The Senate President, David Bonaventure Mark, is a man known for not shying away from facts of the matter, when he is convinced and, it seems on this issue of the National Conference, he is now convinced and supports the idea for the convocation of Nigerian ethnic, professional, religious groups, to come together and decide on how they can continue to stay in Nigeria for peace, unity, justice and development to reign. This has been the call by many progressives in the social, economic and political rights movement since the 1990s. That, there is everything wrong with Nigeria’s social/political development and, it is better and secure for us to meet at a round, square or triangular table to talk and agree on the way Nigeria and Nigerians live together rather, than allowing our children to shoot the guns tomorrow.
Since the unfaithful fusing of Nigeria in 1914, there has been the question of identity, citizenship rights in Nigeria. The citizenship question has been abused and debased often by our leaders and their subjects. It is still happening till date, the former Governor of Enugu State, Mr. Chimaraoke Nnamani, during his tenure as the governor, sacked all non-indigenes of the state from the state’s civil service with no justifiable reason other than that they were not from Enugu State. This ugly incident was repeated in Abia State by Gov. Theodore Orji, who sacked non-indigene civil servants. And, most recently it was heightened by Gov. Raji Fashola, who deported fellow Nigerians from Lagos to Onitsha, Anambra State, where he dumped them. In all these, no reactions from the Federal Government warning the states to desist from such unconstitutional and provocative acts or face sanctions.
These acts by government powers in the states has further made me to be convinced that indeed Nigeria need to go to the negotiation table, we really are supposed to talk, dialogue on how we can continue to co-exist as one people, one nation. We cannot continue to deceive ourselves and plunge our children into future crisis. We are obviously very far from the attainment of unity. There is every sense in convoking a national conference now to enable us talk on how we can save this country from anarchy and doom. Few years back, the Niger Delta area was a no go place due to the insurgent of the boys from that enclave fighting against the injustice meted out to them by the Federal Government. It took the intervention of our late President, Umar Yar’Adua, to engage the boys to lay down their arms.
Now, some religious fanatics in some parts of the north, in the name of Boko Haram, have made peace and development extremely difficult in that part of the region. Although, they lay claim to religion but, many political analysts have said that there demands, operational targets are more of political. We do not know where the pendulum will swing next but, these are all signs that the country is troubled. These were the signs we experienced before Nigeria went into the 30 month civil war, 1967 – 1970. Many countries in the world has gone through such conferences to settle their differences for the sake of unity, socio-economic development of there country. We must do same here to enable us secure a nation built on justice and fairness to all. As long as we deny ourselves of the basic foundation of democracy, unity will continue to elude us thereby, denying us of security, political development and socio-economic growth.
There are no strong pillars holding this building – Nigeria, this is the simple truth. A situation where one group sees itself as superior to others is not healthy for the development of this country. There is no justice in Nigeria, the real reason we are going through social, economic and political quagmire. We must seek for the strong pillars that would continue to hold this structure and, the only way for me, is to have a national dialogue. Those, against the national conference, do not in my mind understand Nigeria’s political history wahala, and, I urge them to study our political development beginning from 1914 or possibly earlier than this. It is only people without the interest of their country at heart that would not look for solution of their problems peacefully. Jaw-jaw is an option left for Nigeria’s continued co-existence.
The conference is a call to a new era of relentless pursuit of reconstruction and national rebirth. It is for us as a country to live in harmony, mutual respect for all. President Goodluck Jonathan should be encouraged to convene the conference as it is the only avenue for us to strengthen Nigeria and make it play its deserving role in Africa and the rest of the world. This conference if held in good faith will produce a new kind of leaders with a sound sense of focus to direct the way forward, avoiding buck passing to addressing real national issues. However, if the right structures, leaders for the conference are not in place for the conference then, it will become a regrettable conference after all.
It is on this note that the President must not agree to approve any financial support for the conference to hold. The ethnic nationalities, religious and other groups that would be assembled for the conference are financially buoyant to sponsor their members. This is also a way to remove any financial gains at the conference, seek seriousness of purpose at the talk and reduce government undue interference or influence on members of the conference.
Nigeria has just marked its 53rd independent anniversary, yet, it is not uhuru. The road to where we are has been unsteady, rough, and painful. There were killings of thousands of non-indigenes in the north in 1960s, a civil war followed immediately, that again took lives of millions, coups and counter coups, annulment of a free and fair election, political unrests, ethnic, political and religious killings, communal clashes, insurgents here and there, deportation of citizens, etc. In all these, development has suffered so much, while countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, that we started with have crossed from third world to first, we are still lagging miles behind. The government must begin to toe this line of argument, assembling Nigerians together for discussions on the settlement of its myriad of problems.
The fear, usually, expressed by members of the National Assembly are unnecessary. The national conference is meant to address some very naked injustices, imbalances and grievances in the country which the National Assembly may never deliberate on.  No one or group can remove them from their elected positions to perform their constitutional duties on behalf of the people who elected them into power. But, they must also accept that, truly there are very germane areas of national discourse they just have to allow the people deliberate on which are denying us of our peaceful co-existence.
We have a federal system that is not fully in practice. Federalism is practiced by many countries of the world such as, America, Canada, India, Australia, etc. It is a political system adopted to look into the diversities of these societies and, finding and maintaining unity within the country even in diversity. But, Nigeria’s case is far from such. Many political analysts have posited that when Nigeria practices true federalism then, peace and unity, justice and development shall be attained. If we have chosen a federal system of government, then we must practice it to the letter. The system is working perfectly in other countries, galvanizing the peoples for greater achievements. True federalism encourages every state or region, as it was then known to experience massive infrastructural facelift, enviable economic policies. The system gives hope, sense of duty and belonging to all citizens of the country. The military incursion into politics in our case destroyed our political and economic progress, we must not continue to lament but, seek ways forward.
It is on record that Nigeria’s Democracy is the most expensive and wasteful in the world. When in other climes, there democracy allows meaningful development, ours has brought us woes. This, no doubt calls for quick intervention from both genuine followers and leaders. When there is trouble in the land, people gather to talk about it, find solution to averting a repetition of such, agreeing to say Never Again. Ours should not be different, Nigeria cannot continue in this form and we expect it to remain unbreakable. There are cracks of disunity everywhere, lack of faith and trust amongst citizens, and, the question on many lips is, are we truly one people, one nation?
President Goodluck Jonathan should be courageous to convoke a national conference; it is a duty he owes Nigerians now. It is a conference that would encourage people to gather together to speak on ways Nigeria can remain an indivisible entity for eternity. Achieving this and many other would have given him an enviable record above all his predecessors. History will record him as a man who heard the cries of his people, saw the anger in their faces, brought them together to diagnose the ailment and seek a better way out of the pain. Today, we cannot talk about peace in the Niger Delta and not give huge credit to former President Yar’Adua, because he showed understanding, invited the militants for talks, agreed on terms and gave abiding faith to such. President Jonathan must also support Nigerians to talk on how we can retain Nigeria for the good of all irrespective of ones religious, political, ethnic leaning.
President Jonathan must realize that he became a president in 2010, not because he showed interest, campaigned and won but, because his boss died on duty. He should also not forget that for him to be recognized as acting President while his Oga was seriously ill was an uphill task, and now, for him to freely vie for second term has become an issue even when the constitution qualifies him. The question then, that should be at the back of his mind if you ask me is, what is the hope of another Niger Deltan becoming the President of Nigeria? It is then right and just for him to look at all these and decide that we must all talk to protect Nigeria and its peoples inalienable right to truly exist as Nigerians.
The decisions reached at the conference would be passed to the people for a referendum. It is all in line of sustaining a country where every man, woman play a role in building Nigeria. Nigeria must be built in agreement and understanding with the peoples.
Written By Uzodinma Nwaogbe
