At Sheraton Hotel, Abuja.
5th March, 2020.
Protocols
Distinguished ladies and gentleman
I was invited to attend today’s event in an unusual manner, I received a phone call from someone whose name was not so familiar to me asking for my house address so as to deliver an invitation to me. He sounded genuine and I therefore decided to send a description on how he can trace my house. We mutually agreed to meet at a certain time the following day. He was almost punctual on the appointed day and came along with two of his friends. When they came, they introduced themselves one after the other. In the course of the introduction I found out that they are Igbos and that they have been living in the North for at least 30 years or more. They handed over a sealed envelope containing the letter of invitation.
When I opened the envelop I directed my attention to the date and time for the event as they have already indicated the venue. I immediately expressed my relief to them that being Igbos who stayed in the North for such a long time, they must have been familiar with the general attitude of Northerners on the issue of national unity. And that having been a participant in the political activities in our country since the colonial era, I knew that Igbos and Northerners, particularly the Hausa-Fulani are committed Nigerians, given the manner the two communities settle in different parts of the country despite our country’s unfortunate civil war experience. I therefore told them that being of Igbo ethnic group with their long stay in the north for many years, they are in a good position to make a positive impact on issues related to promoting better mutual respect and understanding between the Igbos in general, and communities in the North, particularly Hausa-Fulanis. This is because there are almost as many Northerners in the Igboland and the same with Igbo in the North. They concurred and requested me to give them names of some Northerners resident in Abuja for them to have an engagement within the course of their preparations for the event. I obliged accordingly. Thereafter they expressed delights and bade me farewell.
It was after their departure that I noticed that the group is interested in matters pertaining to things like structuring Nigeria, true federalism and such other high sounding political slogans that started ranting the political atmosphere in the country, but which has potentially grave consequences if not thought through and carefully defined, before pushing the country to accept such slogans that will not augur well for the country.
in Nigeria, particularly from around 2015 general elections. I have been hearing and reading about those slogans but I never got the opportunity to know what the details of restructuring Nigeria is all about nor did I ever read anything on the blueprint of what restructuring means. It will make a world of difference if the protagonists of the idea will take the trouble to spell out the prons and cons of this concept. If they can do so they will help people to have an understanding of what restructuring is all about and be able to make up their minds about it.
I am weary of political slogans. We have had experience of many political slogans without definitive meaning. I think we should learn our lesson of political slogans from the last general elections. Most Nigerians lent their support to the slogan for change. I’m not sure if this country has seen any significant changes for the better since 2015.
I do not belong to any political party since the year 2001. Certainly as a Nigerian I have the right to cast my vote for any candidate or political party of my choice, but I have decided to not vote for any party or candidate. I allow Nigerians to elect the party or candidates of their choice. If they chose a good party or candidates, we shall all enjoy the goodies together. If they made a bad choice we will similarly suffer together. But from now on let us keep our eyes wide open so that we will not blame anybody for the bad choices we make.
Before independence, the country was divided into three parts namely; Western, Eastern and Northern regions. Going by the nature of our relationship as Nigerians, the people of Nigeria including those from the eastern and northern parts of the country have learnt a lot about living together. There are a lot of the Hausa-Fulani that have been living in the southen part of our country including the Igbo land for a long time. While at the same time, the Igbo’s have been residing in the north since time in memorial. Every nook and cranny of the villages and towns in the north are housing the igbos. Northerners are also living in the south including Igboland for many years. We have been interacting with one another. We need each other as our cultures are complementary in nature.
I would like to make some remarks on issues your organisation regard as its cardinal principle. These are: (a) Federal Character, (b) Restructuring & (c) Rotational Presidency in Nigeria.
The first item federal character can be discussed concomitantly with the the last item as they are dealing with the same theme – which is giving a sence of belonging to every section of the people of Nigeria on matters relating to the governance of the country.
Rotation and zoning were first introduced to Nigerian political lexicon by the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN. I am happy to say I happen to be among the founding fathers of that party. The idea was conceived around 1978 when NPN was transformed from the National Movement of Nigeria as part of the transition programme of Murtala/Obasanjo administration. When NPN was sponsoring candidates to contest 1979 general elections it adopted the policy of zoning and rotation as the platform upon which the party will seek mandate from the Nigerian electorate for those elections. The party therefore nominated Alhaji Shehu Shagari of blessed memory from the present day North West zone to be its Presidential candidate with late Dr. Alex Ekweme from South East as his running mate. After the election, the party nominated Dr. Joseph Wayes as Senate President and as a result of NPP/NPN Accord and late Senator John Wash Pam was elected as his deputy. Late Rt. Honourable Ume Ezeoke speaker of the House of Representatives and Honourable Idris Kuta also of blessed memory as deputy speaker. The election of Rt. Honorable Ezeoke and Senator Jaohn Wash Pam were an aberration.
That was because contrary to its expectation the NPN did not win majority seats in the 1979 National Assembly elections. That necessitated the party to go into an alliance with the APP led by the doyen of Nigerian politics and the first President of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe which for some political exigencies was termed accord instead of alliance. I called the election of the Rt. Hourable Ume Ezeoke and of Senator John Wash Pam as an aberration because originally the two positions they held were among those zoned by the NPN other than the ones Rt. Honourable Ezeoke and Senator John Pam came from. The intention was for that arrangement to continue in that order until the country would decide to jettison the idea of rotation and zoning altogether. Zoning and rotation was intended to operate between the North and South and the various positions zoned at that time were to rotate between the North and South.
But that hope of entrenching zoning and rotation in our constitutional arrangement was temporally truncated by the 1983 military takeover that brought General Muhammadu Buhari into power. But the aspiration was kept alive by the resilience and persistent struggle of the Nigerian people for a constitution that will meet their aspirations of an egalitarian system that will satisfy the yearnings of our people. By 1994, Nigerians resumed their march for a democratic rule leading to the election into the constitutional conference that year which returned the country to the path of constitution making.
It is worth mentioning that the 1994/5 constitutional conference in initiating the political offices to be distributed at the federal level, four positions were initially considered for zoning. These were office of the president. vice president, Senate president and Speaker of the House of Representatives along with the offices of the national chairman and national secretary of the party. When the proposal was submitted to the then Head of State, General Sani Abacha, he removed the positions of party national chairman and secretary from the equation and replaced them with an innovation of the offices of the prime minister and deputy prime minister. That made the total number of elective public offices to be distributed at the federal level to six. That will tally with the innovation of six geopolitical zones consued during the conference. The conference also recommended zoning and rotation at state levels with the senatorial districts to be the basis for zoning formula in the states. All of these and many other innovations were accepted and incorporated into amendment constitution which was accepted by the military council and promulgated into the new constitution.
That conference recommended many innovations such as geopolitical zones are now virtually accepted by the country even though the idea is not yet entrenched in our constitution. The idea of geopolitical zones was part of the initiative of entrenching principles of zoning and rotation in the Nigerian constitutional development. Unfortunately the idea was truncated by the sudden death of the former head of state General Sani Abacha in 1998. By the time the country resumed its journey towards democracy in 1999, issues of zoning and rotation were put at the back seat during the intervening period between 1999 to date. Thank God, the National Assembly has now rekindled our hope in this regard by appointing an add hoc committee to look into the matter again and make necessary recommendations for amending our constitution once more. I hope this time around Nigerians will make best use of the opportunity to ensure that all the good ideas that have been touted in all the previous unsuccessful attempts at amending the constitution are successfully incorporated into the constitution this time around as such opportunities rarely present themselves.
Now I would like to turn to the issue of restructuring being presently touted. The concept of restructuring Nigeria is muted for discarding the present federal constitution in favour of a new one but the promoters of this idea are shy to come out to say so. The concept of restructuring Nigeria has been going on since the constitutional crisis of 1953/4 London constitutional Conference. , It has been intermittently raised in different form. For example, during the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, Col Gideon Orker who hailed from Benue State, declared his intention expell two geopolitical zones of the north west and the north east from the country during his aborted coup attempt, and this was all part of the grand scheme of those agitations for restructuring.
Finally, I would like to end by making some solemn recommendations on issues I believe will help us move this country forward and help us begin to get things right. The declaration is on three issues.
Now I would like to turn to the issue of restructuring being presently touted. The concept of restructuring Nigeria is muted for discarding the present federal constitution in favour of a new one but the promoters of this idea are shy to come out to say so. The concept of restructuring Nigeria has been going on since the constitutional crisis of 1953/4 London constitutional Conference. , It has been intermittently raised in different form. For example, during the administration of Gen Babangida, Col Gideon Orker who hailed from Benue State, declared his intention to expell two of the six geopolitical areas namely the north west and the north east from the country during his aborted coup attempt, and this was all part of the grand scheme of those agitations for restructuring.
Finally, I would like to end by making some solemn recommendations on issues I believe will help us move this country forward and help us begin to get things right. The declarations are on three issues.They are:
a) creation of truly independent political party that system that will not be under the control of any individual or a group of individuals in or out of power. A political party that will be control by its members. Such a party has once existed in our country. NCNC, NPN, PDP are the example of such party;
b) free fair and proved to be credible elections conducted by robost electoral commission that will be run by people of proven integrity, experienced, honest and truly independent minded people.
c) courageous, independent and truly non partisan judiciary.
