to know that unless the current vexed issues enveloping our nation are settled in 2014, there might not be 2015 for us to struggle for. And I completely agree with him.
I thought by now it would have dawned on some of these emerging social critics, especially many of them in the north, who until recently derived pleasure in condemning President Jonathan as lacking the know-how to deal with security matters anytime the deadly Islamic sect members carried out their offensive and deadly act, that terrorism and security challenges are not a tea party – they are complex matters that require the collective and patriotic efforts of all of us to tackle. I also thought by now many of these overnight saints, most of them now refugees in Abuja because of the fear of Boko Haram, should have realised that what they thought would be a strong political weapon against the ruling party in 2015 is about to consume the entire nation, especially the north, unless urgent steps are taken collectively to stop it.
For me, our extreme anxiety and all manner of dangerous strategies to seize power from Jonathan for now should take a back seat; let’s begin to find out how we can collectively crush the real problems – insecurity, poverty, unemployment and other social malaises – confronting us as a country. My take is that, unless we do that now, there might not be 2015 for us to fight for.
And so, there are so many issues that should engage the attention of the delegates in the next three months. For instance, our party politics has been polluted by ethnic sexism — and this is one of the chief misgivings confronting the advancement of our free-thinking democracy in our nation since our independence in 1960, to the point that ethnic feeling has gradually crept in to find a wide place in every part of our politics. Ask every right-thinking political expert today, he would tell you that ethnic sentiment has been one of the major factors responsible for most of the inefficiencies and low productivity in our country. Again, in one of the researches carried out by a renowned historian in the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof. Abimbola O. Adesoji, it was discovered that, like in many nations of the world over, the “indigene-settler” syndrome in the country is an age-long-problem. Therefore, it is reasonable for us to argue that the qualified peace we have witnessed in our nation till date as well as the attendant socio-political developments could not be wholly separated from our ability to manage relationship among groups, devoid of the over-adoration of indigene-settler differences. Yes, with a few exceptions, this was the situation starting from the colonial era. But, today, the desire by the selfish political elite for power and position, the changing status of natural resources as well as the desire for separate identity, among others, have compounded the crisis. Beyond creating crises with the attendant loss of human and material resources in many parts of our nation, many of which have not been satisfactorily resolved till today, the indigene-settler problem has called to question the basis of citizenship in our nation. And like Prof. Adesoji had asked: “What, for example, makes a Hausa from neighbouring Niger Republic still carrying a Nigerien passport, illegally settled in Katsina five years ago, to be considered as an indigene, while a Nigerian citizen of Igbo origin (born, bred, working and paying tax in Katsina) is treated as a non-indigene? In another instance, take a Yoruba from neighbouring Benin Republic accepted as an indigene of Ota and not so a Nigerian who is Kanuri that was born, educated and pays tax in Ota which is the only home for him /her in the country.” This is one issue the confab must address.
Another issue, I think, that should also attract the attention of the confab is the senseless policy of Federal Character Principle, which was wrongly designed to promote unity in diversity while encouraging accommodation at the federal level, particularly in terms of appointments. But from the several assessments of many experts, the Federal Character Principle today has become a promoter of mediocrity and laziness at the expense of merit, particularly with the abuse that characterized its application in civil service appointments, promotion and admission into schools and so on.
I do not also agree that the question of unity should not be discussed by the delegates. While most of us have elected to live together as one nation, our basis for living together must be clearly defined.
There are other vexed issues and they must be addressed without fear or favour. The delegates should do their work with open minds, set aside dirty politics and fashion out credible ways to deal with the damning crisis starring our nation in the face.
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