Last week, deliberations at the ongoing National Conference were based on President Goodluck Jonathan’s inaugural speech of March 17. For the most part, the thorny issues which undermine Nigeria’s claim to federalism have been focused on by delegates, this time with greater cohesion than the second week’s. This followed the adoption of a midway, 70 per cent, as the majority required for decision making. On Monday, casting doubts on the sufficiency of the reported N7bn budgeted for the conference as delegates agreed to amend the proposed 20 committees, the conference Vice-Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, said: “We may have to go to government for more funds. If government gives us more funds, we will rent more committee rooms.” The conference began its debate on President Goodluck Jonathan’s inaugural speech, with 39 delegates speaking at the opening of the debate. While a delegate, Dr. Mariam Abdullahi, said Nigeria’s problems would be over if the elite stopped seeing their loss as that of their tribe and region, National Coordinator of the Oodua Peoples Congress, Chief Gani Adams, kicked against subjecting the outcome of the conference to ratification by the National Assembly. On his part, another delegate, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, deplored the previous week’s comment of the Lamido Adamawa, HRH. Muhammadu Mustapha, calling on delegates to mind their utterances, while urging the conference to produce a new constitution which would be acceptable to Nigerians. However, tempers rose on Tuesday as Christian and Muslim faithful debated the alleged dominance of Islam in the 1999 constitution. Two Christian delegates, Bishop of Kafanchan Diocese of Catholic Church, Joseph Bagobiri, and Pastor Emmanuel Bosun (Ogun State), had argued that the Nigerian constitution was skewed in favour of Islam, as it did not have any mention of Christianity or the church, but Islam was repeatedly mentioned. And since Islamic courts have been created, Christians should, they said, be allowed Ecclesiastical Courts to handle Christian-related disputes. But Adamu Aliero, former Kebbi State governor, raised a Point of Order, saying “The speaker on the floor (Pastor Emmanuel Bosun) is bringing issues that are not related to Mr President’s speech. I therefore want the Chairman to call him to order. He is bringing diversionary issues that are very sentimental.” But Prof Akinyemi, himself a Christian and a Yoruba, said Bosun could not be ruled out of order since others had been allowed to speak, pleading that delegates should not offend the sensibilities of other people. However, the delegates did not forget to canvass fiscal federalism. A Federal Government delegate, Senator Mimibariya Amange, argued that a situation where states depended mainly on the Federal Government did not reflect fiscal federalism: “Today, we do not have more than 10 states in Nigeria. The rest are glorified local government areas. If a state cannot generate funds to pay salaries of its workers, how do you call such a state?”. Annkio Briggs, another delegate representing the Federal Government, said the 1999 Constitution was no longer viable considering its many inconsistent provisions. On Wednesday, however, the delegates went very Chinese, calling for capital punishment for corrupt public officials. While pointing out that in 2005 alone, about 450 million US Dollars was reportedly stolen by public office holders in Nigeria, a Benue State delegate, Major-General Geoffrey Ejiga, noted that China had been able to attain its present economic status economic because of its zero-tolerance for corruption: “China publicly hangs corrupt officials and the country is better for it. We can do the same.” Ejiga also urged the conference to provide solutions to the problem faced by the country’s minority groups. Backing Ejiga, former Ebonyi governor and ex-Minister of Education, Dr Sam Egwu, said the problem of Nigeria was the elite conspiracy: “We are running a federal system and yet we do not adopt the tenets of federalism. We have an unfair system but at the roots of all these problems is the Nigerian person,” he said. Also, the Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum and former Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Coomasie (IGP), called for patriotism and good leadership to move the nation forward: “We need to be patriotic and serious. We have already spent 100 years since amalgamation. What we need now is good leadership, which must emerge through transparent and credible elections.” Next, some delegates spoke on the insecurity threatening the corporate existence of the nation, calling for restructuring of the Army, Police and Department of State Security (DSS). While the previous week’s drama was provided by the Lamido of Adamawa, (who threatened to deport himself and his subjects to Cameroon if the southern delegates did not limit themselves to President Jonathan’s speech), this time around, it was a delegate from the South South, Mr J.I Ebinum, who shook the conference with a motion to stop the secretariat from providing lunch for the delegates. Since the motion came just as the delegates were preparing to go for lunch, it was defeated with a resounding “No” when the Chairman of conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, put the matter to vote. Ebinum, who may have been relying on the Yoruba proverb “Ibi ti a ti n toju olokunrun ni a ti n toju ara eni”(A wise person does not forget to take care of himself/herself even while caring for the sick) had hinged his call on the refusal of the caterer handling the feeding project to make enough food available despite several complaints. Indeed, when, lunch over, Kutigi brought the matter up again towards the close of the sitting, former Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Josephine Anenih, declared that the delegates were okay with the arrangement: “For the past two days, we have been eating Chinese food. That was why they are all very happy. Delegates are complaining that the food has not been enough because other workers of the National Judicial Institute, venue of the confab, have been joining in sharing the food meant for only 492 delegates.” Anenih was backed by a delegate from the South West, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, also supported Anenih, but with a caveat: “We don’t want monetisation of the food, but what we are saying is that they should improve on the quality of food being served.” However, Tuesday’s debate on religion still surfaced on Thursday, with some of the delegates urging the Federal Government to expunge religious matters from the Constitution, while others called for the abolition of the 1999 Constitution. Speaking with journalists on the sidelines, Chief Olu Falae, a delegate from the South West, said the National Assembly could not provide Nigerians with an acceptable constitution, adding that the outcome of the confab should only to be subjected to referendum by Nigerians. He said: “I did an exercise sometimes ago and I discovered that less than 100 ethnic groups are represented both in House of Reps and Senate, out of about 400 ethnic groups. From that point of representativeness of the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, the National Assembly is a minority institution unqualified to make a constitution for Nigeria. In any case the President did say that he was arranging for the outcome of this conference to be submitted to the people of Nigeria in a referendum. The people of Nigeria are the sovereign because they elected the members of the national assembly.’’ In all, the third week of the Conference has witnessed very frank and robust debates by delegates across geopolitical divides, but the North/South divide remains over the president’s inaugural speech.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 01:52:36 +0000
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