Restructuring: Who is afraid of national confab?

FOR  some time, there have been hues and cries over the salient issue restructuring Nigeria as contained in the report of the 2014 National Conference. More than ever before, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari seems unconcerned about this. Rather than address this issue of a restructured Nigeria, fighting corruption has been the major preoccupation of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Must Mr. President wait until another strong protest within and outside the country (the type that made him rush back to Nigeria from London after over 100 days sorjourn) hold again before the burning national issue of restructuring could be addressed? Nigerians are not against change but the delight of the populace rests on changes that are realistically changeable and reasonably tackled. President Buhari should not listen to sycophants, neither should he bask in the euphoria that a father of the nation had spoken against restructuring of the country as he stated recently, that to restructure is not the main problem facing Nigeria but things like dishonesty among others. A tree, does not however, make a forest and therefore, a lone voice cannot suppress the consensus aspirations and desires of the Nigerian people.

The Upper Chamber of Nigeria’s legislature, the Senate, onWednesday June 14, 2017, passed a resolution calling for the submission of the final report of the National Conference inaugurated by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014 and submitted to the Federal Government in 2015. Although the Senate seemed to have foot-dragged in calling for the retrieval of the confab report, Nigerians, however, heaved a sigh of relief when the Upper Chamber eventually took the bull by the horns. While Nigerians jubilated at the intervention of the Senate as regards the restructuring desire of the populace, the good gesture of the Senators has become a mission and promise begging for actualisation. It became another bombshell when the Senate threw in the towel, saying it does not support the restructuring of the country. This development, though uncalled for, gives the impression that the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly as well as the House of Representatives, have a common motive of alignment with the Presidency in jeopardising the good work of the National Conference, which could have remedied the prevailing maladies.

It is, however no longer news that several calls, agitations among other steps have continued to be taken by groups as well as individuals, both high and low, persistently to advise President Muhammadu Buhari-Ied administration to revisit the recommendations contained in the report of the National Conference, but every action, to the government at the centre is being taken as un-called for and therefore anti-government change agenda. Mr. President, this is food for thought. Nigerians have patiently or impatiently waited for action to be taken without further delay. Whether Mr. President is at his duty post or on bed rest, Nigerians must not be made the sacrificial lamb for whatever lapses, the President’s health situation is posing presently.

According to the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Abubakar Sa’ad, at a recent National Colloquium held in Abuja: “If restructuring means making things, lives better and much conducive and convenience for Nigerians, then let’s sit and discus it”, pointing out that “many of the groups agitating from the North, West, South-South and South-East have their own points.” No one is asking Mr. President to impose restructuring on the country by fiat as imposition is not what Nigerians are yeaning for, but proper implementation of reports of constitutionally organized institutions like the 2014 National Conference whose composition followed due process in all ramifications. Although the 2014 National Conference was not an elected Constituent Assembly, membership of the body cut across the entire country bringing in who is who in our Nigeria society. They were round pegs in round holes. Inaugurating a new Constituent Assemble may be a colossal waste of both human and material resources. Also at another gathering in Lagos, precisely on Monday 6th March 2017, to mark late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s 108th post humous birthday, many Nigerians who converged on Lagos for that purpose did not fail to re-visit the issue of restructuring Nigeria. The former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, in his remarks about the current situation in the country reportedly said among other things, that “it was indeed certain that the country’s founding fathers, including Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello, among others who fought for the independence from colonial rule would be full of lamentation and disappointment were they to be alive today”. The Ex- Commonwealth Scribe added that “the country has no viable federating units as it was the situation at independence”.

Also speaking in a similar vein, the guest lecturer at the same Obafemi Awolowo Foundation Annual Lecture, Professor Banji Akintoye, may not have been too far from the truth as he remarked that “the gross neglect of individual ethnic rights under the guise of building a central government system as what has been responsible for the decay being witnessed in the country today”. Professor Akintoye, however, warned that “except proper recognition is given to individual ethnic nations, Nigeria is heading for disintegration”, stressing further that “over concentration of powers in the Federal Government is the root of all evils threatening Nigeria.  Except room is given for proper restructuring of Nigeria to have no single tribe’s rights are subsumed by another, Nigeria is heading for disintegration and is piling up more problems for the future”. Our national pledge to Nigeria as our dear native land to be faithful, loyal and honest to serve seems not to hold water any longer. ‘Serving the country with all sincerity of purpose to defend its unity and uphold her honour and glory, to some, is mere lip service, especially by political opportunists whose call obey to build a nation where peace and justice shall reign is a thing of the past which has almost put the labour of our hitherto founding fathers in vain.

In a situation where few anti-people congregate as power brokers, there is that tendency for misfits, especially politicians of unlike minds with different political ideologies to work against people’s call for a Nigeria country devoid of self aggrandizement. The architects of people’s calamities fold their arms, close their eyes and block their ears to daily outbursts by concerned Nigerians that the nation’s fortune is dwindling with riotous looks on the faces of the larger percentage of the populace who are angry, hungry and unprotected.  From the onset, Nigerians seemed unwary of the fusing of all planless converts to be saddled with the responsibility of directing and dictating the pace in governance. The need to re-visit the National Conference is ripe for consideration now by President Muhammad Buhari-led Federal Government.  This issue of restructuring, according to Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has been long overdue. In other words, it should not have become any problematic issue to the country as an advanced nation. Mr. President, should and must therefore obey Nigeria’s call to prevent the ship from hitting the rock as it is already capsizing and almost sinking.

Nigeria and its people should not be sacrificed for political differences as the recommendations of the National Conference and its reports ought to have been allowed to see the light of the day, disregarding the notion that the confab was a wasted exercise and created merely to give job to the boys. With the caliber of Nigerians who constituted the National Conference membership, their deliberations should have been viewed as selfless service to the country as it can also be recalled that the sensitive areas visited by the conference among others included the re-structuring of Nigeria federation. The issue of the confab has been visited with different tunes right and left. Who is therefore afraid of the constitutionally organized National Conference? It may not be far from the truth that the bundles of findings and recommendations of the body are frightening, causing sleepless nights to those at the helm of affairs.

• Adeyemo writes in from Ijanikin, Lagos State.