The Imperatives of A National Confrence of The NIGERIAN PEOPLE

According to Chief Gani Fawehinmi
of blessed memory in the year
2000, “There are so many
grievances and accusations against
Nigeria and by Nigerians which the
Sovereign National Conference must
consider and resolve with the sole
objective of designing a new
Constitution (the Peoples’
Constitution) for the country which
will cast into extinction all the evil
tendencies which have conspired to
make Nigeria’ a virtual ‘ghost’
country, deeply and invidiously
polarised in all directions since 1914
to date and more seriously since
January 15, 1966. We must pull
Nigeria back from the brink and
from the precipice with a
Constitution made democratically by
Nigerians through the SNC and
affirmed in a referendum by
Nigerians. The alternative to this
path of sanity is to continue
disastrously to pretend that pious
political preaching, posturing and
exhortations and the use of
governmental power of brute force
will contain the mounting crises.
They will not. It is time to call a
spade a spade and face the reality
of our fate squarely, sincerely and
courageously, so as to prevent a
disintegration of the country. The
Sovereign National Conference
being advocated is to rebuild this
single sovereign nation from its
collapsing foundation, not to tear
the country into several sovereign
nations. If we don’t, I shudder to
think of the catastrophic
consequences to the very existence
of the country and its horrible
effects on the black race, Black
Africa and the world at large. Let us
move away from the brink. The
answer is the Sovereign National
Conference. We must prevent the
experiences of Rwanda, Burundi, Sri
Lanka, Somalia, Sierra Leone,
Liberia, Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia
from happening in Nigeria. The only
opportunity we have to do this is
the convocation of a Sovereign
National Conference. We need to
talk, talk and talk ourselves to true
peace, genuine justice and
appropriate peoples’ Constitution in
which all Nigerians will find a
fulfillment of their hopes and
aspirations and unshaken
guarantee of peace, stability and
prosperity”.
Recently, Dr. Jonathan and his
government have instituted a
number of committees to again
show that the government is
listening to the peoples demand
following his government new year
wicked gift to the country by
removing the “so called subsidy” on
petroleum. We all “know” there is
no subsidy except avenues for
corruption between the government
and the oil marketers and NNPC. But
instead of Dr. Jonathan dealing with
the corruption in his government
and curbing those with the known
marketers in the oil industry, he
chose to punish the entire people of
Nigeria on January 01, 2012 with his
wholesome sudden no-compassion
removal of subsidy. Now, without
any real thought and deliberations
behind his actions, as usual for Dr.
Jonathan’s government which
usually carry out after-thought and
knee-jerk reactions to events, he
has set up a flurry of committees.
Many of these are going to be
another money guzzling affairs and
some of it is going to perform and
come up with outstanding
recommendations and action points
which, at the end of the day will be
swept once again under the carpet.
Why? Because, many committees
before them have un-earthed similar
recommendations and action points
and none were utilized or pursued
to their logical conclusions. They
were all time wasters to calm the
situations and events down,
basically.
Some would
say we have elected representative
in the states and federal assembly
to do this. Really? Many of these
assembly members have their
hands soiled. Many don’t have any
mission other than to loot the
common resources for their
sections. And they are already doing
a great job of this! What else have
you heard them do since twelve
years ago? They are truly part of the
problem. While Nigerians are
becoming poorer every day, the
assembly members are increasing
their pay checks and making deals
with the executive and the other
looters of our common destiny.
Definitely, the states and the
national assembly are not the
vehicle to discuss and deliberate on
our burning national question.
These people are not out to put
Nigeria on the national plane of
progress and unity. They are only
out there for their own pocket.
So,
then why would anyone be afraid of
this noble idea and goals? Simple:
we are all human beings – afraid of
the unknown. We are all used to
this Nigeria. Many thousands
among the 160 millions are
benefitting currently from this
problematic and lopsided Nigeria.
Many have benefitted. These
categories of citizens are scared and
would do anything and everything
to preserve and protect these, their
golden goose that lays the golden
eggs for them. At
the end of the day, all Nigerians will
benefit from the natural progressive
direction of such gathering and
resolutions, which would be binding
on all the tribal affiliates or nations
in the country. We can work
together better. We can move freely
from one place to the other. We can
live side by side and within each
other’s enclave without fear of
death and violence against our
family and possessions. The
question of indigeneship and
citizenship will be finally settled.
Rather than have flurries of violence
and deaths, we would have flurries
of innovations, industrialization,
prosperity and peace in the country.
So, why would anyone be against
these beneficial prospects? Or
rather, who is afraid of convening of
the sovereign national conference?

Ectracts from Abe Ojo, Ph.D.