Femi Okurounmu: His relentless battle for national conference Posted on October 3, 2013. Femi Okurounmu, a former senator was on the 53rd independence anniversary of Nigeria, nominated by President Goodluck Jonathan to lead the 13-member Advisory Committee on National Conference. The committee is expected to establish modalities for a national dialogue, among other things, and submit its report in a month’s time. For Mr. Okurounmu, his choice as chairman of the committee to midwife the conference was a dream that is almost becoming a reality. For a sizable part of his political life, Okurounmu, an Engineer, who represented the Ogun Central Senatorial District on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) between 1999 and 2003, had joined like-minds across the country to agitate for a Sovereign National Conference and later National Conference. On October 13, 1999, barely five months after he was inaugurated senator, Okurounmu moved a motion on the floor of the upper legislative chamber, seeking the convocation of a national conference in the country, to address salient issues. However, despite his superlative lead debate to convince his 108 colleagues, Okurounmu’s motion was roundly defeated. His plan was to get the issue of a national dialogue adopted by the defunct Presidential Committee on the Review of the Constitution set up by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, who himself was one of Okurounmu’s constituents. During the debate, most of the lawmakers expressed the view that the review of the constitution was the exclusive prerogative of the National Assembly. In 2001, Okurounmu served a notice on the Senate about the plan by him and eight other senators to sponsor a fresh motion on the floor of the Senate, seeking the convocation of a national conference. Okurounmu, who was then the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, which was chaired by the current Senate President, David Mark, told his colleagues that not only had the demand for a National Conference become a dominant opinion in the South-East geo-political zone, the agitation of almost all the ethnic nationality unions was the convocation of a conference. He added that in the South-West, the demand for a National Conference was an article of faith, while in the Northern geo-political zones, an increasing number of individuals and groups were beginning to see the wisdom in a national dialogue. He noted that the agitation for a national dialogue had received unreserved support of the second meeting of the Tradition Rulers and Leaders of Thought from the six geo-political zones. On the modalities for the conference, the Senator suggested that it must be based on representative elections, to be conducted on non-party basis, with each delegate representing the smallest practicable constituency unit, subject to the total number of delegates not exceeding 1200. “By this, the delegates will be representing their communities, not their political parties. The smallest practicable constituency unit as per this guideline will be the State House of Assembly constituency unit, and I therefore recommend its use for the purpose of the National Conference elections. “This would give ethnic minorities the greatest possible chance of being suitably represented, since the larger the electorate constituency unit, the greater the possibility of small minorities in such units being disadvantaged. “A delegate from each State House of Assembly constituency unit throughout the country would result in about 1000 delegates, which is not too large a number for a country the size of Nigeria. I also recommend that since delegates from a state are essentially representing that State, the elections in each state should be conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission, SIEC.” On June 12, 2001, on the eight anniversary of the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the debate on Okurounmu notice came up, but its consideration almost led to a rowdy session induced by opponents of a National Conference in the country. His colleagues, notably late Senator Afolabi Olabimtan (AD, Ogun West) made significant, but failed attempt to have it scale through. When the then Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, who is the current SGF, put it to vote on whether the motion should be taken or not, Mr. Olabimtan and other AD senators present in the session, laboured unsuccessfully against striking it out. Although their action indeed demonstrated strong support for Okurounmu, they were overwhelmed by their colleagues who were in the majority and who subsequently shut it down. But Okunrounmu was not deterred. On March 7, 2002, he made another deft move by bringing up, this time, a bill on the issue. It was titled, “An Act to make provisions for convening of a National Conference of the Peoples of Nigeria for purposes of preparing a Constitution for Consideration and Adoption by the People of Nigeria at a Referendum and matters ancillary thereto.” The former senator successfully got the Senate Committee on Rules and Procedure headed by Dalhatu Tafida, the current Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, to list the motion for first reading at the plenary session. Okunrounmu, and many senators, including Olabiyi Durojaiye (Ogun East) and late Mr. Olabimton, voted for it, but again the motion failed to scale through the first reading, even though the senator and his supporters stood courageously behind the bill. The death of the bill was devastating to the pro-conference senator. Regrettably, Okurounmu left the upper legislative chamber in May 2003, after spending four years, without realizing his dream of having the nation to dialogue, no thanks to the stern opposition of most of his colleagues to it. But with Mr Jonathan’s nod to a national dialogue and Okurounmu’s choice as head of the Advisory Committee, the former senator appears set to have the last laugh. It is the hope of many Nigerians including this Newspaper that Okunrounmu delivers according to the expectations of the majority stakeholders and not pander to the wishes of the powers that be. This is an edited version of an analysis by a veteran National Assembly correspondent, Festus Owete for Premium Times.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 15:36:11 +0000
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