POWER SHIFT - TO WHOSE BENEFIT? Much have been said about the need for power to shift to the North come next general election but who really care about this?. By the internal constitution of the PDP, Late President Yar’ Adua was supposed to be in power until the end of his second term in office which by all account should have been 2015. His life was however cut short due to illness. The main beneficiary of this has been Goodluck Jonathan - the Vice President who succeeded the late President Yar Adua. Not only did Mr Jonathan usurped the remaining part of the Yar’ Adua first term presidency but he also won in his own right. President Jonathan has not made known his intention on whether or not he intends to run for a second term but the speculation is gathering momentum. By the law of the land, there is no restriction on his second term ambition but the only obstacle is the internal arrangement of his own party – the PDP whose Northern contingent seems to be feeling cheated since after all, late President Yar’ adua should still be in office by now. Hence the campaign for power shift. Well, what does it actually meant when they say power must shift? In every government formed at the federal level in Nigeria since independence, there has never been a time or situation where only one tribe or region occupies the seat of government or all the top positions in government. Power at the centre has always been shared. We have always had a government which is representative of all the regions that made up the country. Whenever the president comes from the northern part, the vice president usually comes from the southern part and vice versa. If this has always been the case, then what does the current politicians meant by the term ‘power-shift’ even to the point that some are ready to do anything to achieve this objective. Today, the power shift campaign is tearing apart the PDP and whilst the Boko Haram’s declared aim and objective has been to islamised the whole of Nigeria, their recent utterances and their strategy has shown that it is not unconnected with the power shift campaign. For an organization that declared that its aim is to change Nigeria into an Islamic country but would however like General Buhari to represent them in negotiation with the federal government when there has been no indication of any connection whatsoever between the organisation and General Buhari or that the latter was a sympathizer of the aims and objective of Boko Haram shows that Boko Haram are happy to accept whatever General Buhari decides on their behalf which in turn goes to show that were General Buhari to become the president today, there won’t be the kind of struggle embarked upon by Boko Haram or at least not on this scale. It confirms what some have been saying that Boko Haram’s declared aim was a false pretext and their real intention was to destabilize President Jonathan’s government. Some have even described Boko Haram as the military wing of some northern politicians. If this is the case, this is a great shame because innocent citizens and particularly many southerners have fallen victim of the senseless killings and atrocities of Boko Haram. If it is true that every government formed at the centre have always involved elements from all parts of the country – east, west, north and south, then power have always been shared and therefore the term power shift in the actual sense of the Nigeria context means only one thing - the holding of the position of the president itself and the reason for this do or die fight for the post is not about the benefit that it will bring to the region that hold the presidency. If holding the presidency translates to regional benefits then most streets in the northern part of Nigeria should have been paved with gold by now since majority of past presidents of Nigeria have come from the northern part of Nigeria. Rather what we have are past presidents with vast amount of wealth, much more than their life time salary earnings could ever accounted for. Therefore, the do or die campaign to gain control of the president’s post is a personal fight to gain unrestricted personal access to the country’s wealth. The current set up which was put in place when the original structure that was inherited at independence was abolished by the Aguiyi Ironsi government accords the central government too much powers and control beyond what was agreed at independence. What we had at independence was a system which allows the three main regions a degree of self-governance with each region controlling their resources whilst the powers given to the central government was limited to where they are most needed and would benefit the country as a whole. The new system set in place by the Ironsi government and built upon by successive governments have been the undoing of the Nigeria nation and has only benefited the leaders both military and civilian governments because it allows whoever hold the position of the president an unrestricted access to the nations wealth with little or no control. We all know that the most corrupt level of government in Nigeria is the federal government. Even the Judiciary which should act as a check on the executive lacks the clout and the real power to perform this role whenever it involves the president. The politicians have seen this and would fight tooth and nail to keep the system hence the do or die fight to gain control of the post of the president. Current politicians have been very cunning about this and some have enlisted the support of unsuspecting youths and some gullible and deluded groups in their personal fight for control of the nations wealth. The current government having finally realized that the problem with Nigeria could not be wished away eventually succumbed to the pressure and call for a national conference. Whilst we in Nigerians For Referendum have significant doubt about what such conference can achieve or what those involved will allow it to achieve but we believe that with some fine-tuning of the process together with the effective participation of everyone, we can grab the opportunity accorded us with this announcement and make a real change to this current set up and our nation. We should not forget that there are those who the current set up benefits a lot, these are particularly those politicians that operate at the federal level. These people will do whatever is in their capacity to frustrate the conference and make sure that nothing meaningful will be achieved. They will stop at nothing to make sure that such conference is turned to no more than a talking shop. However, we in the NFR do believe that regional cooperation and large scale participation of the people will scupper any such attempt and ensure that real and meaningful changes are achieved. The question for us all is whether or not we can all sit back and leave the discussion and hence subsequent decisions in the hands of the same politicians who have been benefiting from the current set up to make the real change to this corrupt system or should we sit back and hope that one day things will change. To this end, the NFR is proposing a 4 point plan: A consultation with their constituents by all elected representatives i.e. members of each state house of assemblies, the house of representatives and senators to obtain the views of what their constituents wants. There should not be any restriction on peoples views. Even the future role of the Nigeria military should be discussed. Whatever the views that the people hold, they should be free to express their views and what they want – what kind of country they want, what kind of relationship should exist between the different regions, what structure of government they want both regionally and nationally etc?. Regional assembly should be convened – based on the original 3 regions that we inherited at independence to harmonize – regional views. The elected representatives at the federal level (senators and members of the house of representatives) together with equal number of delegations from each state house of assembly led by the speaker of each state assembly within the particular region should attend the regional assembly to deliberate and vote on the views and agitation of their people. Whatever was then agreed within the regional assemblies should then be put to a referendum of their own people within each region to gain the backing of their electorate. Such decision arrived at will have the full backing and support of the people and will lend credence to whatever proposal(s) being put forward at the national conference. This should form the basis for negotiation at the national conference and will ensure that each region speaks with one voice at the conference since the proposal(s) being put forward at the conference is the aggregate views of their people. After the national conference, a working committee involving the state governors and deputy governors should be formed by each region to work together to find a working arrangement to effect the resolutions agreed upon at the national conference. This arrangement does not need the authorization of the presidency, it is legal and a genuine effort to encourage peoples participation in the political decision making process. It may be that the agreement is a confederation of self-governing regions and/or a rotational presidency with ceremonial powers - whatever was agreed upon, we are civilized enough to make real change to our polity without political upheaval. To find out more about NFR, visit us at: nigeriansforreferendum.co.uk or if you would like to join us, leave your name and contact details at: nigeriansforreferendum@mail or at our website and someone will get back to you. You can also leave your comments on Facebook at: Nigerians For Referendum Folorunso Makinde President NFR Email: nigeriansforreferendum@mail Tel. + 44 - 07574342640
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 08:49:58 +0000
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