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National Dialogue: If Two Wrongs Ccannot Make a Right, Ccertainly Many Wrongs Will Never Make a Right By Audu Zango
The recent inauguration of the National Dialogue has confirmed that the current leadership in the country is yet to imbibe democratic norms and values. It reminded me of Ibrahim Babangida’s transition programme in the early 90’s, when he tried unsuccessfully to cling on to power.
First of all the government that inaugurated the National Dialogue lacked legitimacy to rule because the whole world witnessed that they rigged themselves to power, but because of reasons only known to experts of global politics only chaps like Faure Gnassingbe of Togo can be pressurised to step down and not eminent persons like Olusegun Obasanjo. Moreover the delegates were selected based on their connections to the presidency or government houses in the states.
Secondly, the dialogue seemed to be directed towards issues of power sharing and system of government as if these are the major problems affecting the people. A genuine National Dialogue should discuss issues like social & security services, environmental protection, food supply, population management among others. In reality the system of government is not the problem, but evil manipulation of votes and financial mismanagement.
Thirdly, appointments to both the leadership and membership of the National Dialogue are lopsided. It is clear to everyone that Muslims are marginalised with the aim of provoking them. Some one, some where, some how is hoping to gain from disagreements that would ensue over the lopsided appointments.
No wonder Olusegun Obasanjo got angry when he was told the truth by members of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs. To be specific it is mischievous to appoint a biased cleric to be the Secretary of a National Dialogue, when everyone knows that clerics in religious organisations have being colluding with corrupt politicians to organise genocides in the country for their selfish interests. The daily champion of 1st march 2005 quoted Reverend Kukah (Secretary of the National Dialogue) as saying that “Only internally generated memorandum from delegates can be tabled for discussion, while those coming from the public might not be passed to members. The will be at the secretariat”. Such a myopic and arrogant statement can only from a biased mind.
One would have expected an unbiased technocrat to be the secretary of the confab and not clerics that poison the minds of their folk with tribalism and hatred. Moreover if both the government and parliament came to power legally, it should have been the task of the parliament to organise a National Dialogue and then receive memoranda from the citizenry, but because the parliament is a toothless dog that neither barks nor bite, its function was usurped by Olusegun Obasanjo.
In Conclusion, this National Dialogue is doomed because it was inaugurated by a government that lacked legitimacy. Its membership & leadership were selected and definitely not representative, therefore its recommendations will not be acceptable. It should end in the archives of the convener of the confab at Otta. Certainly those that rejected membership of the confab have exercised good wisdom.
Yours faithfully,
Abuja, Nigeria.
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