Being a press statement issued by change Nigeria at a world press conference, on 2nd December 2010, in Lagos on the state of the country, Nigeria
Being a press statement issued by change Nigeria at a world press conference, on 2nd December 2010, in Lagos on the state of the country, Nigeria
Introduction: You will all recall that on the 8th of September, 2009, CHANGE NIGERIA (CN), prompted by concerns for the Nigerian Union, at a World Press Conference, undertook a survey of the Nigerian polity, its politics and policy outcomes. The survey traced the trajectory of Nigeria’s colonial beginnings; the adoption of federalism as the basis of the then emerging Union in the early 1950s; the truncation of the federalism and its replacement with Unitarism progressively from 1966, culminating in the current ‘1999 Constitution’, foisted on Nigeria via Decree No.24 of 1999 by the departing Military Government of the time.
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CN established direct causative linkages between unitarism which the ‘1999 Constitution’ represents and the various evils plaguing Nigeria including political instability, failed infrastructures, inept leadership, pervasive corruption, poor public electric power supply, violent political agitations, gross insecurity, mass poverty and a total disconnect between the Citizen and the State.
As panacea, CN prescribed a return to federalism via a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) that would work out a new constitutional order, not by amendments.
On the basis of the illegitimacy of the ‘1999 Constitution’ and to back up the demand for an SNC, CN cautioned against, in fact, rejected the conduct of any further national elections under the said ‘1999 Constitution’ without first reworking our constitutional arrangements at a sovereign conference.
CN concluded the statement by enjoining the entrapped ethnic nationalities in Nigeria to organize themselves and work out their various Draft Regional Constitutions preparatory to an SNC.
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Between September 8, 2009 and now, so much has happened in the polity and is still happening that CN feels once again compelled to draw the attention of all stakeholders to the many developments in the country around those subject matters and the interpretation/consequences of those developments.
The purpose of this communication therefore is to critically examine the still unfolding chain of extraordinary events in this period against the backdrop of the aforementioned causative factors and to objectively interpret them with a view to charting an alternative route for the Country to safely navigate the emerging stormy scenarios.
The extraordinary events include the following:
TRANSITION OF POWER FROM LATE PRESIDENT YAR’ADUA TO PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN. The fiery power-play that characterized the transition of power from the then ailing and later, late President Yar’Adua to erstwhile Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan thoroughly exposed the underlying North-South political fault-line in spite of the clear constitutional provisions that should have guided the transition. So bad was the situation that a certain dubious ‘doctrine of necessity’, (which essentially tossed aside the ‘1999 Constitution’) had to be invented to break the logjam.
The three arms of Government chose to abandon the Constitution, a clear demonstration they do not feel bound by the document and a vindication of CN’s position that the “1999 Constitution” is neither proper nor genuine and thus commands nobody’s respect, particularly at critical times, not even of those in power drawing authority and huge, untoward benefits from it. These show that Nigeria of today is a project under dispute.
THE ZONING DEBATE REGARDING THE NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
What began essentially as an internal mechanism by the ruling PDP to moderate the fractious contest for its presidential ticket at elections has suddenly metamorphosed into a monstrous North-South political warfare almost with no mention of political party, again exposing the underlying North-South political fault-line in the disputed Nigeria project. It does not matter that the ‘Constitution’ makes no provision for such zoning. What then is this genie that so easily overwhelms the Constitution?
THE INDEPENDENCE DAY BOMB BLASTS IN ABUJA
On a day that Nigeria was at the centre of World attention, celebrating its 50th Anniversary as an independent country, it is sobering to consider that any group would be so angry with Nigeria as to detonate bombs at her birthday party. CN has carefully reviewed all comments and actions by both the Government, Legislature, Individuals, Organisations, Foreign Governments/Diplomats and Multilateral Organizations such as the UN and the EU. Condemnation of the ‘terrorist’ attack has been unanimous. The search for who did it had been vigorous, spreading to far away South Africa where Mr. Henry Okah has been put on trial for his alleged involvement. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND) claimed responsibility. The President said it is not MEND, even venturing to say he knew those who were behind it. An opposition party figure was arrested and questioned. In support of the President’s position, erstwhile MEND commanders came out to declare that MEND begins and ends with them and that there was no MEND anywhere that could have done such havoc. Confusion, commotion, claims and counter-claims. Henry Okah was reported to have alleged being contacted by a high-level aide of President Jonathan to play some script. The Presidency disclaims the allegation. Complete melee. Threats of further attacks followed and at the time of this writing, further attacks had taken place.
In civilized societies, when an incident of this nature takes place, the search for who is usually accompanied by the search for why (motive). Sometimes it is the search for why that provides the earliest clues as to who, though in this instance, the claim by MEND supplies the first possible who, (not foreclosing on other prospects like those suggested by President Jonathan).
Beyond the question of who, and more importantly, it is the answer to the why that often shapes the response mechanism. In other words, when motive is established, steps to be taken are better guided for sustainable results. If the motive as expressly claimed by MEND is to press for the restoration of a mutilated constitutional arrangement, then we wonder what benefits lie in furnishing an alternative motive i.e. maneuver by political opponents for electoral advantage, or to reduce it all to a simple question of crime requiring only a few more guns for the police and some surveillance cameras for the city of refuge, Abuja. Our concern here is that in the search for solutions to a complicated problem now turning violent, we seem to be chasing after shadows rather than going for substance.
In this regard, while CN is not in any position to exonerate anyone or foreclose on any of the leads being pursued by the authorities, CN finds it most curious that nobody including the media, had paid any serious attention to the ‘why’ supplied by the mysterious Jomo Gbomo of MEND in an e-mail alert sent out to the World media shortly before the blasts. The e-mail as reported in the Guardian Newspaper of 2nd October 2010 reads thus:
“With due respect to all invited guests, dignitaries and attendees of the 50th independence anniversary of Nigeria being held today, Friday, October 1, 2010 at the Eagle Square Abuja, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is asking everyone to begin immediate evacuation of the entire area within the next 30 minutes. This warning expires after 10.30Hrs. Several explosive devices have been successfully planted in and around the venue by our operatives working inside the government security services. In evacuating the area, keep a safe distance from vehicles and trash bins. There is nothing worth celebrating after 50 years of failure. For 50 years, the people of the Niger Delta have had their land and resources stolen from them. The constitution before independence, which offered resource control was mutilated by illegal military governments and this injustice is yet to be addressed.”
Whatever maybe anyone else’s interpretation, it is fairly obvious that the phrase “the constitution before independence which offered resource control” refers to the federal constitutional arrangement that was truncated in 1966 while the phrase “was mutilated by illegal military governments and this injustice is yet to be addressed” refers to the succeeding unitary Constitutions including the current ‘1999 Constitution’ under which their lands and resources remain stolen from them.
Some probe around that 1st October short statement by MEND led us to an earlier statement issued by the same MEND and reported in the April 8 2008 edition of The Nation newspaper where MEND made somewhat more elaborate comments on the subject by furnishing the fuller reasons for their violent campaigns. They referred to many peaceful processes they initially pursued which were muzzled by the Nigerian State for which they resorted to the arms. They concluded the statement by giving an ultimatum to the oil producing companies to quit the region until their grievances were addressed and threatened to eject the companies should the ultimatum be passed. They also threatened to begin that phase of their engagement by totally shattering the peace of the Federal Capital Territory and expand the theatre of war to any part of the country they choose.
We join all to condemn terror attacks but we also find most instructive the position of the EU which declined to categorize MEND a terrorist organization prescribing instead a “political dialogue” (Thisday of 14/10/10/). CN can confidently interprete this prescription of political dialogue to mean an SNC.
Our other comment on this episode has to do with whether MEND exists or not so that we can all know what we are up against. We recall that at the time the amnesty offer was made by the administration of President Yar’Adua, some MEND commanders embraced it while others rejected the offer dismissing the scheme as an attempt to bribe and divide their ranks and that as long as the root cause of their agitation – resource control via true federalism - remain unaddressed, they will fight on. There is therefore no doubt that there are armed elements in the creeks still fighting and insisting that the root issues of the agitation must be addressed. Whether they continue to operate in the code-name ‘MEND’ is another matter entirely, internal to the promoters and proprietors of the MEND patent. CN only urges all parties to accept the reality that amnesty has not resolved the Niger-Delta agitation and to reconsider what other viable options will bring peace. Overall, our reading of what happened on the 1st of October 2010 in Abuja is that MEND (or whatever new name springs up) was violently questioning the current constitutional arrangement of Nigeria.
PRESIDENT JONATHAN’S FORECLOSURE OF A SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE
It was with a combination of shock, astonishment and disbelief that CN received the report of President Jonathan’s dismissal of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) as irrelevant and unnecessary since, according to him, we now have the 1999 Constitution and the National Assembly making laws.
At the recently concluded Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, media reports quoted the President as saying among other things that “Any talk about the convergence of the different ethnic groups should have taken place after the amalgamation in 1914 by Lord Lugard and not now that we are four years away from celebrating our centenary (100 years) as a nation. I believe that it is irrelevant at this time because we have a 1999 Constitution and a National Assembly that should make good laws to govern our country”. (Vanguard Newspaper 20/10/10)
The President was further reported to have spoken about how his Government was equipping the police to fight corruption and that militancy in the Niger Delta “….was now a thing of the past since the Federal Government has put in place the Amnesty Programme”.
Going by that report, Mr. President leaves us with the impression that he has some more work to do in grasping the difference between the nature of the changes demanded by the proponents of a Sovereign National Conference and those offered by his explanation. To compound matters, a few days later, as if on cue, the Chairman of President Jonathan’s Presidential Advisory Council, Gen. T.Y. Danjuma was also reported to have upped the ante by insisting that the agitation for an SNC was a ploy by the agitators to break-up the country, threatening to go to war again if need be, to halt such agitation. Curiously, in the same report, he confessed that he was scared that the Country will not survive such a meeting, likening the SNC to going to a divorce court. (News Star Newspaper of 31/10/2010).
Since none of these reports were refuted, the CN feels obliged to, even at the risk of repetition, once more explain the agitation for an SNC considering the widespread demand for it amongst the citizenry, the ethnic nationalities, civil society and other interests, the urgency of the demand and the fact that CN had on September 8th 2009, at an elaborate World Press Conference dissected the main issues of the agitation and had called for the deferment of plans for any further elections under the ‘1999 Constitution’ until those issues were resolved. That position is now clearly vindicated by the various matters under review in this statement.
The mere fact that after almost one hundred years of co-existence in Nigeria, discussions, disputations and arguments are still raging on the issue of the terms of our co-existence as one country is proof that something is greatly amiss with our Union. It will be recalled that on September 8th 2009, CN in a statement titled “The Face of a New Country Beyond Party Politics” explored the main issues of the SNC agitation in some detail, referring also to the several suits before the Federal High Court (Abuja and Lagos Divisions) challenging the legitimacy of the ‘1999 Constitution’. Both the said CN statement of 08/09/2009 and the main supporting affidavits of the said suits are in the public domain and we urge a thorough perusal by all concerned. (www.changenigeriaorganisation.com).
In the meantime, we wish to remind the opponents of an SNC, other persons who may not have followed the debate on it and the bewildered younger generation of today’s Nigeria of the following:
1. That there was no country called Nigeria by the time the British first arrived here in the 1800s; rather, various self-governing, mostly homogenous ethnic nations were separately over-run and later merged by the fiat of the British Crown in 1914 to form one country called ‘Nigeria’ as a Colony of the Great Britain.
2. That towards the end of the colonial era and in preparation for independence in the early 1950s, the heterogeneous mix of the peoples constituting Nigeria dictated the adoption of federalism as the structure most suitable for the emerging country such that the then federating Regions were largely autonomous with a Center (Federal Government) created and maintained by the Regions. Each Region evolved its own Constitution and developed at its own pace using its own resources up to 1966. The economy of the then Eastern Region under M.I. Okpara was reputed to be the fastest growing in the then third world ahead of the Asian Tigers of today. The Western Region’s economy of the time also excelled under Chief Obafemi Awolowo, financing free education for children in the Region. The then Northern Region trailed admirably, with an economy powered mainly by its famous groundnut pyramids.
3. That the arrival of soldiers on the political scene in 1966 saw to the truncation and replacement of the federal system with a unitary system in which the Central Government forcefully hijacked and confiscated the sovereignty and resources of the erstwhile federating Regions, (particularly the oil and gas resources of then Eastern Region part of which constitute the bulk of the today’s Niger-Delta), the ports and other income-yielding assets of the Regions, ostensibly to prosecute the resultant civil war (Biafran war) which claimed over a million lives. With their Constitutions abrogated, the Regions were emasculated and broken up into weaker units called ‘states’ now numbering 36; most of legislative powers hitherto wielded by the Regions got transferred to the Central Government in what is now the Federal Exclusive List (68 items with a further 30-item Concurrent List in which the Center enjoys overriding precedence over the so-called States!). The States are now beggars at the feet of an almighty, monstrous and rampaging Federal Government which sit majestically in the safe ‘refuge camp’ of Abuja (apologies to Gen. T Y Danjuma who gave that description in the same aforementioned report). The damage was completed by the creation of 774 Local Government Areas listed in the current Constitution and sharing revenue from the ‘Federation Account’.
4. That the present constitutional order, the ‘1999 Constitution’ is an amalgam of all the Decrees by which successive Military Governments in Nigeria executed the illicit transformation of a federal system to a choking unitarism akin to internal colonialism. The reversal of that illicit transformation will of necessity take the form of a wholesale remaking of our Constitution (not amendment), much the same way the original federating Constitutions were wholly discarded and replaced from 1966. Anything less will be a shallow pretence. Perhaps, Mr. President and the anti-SNC cheerleaders will appreciate this point if we imagine that Mr. President leaves office (no matter which year) with the ‘1999 Constitution’ still in place , his Ijaw kinsmen, indeed and infact, the rest of the Niger-Delta, will wake up the next morning to the grim reality that their oil and gas are still defined constitutionally as the property of the Federal Government for which reason they must wait for ‘allocations’ from the proceeds of its sales by Abuja, very much the same way it was before their son became the Chief Tenant of Aso Rock Villa. So also will other parts with solid mineral deposits or other revenue generating assets such as seaports, currently controlled by the center. It does not matter whether President Jonathan had been in office for five or nine years.
5. That most of what has rendered Nigeria an unstable, dysfunctional and almost failed state flow directly from these distortions and the resultant over-centralization now riddled with corruption. The agitation for an SNC is an insistence by those who have been badly shortchanged in the now-disputed Nigerian project, for a return to equity, justice and the truth, which is federalism in which the autonomy of viable federating units (not States as they are now), is restored. The ‘states’ as presently constituted are congenitally disabled to function efficiently in this capacity since they were created for mostly unwholesome reasons devoid of the key criterion of viability. Some erroneously think that federalism can be achieved today by merely transferring a few functions from the Federal Government to the States. In terms of viability, except for Lagos State, (same old Colony of Lagos! ), the other States are basically failed experiments within Nigeria’s house of straw.
6. That the SNC approximates to the minimum universally accepted mechanism by which such historical injustices imposed by fiat and fuelling agitations can be reversed in a consensual setting; as such, contrary to the aforementioned postulations of Mr. President on the issue, both the ‘1999 Constitution’ and the National Assembly are imposed by fiat and are disputed and therefore cannot be the platforms for the resolution of the fundamental questions being raised on the terms of federating in the Nigerian Union.
7. That contrary to several misconceptions, the Sovereign National Conference being advocated simply means a conference, not controlled or dictated to by a sitting government, at which the ethnic nationalities, in whatever formations they choose, bring their sovereignties to the table as equals to bargain and agree on which parts of it to cede to a centre, all decisions being by consensus as opposed to majority votes. The outcome of the exercise is then codified into a constitution distilled from the powers ceded by the federating units. The sitting government remains in place until the processes, which will culminate in a referendum and elections are completed. South Africa under the apartheid regime went through this process between 1990-1994.
8. That the proclamation in the preamble of the ‘1999 Constitution’ that “We the people of Nigeria having solemnly and firmly resolved to live in unity as one indivisible, indissoluble, sovereign nation…. Do hereby make, enact and give to ourselves the following constitution” is a lie that can no longer be sustained, since the agitators know that we never met, since a meeting by either the Provisional Ruling Council or the so-called Constitutional Debating Committee cannot supplant the imperative a meeting between the ethnic nations – Yoruba, Ijaw, Igbo, Tiv, Fulani, Edo, etc to decide the terms of federating into a Nigerian Union.
All the agitators are asking for is an all-embracing political dialogue to re-establish the collapsed federal foundation upon which Nigeria was built and therefore restore the basis of the Nigerian Union.
In foreclosing dialogue, the President may inadvertently have raised the battle-cry for unilateral actions in self-redemption of “To thy tents O’ Israel” because self-help is the natural consequence of blocking dialogue. Once more, the famous North-South political fault-line is on full display.
THE 2011 ELECTIONS; PROSPECTS AND LANDMINES
The preparations towards another election in 2011 are already jeopardized in many respects, such that it will now be a major miracle if any elections can be held as scheduled or if such election does not end in a fiasco. All objective analyses have already ruled out the free and fair element. Our reason for saying so are as follows:
a. First, the Laws under which the election is being planned are now in a spin, particularly with the constitutional amendments imbroglio in which a Federal High Court has practically spurned all the purported amendments. Everything hangs in the balance.
b. Secondly, the electoral umpire Prof A. Jega after surveying what lay ahead, likened himself to a pilot required to land an aircraft in a very low (almost no) visibility situation, warning about a possible crash or crash-landing. Things have only gotten worse since that alarm and unfortunately, Nigerians and Nigeria are the passengers in Jega’s ill-fated aircraft.
c. Thirdly and by far the worst is the aspect captured by the verdict of a former America Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell who in a blunt damming evaluation of the bleak outlook of the 2011 elections was quoted as saying that:
“In 2011, power sharing among the ruling elite, the PDP, will be abandoned with the Presidential incumbent, a Southern Christian contesting against a Northern Muslim candidate; and coupled with the effect that credible elections are unlikely, may tilt the balance of power in favour of the incumbent president and open the door to protests, - perhaps violent from the losing candidate and ethnic groups”. (Thisday Nov, 5th,2010).
In other words, whoever wins, the election may be doomed to end in a wide-scale violence that may consume Nigeria. Once again the underlying North-South political fault-line has emerged carrying with it this time the primed dynamites of religious cum ethnic opium, which the reckless political gladiators are ever ready to exploit. The outcome would be a guaranteed explosion that may end the Nigerian Project.
Tying a, b and c together, CN reiterates its September 2009 prescription that further national elections be deferred so that we can once and for all reconstruct the constitutional foundation of the Nigerian Union to remedy these dangerous political fault-lines manifesting at every turn.
Borrowing from Jega’s pilot metaphor, the crew and the passengers who are already airborne in his danger-laden flight to destination-May 29, 2011, do have a third choice outside crash-landing or crashing which is, to abort the flight by diverting to some safer destination for emergency landing.
The scheduled destination is May 29, 2011. Emergency landing can take the shape of aborting the scheduled destination of May 29, 2011 and heading straight to a safer transit-destination by way of a short transition plan spanning a period that will include the balance of time between now and the so called May 29, 2011 during which the cause of the danger is addressed via an SNC.
The voyage continues thereafter in safety.
The choice here is between schedule and safety. If keeping the May 29, 2011 schedule has become as dangerous as ‘Pilot’ Jega and ‘Prophet’ Campbell have declared, then common sense and prudence demand that the safety consideration be given utmost priority as is standard in aviation.
If we chose to keep schedule at all costs and in disregard for safety we risk watching our Nigeria go up in smoke, God forbid.
Let us go back in history and ask ourselves whether there is anything sacrosanct about the “May 29” day. If anything, history has it that on May 29, 1962 the most damaging assault on our original federalism was launched when the Federal Government declared a state of emergency in the Western Region, sacked the Regional Government and appointed a Sole Administrator, Majekodunmi, in a brazen breach of the autonomy of the Region by the Centre, an act forbidden by the then Constitution. The Privy Council (the then Supreme Court sitting in London) declared that action unconstitutional and ordered a restoration of the sacked Western Region Government. The Federal Government disobeyed and rather went on to by-pass that redemptive judgment by declaring Nigeria a Republic. There are other previous evil events associated with May 29 in the Nigerian project which we researched into and which we challenge you all to also research into. Examples include the mass killings of the Igbo in the North which commenced 29th May, 1966; the jihadists’ attack on Yoruba territories of Ilorin which began on the 29th of May, 1835; the Uthman Dan Fodio-led jihad which subjugated the entire indigenous communities of the North which began on May 29th, 1804, (It is also no coincidence that the date of self-government for the then Northern Region was 29th of May, 1959. Source - The Nation Newspaper of October 3, 2010). Should we now join those who for reasons we do not understand , elevate that evil date in the annals of our ‘national’ history with the hallow of sanctity? The spirit of May 29 is the spirit of death for federalism. We must exorcise it.
It is for the reason of these irrefutable realities that CN in the aforesaid statement of September 8th 2009 warned against the conduct of any further national elections on the basis of the current ‘1999 Constitution’ until an acceptable constitutional arrangement is engineered via an SNC. We today restate our recommendation for the rejection of further national elections on the basis of the fraudulent ‘1999 Constitution’ since such an election even if ‘free and fair’ will not at all address the issues despoiling the country and driving the demands for an SNC by those who reject the current constitutional order. Such an election only reinforces the fraud.
Since the sole legal instrument holding Nigeria together – the ‘1999 Constitution’ has been exposed and established to be a fraud and a forgery, the Nigerian Union today hangs precariously on the fragile goodwill of the various entrapped nationalities who are still willing to discuss their mutual co-existence. It will therefore be most unfortunate if we fail to exploit the opportunity while it lasts to consensually rework the terms of the Union rather than allowing Nigeria go to the way of former Yugoslavia.
We strongly advise the various stakeholders in the polity to soberly examine the options before us as a country; either plunging stubbornly into another election which may crash the Union or to put away elections for a while and rebuild the foundation of our country before it collapses catastrophically as predicted by a US Intelligence Report.
The time between now and the end of May 2011 is sufficient to enact a Sovereign meeting and agree on a new Constitution, then hold elections thereafter. If we need some more time to get the process through, it is infinitely safer and better for all parties to work out modalities for such more time.
To those who may misinterprete our suggestion as a ‘tenure elongation plot’ our answer is in three- folds:
a. That when on September 2009 we insisted on the deferment of plans for any further national elections under the ‘1999 Constitution’, President Yar’Adua was still in the saddle. The reasons we offered then remain valid and even are more visibly vindicated today. The emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan has not altered anything neither will the emergence of any other, as things are.
b. Irrespective of who is in power, the choice we all must make now is between either stopping to repair the distressed ship of the Nigerian State before resuming the voyage to nationhood or to plunge heedlessly on until we crash and sink. CN has made its choice and invites all, including the Government to its side i.e an SNC and restructuring before elections.
c. That we do not prefer anyone of the prospective candidates or parties to others. To us they are all the same so long as they seek to preside over Nigeria, armed with the 1999 Constitution which renders all of us slaves in our land. The choice CN has made is to salvage Nigeria by opting for a middle course between the explosive extremes and the no-win situations presented by the 2011 elections. More importantly our prescription is one which has the potential to peacefully resolve the long-standing Nigerian question. This may be Nigeria’s last chance to heal itself.
To President Jonathan and those who are urging him on to pitch for another 4 or 8 years in office, we wish to point out that the historic mandate divinely thrust on him may either be used to resolve the various agitations plaguing Nigeria or be deployed to secure a longer lease at Aso Rock for the sake of presiding over the cake-sharing enterprise whilst leaving intact the constitutional shackles holding down Nigeria and Nigerians (including the Niger-Delta) in servitude.
The choice is yours to make.
To other presidential aspirants, we wish to inform you that the historic challenge before Nigeria and Nigerians today is not elections (even the ‘free and fair’ variety), since in the event of victory at the polls the winner will have to swear to defend the oppressive, fraudulent ‘1999 Constitution’ which keeps Nigeria and Nigerians in bondage. Amendments will not change anything. We therefore invite you to invest the electoral energy you have in stock on the side of the peoples by joining us to first seek the redemption of the Union and its peoples since elections will still follow after the changes SNC will bring.
To Nigeria’s International Development Partners particularly those who are offering financial and technical support towards “ free and fair elections” in 2011, we wish to inform you that the Nigeria of today is like a disputed project. Elections, even in the remote event of being free and fair, will not address the issues of the dispute in the absence of a complete constitutional re-engineering just as elections could not have changed the lives of the blacks in apartheid South Africa with the apartheid constitution still in place. We therefore request those interested in our welfare and stability to help convince Abuja to quickly initiate the SNC process before the situation degenerates to a complete chaos and a massive human tragedy.
For the major oil companies operating in Nigeria, we urge you and your home countries to realize that the SNC being proposed is about the only the peaceful option left for a sustainable resolution of the crisis surrounding your operations in the Niger-Delta (as confirmed by the combatants in their various bulletins offering explanation for the war they are waging for ‘resource control’). CN expects that you prevail on your Abuja Joint Venture Partners to see reason for dialogue (SNC), rather than the fruitless military expeditions that exacerbate the matter or the amorphous amnesty program which says nothing about the root cause of the agitation.
For the larger world community, particularly the UN Security Council, the US and the EU, the ongoing drama around the discovery of 13 container-loads of sophisticated weapons including rockets and rocket launchers, alleged to have emanated from Iran, portends a frightening prospect for an extension of the axis of evil to the Gulf of Guinea. Today it may be conventional weapons.
Tomorrow it may be weapons in the nuclear family, finding their way to elements (Boko Haram!) who rightly or wrongly, in their judgment make no pretence about their admiration for Al-Quaeda. We fear that if the Nigerian Question is not quickly resolved, delay may be very costly.
To the Nigerian Bar Association and lawyers in Nigeria, CHANGE NIGERIA asks: ‘What do you say about the suits in court challenging the legitimacy of the ‘1999 Constitution’ on the basis of its fraudulent origin?’. Silence cannot be golden on this occasion as demonstrated by the quintessential Prince Tanimose Bankole-Oki (SAN), now late, who even at age 90, not only spoke up but went to court to repudiate the fraud. No rule of law regime can be built on a foundation of a fraudulent Constitution. You owe a special responsibility to Nigerians on this. Your profession is one of the most endangered if the bubble bursts.
To Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria, while it is good to constantly call attention to the manifestations of wrong and evil in society, is it not more profitable to remove the cause of the disease than to dissipate energy on various symptoms?. You must now step forward to help create that Nigeria of our own design by way of a constitution made by ‘we , the people’ to define the kind of society we must have, over an above that imposed on us by ‘our conquerors’ . Professor Wole Soyinka, your champion in constructive civil society engagement has not only shouted loud, he has acted via the PRONACO initiative; he is also a plaintiff in the Federal High Court, Lagos, rejecting the source of the people’s sorrow, the ‘1999 Constitution’. The bane of all previous agitations for setting this country right was the failure of the activists to furnish any viable alternative to what they reject. On this occasion, we have a Draft by PRONACO (a process-led meeting involving all the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria which outcome has received an almost country-wide endorsement) which we believe defines the change we seek. We invite you to put in your energies to bring it to be. The Labour Unions should reconsider its goals and strategies beyond the narrow confines of wages.
To the clergy and clerics in Nigeria, the suits against the ‘1999 Constitution’ is simply a contest between truth and falsehood. It is a self-evident evident truth that ‘we the people’ did not make or enact the so-called 1999 Constitution since the author, Abdusalam Abubakar narrated how he came about the document inside the document. If the degradation under which your teeming millions of adherents live flow from that Constitution, then failing to speak up now can only mean the open endorsement of falsehood and evil. Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, who fought alongside NADECO, has not only spoken up but is at the Federal High Court, Abuja, alongside Chief Anthony Enahoro, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike and others, repudiating the fraud called the ‘1999 Constitution’ and seeking its termination and replacement. It is no longer enough sit and lament.
To the Media, while thanking you for your support so far in this campaign, we wish to inform you that the task at hand is akin to, if not more daunting than the fight for independence, championed mainly by your forerunners in the trade - Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro, Mokwugo Okoye etc. The hard-earned victory they secured in achieving our independence has been upturned by the overthrow of federalism. We now live under internal colonialism and the lot falls on you to re-enact the professional heroic feats of your illustrious professional ancestors as you did against military rule not too long ago. Partner with the suffering masses of Nigeria by offering free or at the least subsidized airtime and newspaper space in support of this initiative. Help reset the agenda of Nigeria to one focused on the well-being of society and not the survival of self-serving power blocks pretending to be pursuing regional interests.
To the youths, we invite you to join in the resolve to retrieve your future which has been mortgaged under the current ‘1999 Constitution’. Go on the net and use your digital weapons of mass engagement to dislodge our collective torment so that we can restore your share of the great commonwealth of Nigeria to you. Those who sold your future are happy to see you wallow in the opium of Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea instead of questioning why there is no electricity or why your schools are closed down or why the billions of petro-dollars Nigeria earned and earns had failed to lift its citizens, particularly your good-selves, the youth, out of the pit of poverty?. The energy a lot of you spend queuing at foreign embassies for visas to the unknown can go into programs and activities necessary for prosecuting this matter. You must know that your share of our collective leasehold on Nigeria is higher than that of the political gladiators most of whom have been in power and Government corridors since the days of your grandfathers. Their children and grandchildren, groomed in Havard and Oxford are now being positioned to preside over you and your own children. If you put your hands to it, they will not dare us since we have worked out a solution all by ourselves. You must reject the renewal of your enslavement under the evil “1999 Constitution” by rejecting further elections under it.
To the masses of our peoples: For you, it has been cries of pain as you grapple with the challenges of daily survival in Nigeria. For a country that earns well overUS$200,000,000 a day, we assert that no citizen should go without food or shelter; we insist that none should fall sick and not find medical help; we are convinced that that no child should be denied education for lack of money; we insist that there must be a measure of welfare benefit, constitutionally secured at source for you before the politicians begin to play their games with the balance; that your benefits in the social contract of governance now constitutionally denied you must be restored. If you stand firm in this pursuit, all these will be yours under the constitutional order we seek to restore. We had it before under Obafemi Awolowo, Michael Okpara and Ahmadu Bello. We can have it again if we all insist. Ask the politicians who come to seek your vote why we cannot first get back to that kind of constitution with which Awo, Okpara and Bello served the interests of the masses. Some may tell you that it does not matter and that good people like them will make all the difference. Tell such ones we say they are wrong.
To the Government of the day: As we bear no one any ill-will, we advise and we invite you to partner with the peoples to create a new Nigeria in which all of us will be happy. Apartheid South Africa did it under the Government of Fredrick De Clerk. To stay away in the comfort of Government House is unhelpful, as the inevitable unilateral actions of those whose patience have run out may cause a whirlwind that will swallow Nigeria inclusive of your ‘safe’ Government House haven. As a country, we have of ourselves dithered for 50 years. If we include the years of colonial rule, we could say, 100 years. We have failed Africa and the black man. We have failed the civilized world. We have failed our own peoples. We have to restore a sense of belonging. We have to regenerate patriotism. Let change come.
In conclusion, we state as follows:
CN is thoroughly convinced that Nigeria has arrived at that historical juncture which the apartheid South Africa reached in 1990 when the Government of Fredrick De Clerk accepted the overwhelming rejection of the apartheid constitutional order and so put in motion a transitional process in which an all-race Sovereign National Conference (CODESA) produced an all-inclusive multi-racial Constitution which after a referendum replaced the apartheid Constitution. This became the basis of the 1994 general elections won by Nelson Mandela and his ANC. The various agitations in Nigeria aggregate to a rejection of the present unitary constitutional order. From MEND to MASSOB, to OPC to BOKO HARAM and many others. They are all saying the same thing – let us sit down to renegotiate the terms of the Nigerian Union; Let us return to federalism which restores our autonomy. Their methods may differ but their message is the same.
We therefore demand that in place of the general elections advertised for 2011, a transitional process should be put in place immediately to return Nigeria to the federal foundation upon which it was originally founded. It need not take up to the five years it took South Africa since substantial work has been done in the PRONACO-facilitated Peoples National Conference(2005-6) who’s Draft Peoples Constitution, in process and content, provides a guide on how to proceed. Furthermore, the ethnic nationalities have gone very far in their preparations and consultations towards their various Draft Regional Constitutions in anticipation of the inevitable sovereign meeting to federate afresh and re-invent the Nigerian Project, failing which they may be compelled to seek their salvation otherwise.
Still on the question of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), no matter the fact that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is President, he remains an individual fully entitled to his opinion. We state that under the circumstances in which he made his comments dismissing the demand for a sovereign meeting, he spoke as an individual or played politics. The veritable truth consummates the inevitability of a national discourse. As for those who are prepared to go to war and lay down their lives to block a sovereign conference which they claim is a ploy to break up the country, the undisguised defence of vested interests, founded on the stupendous benefits unjustifiably skimmed off our collective patrimony, only exposes a small-mindedness that does not see or know that transient power or materialism do not build nations.
In all, there is a fundamental question raised by the difference between the widespread demand for a Sovereign National Conference amongst the entrapped nationalities in Nigeria and the apparently negative disposition of successive Governments to the same question, shall we say the inevitability of a Sovereign National Conference.
That question roughly translates into a choice between federalism which the SNC proponents so vociferously demand and unitarism which successive Governments since 1999 seem so eager to preserve (the latest being President Jonathan’s remarks on the subject). That same question goes by the notorious alias, “the Nigerian Question” or “the National Question”.
It is within this context that CN’s demand for the deferment of further national elections under the ‘1999 Constitution’ pending a constitutional re-engineering via an SNC, can be understood as a practical, poignant reformulation of the same old question, since further elections under the obnoxious ‘1999 Constitution’ would operate to reinforce unitarism while an SNC will return Nigeria to federalism .
The answer to this fundamental question of choices can only come validly from the peoples of Nigeria in a referendum on whether they wish to retain unitarism which the’1999 Constitution represents, by going on with the advertized 2011 elections under it or they prefer to return to federalism with a new Constitution to be negotiated via an SNC, before any further elections.
The situation therefore demands that this question be put out to a referendum forthwith before any further national elections since the fallouts to the debate continue to deepen the political fault-lines threatening to consume Nigeria. The cord of nationhood may just snap with one more election.
In the meantime, we encourage the ethnic blocks to immediately initiate their respective internal referendum on the same question in readiness for a national referendum. The masses of our peoples as groups and individuals are also enjoined to register their positions both on the CN website (www.changenigeriaorganisation.com) and by making a public show of where they stand on the issue. These would help
Those clamouring for elections now, (even with the self-deluding jingo of ‘free and fair’) merely seek to preserve the unitary constitutional regime which will keep the masses in bondage. Let all those who prefer a return to federalism act together now by rejecting the conduct of further national elections under the unitary Constitution of 1999 until a sovereign meeting is convened to redefine the terms of the Union.
CN raises a loud and clear voice of Universal appeal which should resonate in every human heart and mind, using the reasoning of the esteemed and preeminent Scientist, Albert Einstein, who is quoted as saying:
“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”
While Einstein figured out scientifically some of the deepest secrets of Nature and thus mystified even fellow-Scientists, he, in these words above, now offers us practical common-sense which can be understood by anyone of us mere mortals who cares to listen, and which can benefit us all. It is thus clear that the most desirable countries of the world today practice this adage; the worst countries disregard and or violate it. Nigeria, as presently constituted, essentially deprives the individual (and even groups) of valuable opportunities; furthermore, Nigeria actually stunts, rather than promotes, development for both the individuals and peoples living in that Geospace. Nigeria, as currently constituted, does not allow for anything that can, in all seriousness, pass for a “human society.” This is why CN is serious about changing Nigeria and why CN is offering a serious proposal. This is why CN is appealing to you—wherever you are, whoever you are, citizen, stakeholder, or sympathizer: adopt CN’s proposal so that we can bring necessary change to Nigeria.
Long live the peoples of Nigeria.
CHANGE NIGERIA.
December 2010.
SIGNED :
1. Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (NN,Retd) 2. Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade (NA,Retd)
3. Bishop Gbolanle Gbonigi 4. Fred Agbeyegbe Esq.
5. Alh.Yerima Shettima 6. Apostle Kalada Jene
7. Tokunbo Ajasin 8. Tony Nnadi Esq
9. Alfred Ilenre 10. Rahman Shenge Akanbi Esq.
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