Nigeria Jaga-Jaga and Getting Worse

By

Douglas Akunia

 

 

Nigeria could break up within 15 years, so said the Americans.  Something some of us had also predicted.  It is said that the best prediction is one that doesn’t happen because it is heeded.  I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news or a pessimist but it is not looking good right now for us.  Nigeria at this point is jagajaga, everything is scatter scatter, to borrow from Nigerian musician, Idris.  There is really fire on the mountain, so to speak, reminiscent of the 1960's.  

 

There  are ethnic and religious riots going on in the country and no one knows how the whole thing will end.  Note that these riots show some fundamental problems and the cartoons is just an excuse to act them out. The Ibos, being the usual victims and after issuing warning after warning,  decided to take the matter into their own hands and started retaliating because the government has failed to protect them.  Then there are the Biafrans and others who want to just break up.

Then there is the serious problem in the delta area, which the federal government is bungling, without a clue as to how to handle.

 

The Nigerian political atmosphere is so tensed up with all kinds of threats from all angles because of the third term thing and everyone claiming it is their turn to produce the next 'ruler'.  In fact the ethnic, religious and sectarian strife is looking like Iraq.  The Delta region is even looking like Beirut of the 80's with all the kidnappings and bloodshed.  With the disruption of the oil production and pipes blown up regularly at will and workers kidnapped, the country is loosing billions of naira in revenue daily.  The government responds by bombing towns, making matters worse. The underlying problems are never even considered. Then there is infrastructural decadence.  The education system is a mess.  Schools are crumbling and in poor state. 

 

These problems culminated from fundamental unfairness, inequalities and deficiencies in our political structure along with the ethnic differences, dichotomy, mistrust and hatred.   Like I have said before in my previous write-ups, we could attempt to fix the situation by reviewing and strengthening our charter where it is lacking or ineffective.  By so doing we could fix other problems such as development across the country.  Some other well meaning Nigerians had also realized these problems and had been calling for constitutional conference, sovereign or not.  We just lost one of them, Dr. Beko Kuti, may his soul rest in peace.< /div>

 

Now I have read some articles arguing against this.  Some of them compelling I might add and some I agreed with to some extent because they are grounded in logic.  I agreed that the 1999 constitution is only an amended version of the 1979 constitution, which was part of the Murtala Muhammed transition program, was extensively deliberated but was fundamentally flawed. It was flawed because after all the deliberation, they decided to just copy the American constitution, it of course failed because it was not Nigerian.  In 1999, because of lack of time or for whatever reason, the Abdulsalam government decided to bring it back with only minor amendments.  So again, it is at the crux of the Nigerian issues.

 

In the National Political Reforms Conference (NPRC), they came up with all kinds of orishirishi (utter nonsense) things. They then tried to smuggle in a third term provision. Some of the things they suggested were not even constitutional issues but matters of law.  Again the National Assembly Jo int Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (JCRC) came up with this third term thing from no where.  They also wanted to pay themselves if they were taken out  of office in a coup or something like that and punish anyone who messes with the constitution.  They failed to realize that they were wasting peoples’ time because in case of a coup, the first thing the coupists do is suspend the constitution and it ends up in a trash bin and becomes meaningless. 

 

Finally we have an opportunity to bring our constitution in line with our situation, who we are and what kind of country we want to have considering our differences and traditions.  Instead we, being Nigerians that we are, are blowing the whole thing.  Our so called leaders in state governments, federal government and social organizations are selling us short, toying with the peoples’ future and chasing after their own personal and selfish interests, whether it is to be in favor of the president or the EFCC, whatever it is, except the peoples' interest.  This is why some people are insisting on the sovereign conference as a better option because it will truly come from the people as their own. I don't know whatever happened to PRONACO.

 

I celebrated a few weeks ago when they decided to discard the committee and NPRC recommendations as the working document and take it to the people.  But I became very disappointed when at the end of the day, Mantu and co decided to turn it into a process to validate their third term agenda.  That is why they chose the particular centers that they did, just so they can accommodate mostly their supporters who in some cases were bused in to attend and some opponents of the third term were denied opportunities to attend.  One of the Niger state delegates was even walked out because they didn' t like what he was saying.  Despite all the manipulations and games, reports we get indicate that the third term supporters seem to be loosing.  But this is Nigeria.

 

I have heard a lot of arguments to support Chief Obasanjo’s continuation in office.  Some say that he has a good economic program and needs time to complete it.  I disagree because 8 years should be enough to get the ball rolling.  Some say they can now call their folks in the village thanks to Obasanjo introducing the GSM.  I say oh really?  The cell phone and the internet revolutions in Nigeria were parts of a world wide phenomena in spite of the president. Some say he is the only one to hold the country together at this time and they don't see any alternatives out there.  I refuse to accept that because there are others who might not have made their intentions known because of the uncertainty, they don’t want to waste their money and time, knowing how Nigeria works. 

 

Some say Obasanjo is the only who can fix Nigeria.  Dr. Nnamani, governor of Enugu even mentioned how Obasanjo happens to be the right person at the right place at the right to always fix Nigeria's problems, from the heroics of the civil war and sparing the Ibos at the end of the war, to taking over from Murtala Muhammed and building the infrastructure before finally handing over in 1979.  But Chief Obasanjo himself recently said that he was number 3 on Dimka’s list.  How could he be number 3 if he was the second in command? That is  because he was the second in command only on paper,  For all practical purposes, Danjuma was actually the second in command to Muhammed.  Stories had it that Danjuma actually persuaded Mr. Obasanjo to take over after the assasination of Muhammed and that he would protect him and he did, while him and Yar’ Adua were running things from behind the scenes.  Much of the infrastructure was built in the Gowon administration.  That is by the way for Gov. Nnamani.

 

Dr. Nnamani should know that Obasanjo was only a field commander who took over from Benjamin Adekunle at the tail end of the war. We don’t have any records of any heroism on his part.  Accepting the surrender and ‘sparing the Ibos’ was not his choice to make, he was following orders. I found it very disappointing though, having had some respect for him in the past that Dr. Nnamani will be practicing such revisionist history.  From his writings that I have read, I thought he was more intelligent than that.  Governor Odili of River state is another disappointment.

 

I have heard argum ents about how democracy is not necessarily the key to progress.  They site Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan and South Korea that defied democratic norms as examples. I agree because there is more than one road to Jerusalem.  We should also see the transformation in the UAE.  A country does need strong leadership with vision, democratic or not, to have peace and progress despite the rhetoric we often hear from Mr. Bush.  But comparing this situation to the Asian tiger countries leaders is not right.  None of these Asian counties violated their constitution or changed it for their selfish purposes. They didn’t have term limits.  Neither did Franklin Roosevelt that has also been mentioned. We only hear of this kind of s tuff from African countries.

 

Some people argue that term limit is a hindrance to stability and progress.  Yes, that can be true but having a constitution by the people and following it is even more important for stability and progress as far as I am concerned.  A good leader that is hindered by term limit can have a hand picked successor to continue the legacy. Personally, I don’t mind changing the constitution to 3, 4 or what ever terms the people decide.  The problem is that it will be effect ive as from the next administration. In other words, the current administration will not benefit from it.  They took an oath to uphold the 1999 constitution and not an amended version. If they amend it, will they take another oath?  The problem is that anyone can come into power and decide to change the constitution to let him serve for life and there will be sycophants that will support him and push it through as long as we are talking about Nigeria.   They will never be voted out because the incumbent in a semi one- party state like Nigeria will always win, by hook or by crook.

 

Objectively speaking though, Mr. Obasanjo has done a lot of good work, don’t get me wrong, but not good enough to mess with the constitution for him.  This third term thing and the resultant tension it is causing in the country is rubbishing any good Obasanjo might have achieved.  But this article is not really about Mr. Obasanjo’s achievements and failures because there is a lot of both. That will be a future article.  This is about the charter and the need to review and amend it.  Term extention of any kind for Obasanjo if pushed through will be illegal, unconstitutional and wrong and can have big repercussions that might be in form of lawsuits, revolution, coup or even worse, dissolution of the country. 

 

In past articles I have recommended what we should do.  I admit I don't have all the answers and what I have to say is only my well thought out humble opinion.  Some well meaning Nigerians have their own and there is no one way to get to the promised land.  I am willing to consider other well thought out suggestions.  Instead of the nonsence we are wasting our time and reso urces doing, we should start to figure out how to tackle the issues I listed at the top of this article.  We have to consider the issue of natural resource, the issue of devolution of power to the states or zones, state policing, resource control, citizenship and residency and so on.  Instead of copying anyone's charter,  I recommend that we study how America, for example derived their constitution so we too can get one that suits us, considering the times of course.

 

To repeat what I have said in a previous article, we should first decide if we want to be together as a country or not.  What type of configuration, confederation, federal or unitary system we should have. What kind of government, military, civilian, socialist, democratic, monarchy or some combination that suits us.  Like before, I recommend that we start with the 1960/63 charter as the working bases. We fix the problem with that charter and I'll get to that in a minute.  I recommend that we stay together in a federation like before.  This time we use the six zones instead of the three (and later four) regions we had then as the federating units.  Let these zones make their own local laws according to their customs and traditions.  Let them develo p at their own pace.  Let them create states and local governments as they see fit.  The federal laws however among other things will protect fundamental human rights, rights to worship and rights to leave anywhere and make a living.  We should have a combination of tradition-based society and that based on civil law. Don’t' completely discard our traditions while we are not equipped for the law enforcement.

 

Because of our composition, I recommend that we have democratic and parliamentary syste m of government.  The reason is that it fits us better and is cheaper to operate.  The executive president is too powerful and attractive to just power mongers.  To correct the problem with the first republic charter, let the president be rotational between the North and South and going round the six zones and let it be one six year term.  Unlike the sixties, the president will not be just be ceremonial and powerless.  The president will appoint the prime minister like the English kings did in the 17th century before the monarch lost most of its practical  power when a king was beheaded and the people took over power and gave it to the prime minister and the parliament. 

 

The prime minister, appointed by the president from any part of the country and not produced by a winning party will form a government.  The president provides the agenda where he wants to take the country and the leadership, while the prime minister does the work of governing, just like they have in France today.  Each zone will want to provide their best-qualified person as president because they will give us their best candidates from which we choose.  No more godfathers and it will be less attractive to thiefs and rogues.  You see this will satisfy a lot of problems we are having now as far as power is concerned. 

 

The prime minister will have certain qualifications and be subject to confirmation every two years.  We will have a house of representatives to represent the people and a more Presbyterian house or senate representing the units. This should also include the military chiefs to protect the state and the council of chiefs to uphold our systems and values and the y will be part time.  The next president can keep a prime minister if they like the work they are doing just like the Americans do with the Federal Reserve chairman.

 

On the issue of resource control, it has to be negotiated and everyone has to be willing to compromise.  I now suggest that each zone get 25% of any earning from their zone while affected areas such as the delta get additional 5 % from the federal government share as compensation for the degradation there for a period of time.  Dist ribution will be based on population from census done every ten years and not based on number of local governments in a state.   I am on the fence about the issue of state police because I understand both sides of the argument.

 

I don't want this article to be too long, so please see my other articles, especially the 'blue print to a nigeria revolution' for more ideas. Let the lawyers and constitution experts work out the details and put it in legal form. Considering that we are a nation of several nations, we have to get serious without selfishness to have a constitution with tee th that will give us the political structure and guarantee stability, solving our underline issues and providing the best leader with vision to move us forward otherwise we are just buying time while things keep getting worse. People get a government that they deserve and we deserve better. We have an opportunity now, let’s use it wisely.  God help us all.

   

  

Douglas Akunia

California, USA