|
National Dialogue: Whose Agendas? By Abubakar Mohammed Sambo
Dialogue by definition, is a discussion intended to produce an agreement or result among participants who have an agreed serious topic(s) or a serious discussion among people with an agenda. Agreement has to be reached by the participants, and they also have to agree on the agenda, topics or issues at stake. There have been a call from the little ‘seems organised’ ethnic minorities in this country, long before now, for the convergence by the government of a Sovereign National Conference’, where according to them, minority ethnic groups will have the platform to discuss issues of national concern with regards governance, marginalisation, conflicts and resource allocation and or control. During the military days in power, a lot of demands for such a gathering were made, and many other issues came out of such calls from different quarters, expressing either of support for or against such a call. I am not bothered with convening the dialogue, conference or any gathering of such nature, to be or not to, but I am concerned, for the love I have for this country. What I did not really seem to understand is that, for a conference that will be convened for ethnic minorities to gather and discuss issues, do we require a separate outfit from the separate government institution or structure to spell out the fundamental norms of how our state should be governed despite the existence of the legislative institutions of governance in existence? If it is a gathering for the ethnic minorities to make inputs in government, is there any minority group that is not represented in the present constitution of the Nigerian national assembly? Are there any ethnic minorities that ever make inputs by way of sponsoring a private bill to the national assembly on issues that are to be tabled at the present conference or dialogue? If the dialogue are for minority groups, what, then constitutionally defines or constitutes an “ethnic minority” or a “minority group” ? Are ethnic minorities defined by language, culture, number or degree of civilisation? Are they also defined by their ‘cultural profession’, size of the landmass they occupy or by their homogeneity? How many ethnic minorities do we have in the county? How many were now invited to attend the National dialogue? How many as per number is the dialogue committee selecting from each group to represent them at the national dialogue? Who sets the agenda for the dialogue, and for whom? Are the agenda in part going to address constitutional issues? Or will they be purely political issues or socio-cultural? If the national dialogue is truly for ethnic minorities, what are the roles of the various professional as well as other interests groups and associations that were invited to constitute part of the ongoing national dialogue team? Or were they also captured by ‘constitutional definition’ as part of the ethnic minorities? Do we really require a structure outside the established governmental institutions to bring back decency in governance, fight corruption; stop our universities from going on incessant strikes; stop the wanton killings by the Boko Haram religious sect; to end the ethnic cleansing in Jos, Yobe and Borno; to stop the ethnic clashes between ethnic minorities and bring back discipline and good governance in our polity? Are the issues to be discussed going to do with the high-handedness of government, especially in the mindless policies spawned by the government of the day? Will they really seek to know the fact about Nigeria being broke, will they go near issues of political kleptocracy we found ourselves in? Will they put on the agenda the diversion, theft, and misappropriation of national resources and earnings? Will the issue of the sovereign wealth fund be discussed? Will the collapse of the public service, the public institutions; the universities, the civil society and the armed forces and the accompanying destruction of Energy and or electricity also on the itenary? The insecurity and wanton killings of innocent citizenry by different ethnic and religious militias from all the nooks and crannies of the Nigerian state going to constitute part of the issues to be deliberated upon? Will the issue of the ill-equipped Nigeria police force be discussed or the will adoption of the state police be an alternative to the problems encountered by the police force? The control of certain national institutions, monopoly of commodity trading and control of financial institutions by a single ethnic nationality within the country going to constitute part of the issues to be discussed as the Federal Character seems not addressing the issues as expected? Poverty and unemployment which now engulfs not only the peasantry the, but the substantial part of the population, and which many commentators see as the bane of the youths restiveness and foundation of abuse of the public service rules and order, will it be part of the agenda, and can the dialogue ‘produce’ a comfortable solutions to it? The political state was created to provide greatest happiness to the greatest number. The state only exists to promote the interest of its citizens and provide the good life. That is why all other states’ institutions are also created to work as a system to be able translates the dreams, aspirations and other concerns of its citizens. If institutions the state institutions and agencies which are solely created to provide service cannot live up to expectation, where and how can a collection of ‘irreconcilable elements’ be put together to discuss Nigeria, its fundamental issues, which governance fails to put in place and get things going? The way I see reason for this, it is just a divisionary agenda to satisfy political ends Mr. President and thereby bringing National dialogue and Sanusi Lamido’s Sunusi’s suspension from office to serve as an intervening variable in the polity. It is all about buying time for 2015. Two most important issues are with us in this country presently; the crack and sudden decline within the PDP; the coming of a mega opposition group in Nigeria cutting across all cultures and geo-political zones, are historic, and will definitely make an impact in the Nigeria’s electoral history as well as processes come 2015 in particular. Do we really need national dialogue now?
Sambo, teaches politics at the Department of Political Science, Federal University Kashere, Gombe State |