The cloud of uncertainty hovering over some knotty issues in the polity has culminated in frenetic clamours lately for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), writes KUNLE ODEREMI.

NOT long ago, some leaders from the Northern part of the country met in Kaduna. Their main agenda was, predictably, the current state of the nation. The meeting was under the auspices of the Arewa Consultative Forum [ACF], a platform for persons of Northern extraction. Two issues fully engaged the leaders on the occasion, with one of them being the virulent activities of the militant group, Boko Haram, which the leaders said had claimed more than 2000 lives, with most of them being northerners.

Another contentious issue that was reflected in the comments of the chairman, ACF Central Working Committee, Alhaji Aliko Mohammed, who briefed the press after the meeting, was the consistent calls for a national conference by groups and individuals in the country. His remarks on the issue came in form of a rebuttal that certain sections of the country were averse to a conference, where the more than 400 nationalities making up the federation can resolve some vexatious national issues.  “The term of our National Union and those by which the Nigerian federation are run have been well defined in our Constitution. However, for the avoidance of doubt, it should be made clear that the North remains open and will be keen to discuss any idea that may place Nigeria in  a better position to meet the challenges of nation-building and serve a better future for this and succeeding generations of Nigerians,” Mohammed emphasised. He, peradventure, deliberately avoided using any word like national conference or national question, the euphemism for critical issues that tend to undermine national unity over the years.

Before then, some groups in the North, especially the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) had frowned at what they perceived as the existing defective federal structure and canvassed for a pragmatic solution. In fact, one radical group, the Middle Belt Alliance (MBA), with a claim to be the true voice of all natives in states of the North Central zone, had said the people could no longer play the second fiddle and were prepared to assert themselves as equal stakeholders in the Nigerian federation. The leaders of the group, Dr. Leonard Shilgba (Chairman) and Comrade Andrew Ayuba urged governors from the North Central Zone to pull out of the 19-member Northern Governors’ Forum and form the Middle Belt Governors’ Forum. It also vehemently advocated the convocation of a sovereign national conference, where the federating units can agree on the true terms of their co-existence and codified in a popular Constitution for the country. Their communiqué had read in part: “We must be proud of our culture and the pre-dominant religion (Christianity) of our region…. Religion is an individual choice to make, and must not be imposed.”

Contending Issues
A similar demand has resonated across the three zones in the southern axis of the country, with the clamour assuming a more national outlook when some leaders of thought converged on Lagos for a two-day summit last Monday. Their meeting came barely a few days after another set of leaders regrouped under the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and restated the imperative of a national conference to chart a rescue plan for the beleaguered federation, owing to recurring plagues of adversity. The calls are part of the fallouts of mutual suspicion and distrust among stakeholders in the federation that have led to frequent sectarian violence, inter-ethnic clashes and political intolerance. There are other conflict areas like the over-concentration of power at the centre, subjugation of other federating units like states and local councils, lopsided federal structure and unbridled corruption that has seen the country lose billions of public funds to private pockets.

From the Lagos colloquium, organised by the National Summit Group (NSG), the calls for such conference in the quest to enthrone true federalism has become a stubborn growth, which many appear to have finally recognised. Various antics employed by the military in the past to quench the fire only ended in strengthening and expanding the ranks of the advocates of true federalism and national conference, while the current frightening state of insecurity has helped in accentuating the necessity for the conference. The question now is, who is afraid of the conference, given the position of the various ethnic organisations, mass-based groups and organisations that have joined the fray in advocating the conference?

FG’s Intervention
The central government equally appreciates the disproportionate structure on the ground at the moment. While the Constitution has novel provisions like the quota system aimed at achieving possible even progression and balance, the problem of uneven development and growth has persisted in the land. One of the new initiatives by the government to end this is a strategic budget under the Vision 20:2020 to embark on interventionist projects in each of the six zones. States are required to make their inputs into the plan, which appears threatened by hiccups in the political system. The plan was also to serve as part of the official moves to foster national unity.

The Consensus
Though the position of one or two of the regional organisations on the idea of having a conference might appear intriguing, the general view now is that the country would be averting a major disaster if does not further procrastinate in holding a national conference to encapsulate the wishes and aspirations of all the nationalities in a popular Constitution to replace the 1999 Constitution inherited from the military. Some groups like The Patriots, a body of elders, have already prepared what could pass as a model of such new legal document. Other bodies such as NADECO even warned that such a conference was sine quo non in view of the present precarious state of the nation.

The Chairman of the coalition, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, said only the conference was capable of restoring the original pillars of the federation. He declared, “NADECO believes that an SNC is the inevitable first step and irreducible minimum condition that can set us on the path to salvaging the country from the unfolding grave dangers. The crisis Nigeria faces affirms that it is mandatory that the peoples of Nigeria sit down and restore the very foundation of the country and, thus, establish the constitutional architecture of Nigeria.”

Kanu was of the view that the real enemies of the country were the antagonists of the conference because they were placing their individual gains above the collective will and interest of the Nigerian people.

“The actions of the opponents (of SNC) can only lead to Nigeria’s break-up and responsibility for such outcome would rest squarely upon such opponents of SNC,” the former Lagos military administrator maintained. His view was corroborated by renowned economist, Professor Pat Utomi, who noted that such conference would save the country from “the brink of collapse, a little like the 1966-67 era.”

On his part, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, who was the governor of old Kaduna State in the Second Republic, is pissed off by the fact that the county now parades political leaders who absolutely lack the  “nationalistic and dignified character” of the nation’s founding fathers. He supports a former presidential contestant, Chief Olu Falae and a legal luminary, Professor Ben Nwabueze in advocating the convening of an SNC. Falae warned that, “Anyone against SNC is an enemy of the people. The efforts have been thwarted for too long.”

Nwabueze, 82, who is the current leader of The Patriots, said he and other advocates were prepared to storm Abuja, the seat of power, this time in order to ensure that the conference held. Similarly, Chief Audu Ogbeh found it appalling that the country was in a dire strait as the present 36-state structure exists “just to collect allocations, pay salaries and share the balance.” Accordingly, most of the leaders, including a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Obong Victor Attah, said only such conference could save the country from dire consequence. His words: “Without security, we cannot have stability and if we don’t have true federalism, Nigeria may not just break into two, but split into several parts.”

A constitutional lawyer, Professor Akin Oyebode, painted a gripping picture if the country should fail to take pragmatic constitutional steps to detonate the current time bomb. He likened the unfolding ugly trends in the country to the situation that culminated in the turmoil in Somalia that has rendered it  ungovernable for years because of insurgencies.  “If we are not careful and do something very critical to address the present challenges confronting us, Nigeria will soon be on the road to Mogadishu and it may soon disappear from the world map.” He added that the 1999 Constitution was “completely outdated and need to be replaced. We need to write a constitution that must be subjected to a referendum.”

For the leader of the Ijaw nationality, Chief Edwin Clark, “we must know why we are living together,” adding, “States should move at their own pace and not that if you cannot move, I must not move.”

A former Minister of Finance,  Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, had a word of advice for  those who are apprehensive that such conference was capable of threatening the unity of the country. He said their disposition towards the conference posed a greater danger to the corporate existence of the country. He stated: “Some people fear that the country may break down if SNC is held. That affirms the need to talk and allay their fears. We need peace with security, peace with justice, peace with the rule of law and an acceptable Constitution where things can come from.”

Another former Minister of Information, Dr. Joe Nwodo, recalled that the present Constitution was, indeed, a child of necessity as the document was designed to serve as a stop gap as Nigerians were in a haste to restore civil rule in 1999. He declared, “Our leaders should come out to take a position on SNC. Our present Constitution has failed us.”

In the opinions of observers, the views expressed by virtually all the senior citizens during the Lagos summit were suggestive of the fearsome state the Nigerian federation has found itself lately because of the patch-and-sew syndrome the country had adopted in the past in tackling serious national issues on constitutional matters.

This is, however, not the first time the advocates have tried to build a national consensus on the necessity of a national conference, where those issues could be discussed and agreed on by stakeholders in the Nigerian federation. Perhaps, the only difference is the discernible expanding ranks of the protagonists, some of whom analysts have labelled as latter-day progressives and pseudo-democrats. But how far can the committed advocates of the conference go this time round?