Sovereign National Conference-- A Historical Imperative for national Survival and Regeneration By Dr. Sulaiman Kumo Forwarded by Waziri Ibrahim BEING A PAPER PRESENTED
AT THE WORKSHOP ON STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF RESOURCES IN
1.
The
issue of redesigning and restructuring 2.
In
view of the foregoing, it seems clear that 3.
In
dealing with the issue of the composition of the proposed new
“federating units” it is
necessary to ensure that all relevant factors and all relevant
considerations (such as the wishes of the people, communal homogeneity, and
contiguity etc) are taken into account in the process. Thus, for
example, within the
Northern Region of the 1963 Constitution, there may be areas which may
demand a separate existence of their own and insist on the
“excision” of a “Middle Belt Region” from the North. This
may be due either to their
desire to insist on striking their own separate identity, or because they feel
marginalized”, or because they perceive some economic advantages in
going their separate way. Each of these may be a valid reason for their
demand (and there may be other equally valid reasons), and it would be
difficult to justify opposing such a demand and nobody should try to
oppose it. However, it is of equal importance to ascertain which parts
of the proposed area actually wish to opt out of the North and which, if
any, prefer to remain within the North. And both these preferences have
to be accommodated within the limits of feasibility, on a local
government by local government basis. 4.
In
order to realize the above proposals, (i.e. the restructuring of 5.
In
order to ensure legitimacy and acceptability for the S.N.C., the
composition of its membership must be based on at least 95%
preponderance of elected representatives. And the decisions of the
S.N.C. have to be put to the people for their approval in a referendum. 6.
We
have already stated, in another contribution, what our hopes and
expectations are, for the North, if it were to be reconstituted into one
political unit, competently and
efficiently managed, with its God-given resources properly husbanded and
judiciously applied for the greatest good of all the people of the
North. It is perhaps needless to add that we are envisaging the
North as an integral part of, and a leading player in, the a.
to
try to outline what ought to be the North’s position on at least those
issues the resolution of which is crucial to the success of the S.N.C -
issues which are bound to claim a great deal of time and attention of
both the “Conveners” of the Conference and “we the people of
Nigeria”. b.
to
suggest some specific proposals on how to restructure the country
including what should be the fate of the present states and local
governments - at least in the North; and c.
to
show how the Northern economy can be transformed into a strong, buoyant,
self reliant, diversified and expanding, and above all, securing the full participation
of all the people in both its development and its benefits and its
“dividends”. 7On
the basis of the foregoing, the first question to ask is, which are the
most crucial
issues which must primarily engage national attention? I would respectfully
submit as follows: first, who is to convoke the Conference; second the
mode of representation on, and the size of, the Conference; third
what should its remit be; and fourth, how are its decisions to
be implemented?
We must suggest answers to these questions, and our suggested answers
must be such as to command national acceptance and
have national consensus behind them. This is necessary because unless there
is a reasonably broad-based consensus backing the answers to these
questions, the Conference would be a futile exercise. 8.
Now, my suggested answer to the first question is that, it is the
Interim Government
which has to convene the Conference.
For, were the leaders of any group or groups such as “ethnic
nationalities” or students’ unions (or even AASU) or the so-called
NLC or “market women”, etc or even the CNPP
(the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties) or the N.U.D.
(Nigerians United
for Democracy) to convene the “Conference” such a move would only work
towards producing a manifesto, but could achieve nothing else. So,
the Conference,
to be worthwhile, can only be convened and organized by the Federal
Government of the day and by nobody else. 9.
As
for the second question, my suggestion is that, in order to be efficacious, the
size of the Conference should not exceed the size of the Federal
House of Representatives. And its composition should be at
least95% democratic,
that is to say directly elected, with not more than 5% appointed by the
Government to represent interests which deserve to be represented, but
which can not obtain representation through the electoral process. This
proposal would rule out any possible use of such undemocratic
and implausible criteria as “ethnic nationalities”, or tribal
or labour or student unions etc, as a basis of participation in the
Conference. It would also rule out the possibility of a Conference
“packed” by Government (rather than peoples’) representatives. 10.
As
for the third question, the assignment of the S.N.C should be to deliberate, and
submit proposals, on the following: a.
the
issue of political restructuring of b.
the
division of powers and functions between the Federation on the one hand
and the Regions on the other; c.
whether
we should revert to the parliamentary system, or whether we should adopt
another system, or a hybridization of some system; d.
How
do we get an effective police force and under which authority should it
be. 11.
As
for the fourth issue, the decision of the Conference should be put to
the electorate in a
referendum. If at least 51% of the voters approve them, then the
Interim Government must set the machinery in motion to give effect to
the Conference decisions. The
Interim Government has to implement the conference decisions and then
conduct proper free-and-fair elections before handing over power. 12.
Next,
after the aforementioned issues, which should be settled even before the
actual convocation of the Conference, there are two other issues which are
bound to be crucial in the work of the Conference itself:
(a)
if
restructuring is accepted, how many Regions units are to be created and
how are they to be demarcated’ (b)
which
functions should go to the Federation and which to the Regions; and (c)
how
is a new “revenue allocation formula” to be worked out so as to give the
“derivation” principle adequate recognition in order to deal with
the issue of the so-called “resource control”? 13.
First of all the issue of the number and composition of the
federating units and the
functions and powers to be reserved to the Federation [12 (a) above] I
would submit that we revert
to the 1963 arrangement – subject
only, as suggested above, to the creation of the
Middle Belt from the former Northern Region if this is requested.
14.
As for the fate of the existing states and local governments, my
proposal would be to convert the present states into Provincial
Governments, which
should be given all the functions of the present local
governments as well as
the function of providing basic social services, such as primary
and secondary
education, primary health care delivery services,
some aspects of agricultural extension and rural
development. And the present local governments should
be replaced with a system of a large number
of “development
areas” which should be local agencies for local
development for both
the Regional and Provincial
Governments. 15. The next issue [12(c)] above about the
formula for sharing revenues derived from the country’s mineral
resources is bound to be a hotly contested issue - since it is still the
petroleum resources located in the Niger Delta which are the main
national revenue earner. Accordingly, a request for a reasonable share
of these revenues to be allocated to the Region where the resources are
located (i.e. the South-South) would be quite understandable, proper and
just. But to request total “resource control” should be totality
rejected. The best arrangement in this matter is for us to accept that
the derivation principle must be recognized by allocating up to
25% of all the on-shore earnings to the Region where the
resources are located. 16. There are two matters among the issues which
the S.N.C has to deal with, which we have not touched upon. These are:
whether we should revert to the parliamentary [or adopt another] system
and how to get an effective police force and under which authority
should it be? As for the system, my suggestion would be to revert to the
parliamentary system and jettison the current one. It seems to me clear
that the current system is more suited to a military regime because of
its encouragement of dictatorial proclivities within its operators and
its apparatchik. It is a system which concentrates too much power in a
few unrepresentative (and often incompetent) hands, and it is a system
under which the principal operators are answerable to nobody and are
removable by nobody whatever they may do that may warrant their removal.
We must bear in mind that this is actually the case inspire of
the cynical provisions for “recall” and “impeachment” in the Constitution.
17. As for the police, the best approach seems to
me to be provincial police forces, recruited locally, trained nationally
and even internationally and deployed locally. 18. Finally, how do we organize and get the proposals coming from this Workshop, to be accepted by the North and eventually gain acceptance at the Conference? My view is that first we must try to get a substantial Northern Nigeria-wide support for them, and thence we must join hands with the many other groups engaged in the business of trying to actualize the S.N.C. and the restructuring of the country and we must, thereafter, try to get a majority of right thinking people representing the North at the S.N.C. |