Destined for the Archives
Last week, northern delegates to the 2014 National Conference called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to implement the conference’s report, even though the president himself has never shown any interest in doing so. Shola Oyeyipo wonders if the report st
Last week, northern delegates to the 2014 National Conference called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to implement the conference’s report, even though the president himself has never shown any interest in doing so.
“The conference therefore commenced with the region that has the largest land mass and population grossly under-represented and brazenly treated unfairly. This engendered a deep sense of apprehension and justifiable suspicion. Above all, the action of that government (former president Goodluck Jonathan’s government) raised the serious issues about the credibility in the outcome of the conference conclusions” – That was the view of some northern delegates to the 2014 national conference when they urged President Muhammadu Buhari to jettison the resolution of that conference last week in Abuja.
No doubt, the above proposition is contentious, more so because not only has the agitation for a sovereign national conference to give birth to a truly federal nation persisted, some who consider the Jonathan conference as the best so far have been clamouring for the implementation of the report.
However, the northern opponents of the national conference are not without well marshaled argument to drive home their point.
Former Minister of Power and Steel during the late General Sani Abacha era, Alhaji Bashiru Dalhatu who presented a keynote address at the gathering stated the position of the conference antagonists when he noted that “The 2014 National Conference had 492 members and the north, which constitutes about 70 percent of the country’s landmass, and 55 percent of its population was allocated 189 delegates, while the South with only 30 percent of the landmass, and 45 percent of its population was given an incredible 305 delegates.”
So, basically, the grouse is that the north was not given fair representation in the conference with the 189 delegates allotted to it, despite its landmass of 70 percent and 55 percent of the country’s population.
Coming three years after the conference, Dalhatu who spoke on behalf of his counterparts on the platform of the Northern Delegates Forum (NDF) stated unequivocally that “This went against sensible demographics, law, and practice, which could have hardly been done in good faith. Certainly, it was designed to put in particular our delegates, and the north in general at a disadvantage. Therefore, we were not happy with the report, and have come out with this second report and communiqué.”
While it is not incorrect to note that historical facts point to it that the north has been the only proponent of the status quo in an haphazard national union, recent facts also suggest that the north is not in full support of the 2014 national conference because at the conclusion of the conference in 2014, some delegates from there already dissociated themselves from the ‘new draft constitution’ submitted to all delegates by the leadership of the conference.
They claimed they were neither privy to, nor were they accessories to the emergence of the controversial draft constitution contained in the proposed amendment titled: ‘A bill for an act to further alter the provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) with the first, second and third alteration, and for related matters 2014.
Aside the fact that other issues like how to curtail the incessant clashes between farmers and herdsmen across the country and other sundry matters were discussed at the event, it would seem that NDF members needed not belabour themselves to advise Buhari who would easily pass as their compatriot in the quest to throw the conference report into the trash can because he never hide his disdain for the conference report and recommendations.
Though some have said the last national conference was the boldest step in recent times in addressing the country’s structural defects and forging a nation, after initially ignoring the report, when Buhari eventually opened up on it, he said: “I advised against the issue of national conference. You would recall that ASUU was on strike then for almost nine months. The teachers in the tertiary institutions were on strike for more than a year, yet that government had about N9billion to organise that meeting (national conference), and some (members) were complaining that they hadn’t even been paid. I never liked the priority of that government on that particular issue, because it meant that what the National Assembly could have handled was handed to the conference, while the more important job of keeping our children in schools was abandoned. That is why I haven’t even bothered to read it or ask for a briefing on it, and I want it to go into the so-called archives.”
What would however underscore the importance other Nigerians attached to the conference, irrespective of Buhari and his northern counterparts unfavourable disposition to it, was the immediate response to the president’s venomous comment by a cross section of well-meaning Nigerians.
Prominent Nigerians like General Zamani Lekwot (rtd) said to the president that “implementing the report is a solution to the nation’s problems.” Dr. Patricia Ogbonnaya said “It is being narrow-minded and unpatriotic because the president cannot claim that the report is entirely useless to the development of our country Nigeria.” Former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Aniete Okon, former presidential candidate of the National Transformation Party (NTP), Deacon John Dara, former Minister of Women Affairs, Iyom Josephine Anenih and national spokesperson of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, all reacted to the president’s comment and urged him to reconsider his stance on the matter.
Not surprisingly, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, also reiterated the president’s position and dismissed the national conference as ‘job for the boys’, but he also got vituperative criticisms from prominent delegates to the conference.
The widespread opinion among Nigerians has been that the country is suffering from structural defects which is considered as responsible for some negative tendencies such as violent agitations for self determination, militancy and terrorism. The suggestion therefore is that even if not all the recommendations of the conference are considered, there are some germane ones urgently needed to bring about unity.
The immediate reaction from the National Publicity Secretary of pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere and member of the 2014 national conference, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, to the recent position of the NDF opposing the restructuring of the country, is very instructive.
He did not only tag it as “self-serving and myopic”, he warned that it is impossible to sustain Nigeria the way it is much longer without consequences.
“They are self-serving opportunists. We all together at the 2014 national conference took unanimous decisions on over 300 resolutions and did not vote on any issue. The rules say that we have to have two thirds on any issue. We agreed on all those issues based on consensus. Now because of their short sightedness to think, but because they are in charge-they got power back-all that is wrong with Nigeria should be over looked. This shows the opportunism in them,” Odumakin said.
According to him, at the 2014 National Conference, the north raised the issue of the south having more delegates than them but when we took account of the delegates, it was discovered that northerners were more at the gathering which took place in Abuja.
“What they have done is to preempt us by
I advised against the issue of national conference. You would recall that ASUU was on strike then for almost nine months. The teachers in the tertiary institutions were on strike for more than a year, yet that government had about N9billion to organise that meeting (national conference), and some (members) were complaining that they hadn’t even been paid