Sensing a threat to its cosy perch and constitutional mandate, the Senate last week quickly torpedoed both the conceptual underpinnings and arrowheads of the campaign for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) to renegotiate the bases for the Nigerian Project. UCHENNA AWOM examines the unfolding drama and writes that the agitators may have reached a dead end with the Senate position
The movement’s arrowheads and agitators hold religiously that if a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), a forum to properly debate Nigeria’s constitution and nationality fundamentals is convened all the nation’s festering problems will be solved.?
On the flip side, opponents are emphatic that these agitators simply want to use the SNC to break up the Nigerian federation. They further hold that SNC proponents want to use such a forum to devolve powers from the central government to such an extent that Nigeria’s constituent regions would become autonomous, albeit under a figurehead central government.?
But today, it appears that the renewed agitation for the convocation of sovereign National Conference (SNC) has met a dead-end. Expectedly, war of words would ensue between the proponents and the opponents of such a conference.
First the Senate made it explicitly clear that there can never be two sovereigns in one country. According to them, the National Assembly is the embodiment or the custodian of the sovereign will of the people. In that case, anything that has to do with the determination of the corporate existence of the country must have to be decided within the confines of the elected National Assembly.
Secondly, President Goodluck Jonathan last Wednesday put the final death nail on the agitation for SNC by declaring that there would be no such conference now. Instead he advised the chief proponents to exercise patience as the Belgore Committee prepares the reports of the 2005 constitutional conference for onward transmission to the National Assembly to turn in a brand new constitution.
But the agitators would not let go easily as they are threatening that unless the SNC is convoked, Nigeria risks blowing up.?? So the scenario looks more like a ding-dong affair. It is a clear situation where the executive and the legislature are in cahoots against the proponents of the conference. That being the case, the issue seems fast cascading to an imminent fall.
The Issues…
Writing on “SNC As Solution to Grievances”, the late? Gani Fawehinmi one of the spearheads of the conference in the hey days of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) declared that ; “there are so many grievances and accusations against Nigeria and by Nigerians, which the Sovereign National Conference must consider and resolve with the sole objective of designing a new Constitution (the Peoples' Constitution) for the country, which will cast into extinction all the evil tendencies which have conspired to make Nigeria' a virtual 'ghost' country, deeply and invidiously polarised in all directions since1914 to date and more seriously since January 15, 1966.
He added, “We must pull Nigeria back from the brink and from the precipice with a Constitution made democratically by Nigerians through the SNC and affirmed in a referendum by Nigerians.
The alternative to this path of sanity is to continue disastrously to pretend that pious political preaching, posturing and exhortations and the use of governmental power of brute force will contain the mounting crises. They will not. It is time to call a spade a spade and face the reality of our fate squarely, sincerely and courageously, so as to prevent disintegration of the country”.
That was vintage Gani. But it could be recalled that at the time he was fuming the country was yet to embrace democratic government the way it is today. At that time it was government by fiat.
That is to say that the people-elected representatives that are statutorily empowered to discuss any issue what discussing in the interest of the country was not in place. Who knows, the fiery lawyer may not be canvassing the extreme position had he been alive.
Yet another school of thought posits that his position may have reached a crescendo against the current state of insecurity and Boko Haram insurgence, which observers believe have a tinge of politics, religion and ethnic cleavages.
Again, this is even when viewed within the prism of ethnic cum regional agitation as the basis for the demand for a sovereign conference, where all the ethnic nationalities would discuss and fashion out the terms for their continued membership of the Nigeria union.
However, the argument against the proponents is that they tend to forget that Nigeria has already had too many constitutional debates – none of which has ever resolved the nagging problems which have dogged Nigeria from independence till today (corruption, ethnic factionalism, indiscipline, profligacy).?
The renewed call for the SNC has again brought to fore the seeming mutual suspicion among the ethnic nationalities. This was occasioned by the activities of the Islamic fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram.
Their murderous activities have stretched the country to the limit, hence the strident call for discussion. Some have even called for outright disintegration of the country if that could assuage the ego of the fundamentalists, who have made it clear that they want Nigeria governed in accordance with Sharia Islamic code.
Well, as the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu said, “unless and until the people of Nigeria produce a document that begins with, ‘We, the people have freely agreed’ like the Americans did, there won't be any genuine and authentic constitution.”
The agitators have not hidden their preference for Ojukwu’s treatise and of course sounded it clear that current reality has made it imperative to convoke the SNC.
The demands this time seem to have changed or perhaps enlarged to accommodate the new wave of problems, which have variously been interpreted as ethnic and religious-driven.
Therefore, the proponents have even gone further to set an agenda for the proposed national conference, but failed to state which body will discuss it: the elected representatives or the handpicked members from the army of activists’ organizations and even some opposition political parties?
According to them, there are many issues agitating the minds of people, which border on the way forward; among the issues are corruption, Islamist (Boko Haram) insurgency, insecurity, unemployment, resource control, diseases, illiteracy, poor management and leadership, among others.
These problems now pervading the land PRONACO opined have reinforced the need to re-examine the Nigerian project. “Particularly, to some stakeholders, the prevailing insecurity was created by a combination of these challenges that have kept the state prostrate. When citizens rise against one another, as it were, insecurity becomes inevitable and making progress becomes a mirage.
It could be recalled that in 2005, the Pro-National Conference Organisation (PRONACO) staged a semblance of the SNC. But the then President Olusegun Obasanjo administration ignored the group's resolutions. Instead the regime rather organized a 'national dialogue,' which also ended in a fiasco following the disagreements over resource control.
PRONACO and other civil rights group mostly from the south are saying that the nation is at a crossroads again, and calls for a sovereign national conference are germane. But they are having problem and that is their silence on the place of National Assembly in the whole arrangement.
The silence is now being interpreted to mean that they could appreciate ‘the disbandment of the National Assembly’. National Assembly as it is today is the only institution statutorily empowered to make laws for the good governance of the country.
That has been the thorny issue such that at every point that the idea of the SNC has been mooted, the government has maintained that the National Assembly could handle the issues, like corruption, flawed constitution, insecurity, infrastructure decay, election fraud, rudderless leadership, unemployment, skewed federalism, and so on.
It is enough weapons for the National Assembly to spurn the agitators. What’s more; they have done exactly that.
Senate Dismisses Call For SNC.
As expected the senate has dismissed the renewed calls for the convocation of the SNC. Senate spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, told a press conference in Abuja that National Assembly remains the only vehicle through which constitutional changes in the country can be made.
Apparently reacting to the strident calls for the SNC, Abaribe said “Our position is that we are already elected to represent all persons and citizens of Nigeria. If you look at the composition you are either represented by a House of Representative member or a senator. We do not think there is any matter under the sun that we will shy away from.
We do not understand the stand of those who insist that there must be Sovereign National Conference.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we are not against any group, association or persons meeting to discuss because that is to ensure democracy. What we are saying is that there cannot be democracy without democrats.
Therefore if you want any alteration to the way of life in the country the vehicle is the National Assembly. If you want to change the constitution bring it through the representatives and the senate
The senate’s position instantly elicited reaction from PRONACO and many other groups at the fore front of the conference. PRONACO in particular scuffed at the Senate for claiming that it is only the National Assembly that can give the country a peoples’ constitution, saying the legislative arm of government does not have such powers legally or conventionally.
Also, the Vice Presidential candidate, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Pastor Tunde Bakare and a former Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) senator, Dr. Olorunimbe Mamora have faulted the position of the National Assembly that composition of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) is not necessary.
Speaking through its spokesperson, Olawale Okunniyi in Lagos, PRONACO said “under sections 8 and 9 of the subsisting ‘Decree 24’ of 1999 imposed on the country by the Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar military regime but tagged the 1999 Constitution and as amended in 2011, the National Assembly has no powers to give the country the desired brand new constitution but to amend or tinker with the available one for the day-to-day governance of Nigeria.”
Reacting to the statement of the Senate’s spokesman, Enyinnaya Abaribe, in Abuja on Tuesday said that only the National Assembly can give the Nigerian people the kind of constitution they want. PRONACO said it was not in line with the overwhelming agitation of Nigerians for an all-encompassing national conference.
“We are always ashamed of the ignorance and self projection betrayed by the nation’s legislature each time they lay claim to or try to contradict the sovereign powers to give the country a brand new constitution through a Peoples’ National Conference which conventionally belongs to the Nigerian people.?
Such manifest ignorance by political office holders in Nigeria is an evidence of the fact that a greater percentage of them did not actually emerge from the peoples’ popular mandate but through manipulation and circumvention of the democratic process recklessly funded by them.
“Such statements from the National Assembly at this time of horrendous bloodletting and killings in the land over our conflictual constitutional and political structure smack off irresponsible selfishness on the part of the National Assembly.”
The group urged the legislators not to wait till they directly feel part of the bombings on “innocent and defenceless” Nigerians before they can yield to the demands of Nigerians for popular restructuring.
Okunniyi added that the over-bloated, corrupt and unyielding government structure in Nigeria is the greatest cog in the wheel of the nation’s stability and prosperity and that Nigerians must take their destinies into their hands “if they must survive the present slavery to political office holders as the country’s economy has refused to work under the over-protected political system.”
According to PRONACO, the government does not give a constitution to a nation in every decent society. On the contrary, it is the responsibility of the people to give the government a constitution as a covenant for governing them within a nation.
Also speaking from London, Bakare said he had always been skeptical about the lawmakers supporting anything like a national confab “because our lawmakers will not support anything that is likely to pose threat to their personal interest.”
He said one of the strong reasons the lawmakers will never support such move is because in recent times, the excesses of the National Assembly have been exposed and there is no way they will want to support anything that will further bring their deeds to public limelight, which the SNC is most likely to achieve.
Bakare warned that if “Nigeria failed at this point to sit and talk, allow all the ethnic nationalities on the country to voice out their minds it might spell doom. The earlier the National Assembly realizes this, the better.”
Mamora also dismissed the position that there is no need for SNC. “Nigeria is currently at a crossroads and the need to have a round table discussion to fashion out the best way for our corporate entity is now,” he said.
But analysts fault the agitators for exhibiting a seeming crass ignorance of the tenets of democracy. They aver that it is not enough to pontificate and speak eloquent grammar on the way to go about the so-called conference.
“The truth as at today is that there is an elected National Assembly as provided for in the constitution. The constitution no matter any misgivings remains the grundnorm. It directs, it regulates the activities and conduct of the Nigerian people or any other person within the sovereign that is Nigeria.
Not until the constitution is amended or completely abrogated by the same National Assembly and their state counterparts no other law would operate. Do not also forget that members of the National Assembly are Nigerians; they did not fall down from heaven.
“They are Nigerians who are also susceptible to the problems of Nigeria. They were elected to represent every segment of Nigeria as provided by the constitution no matter how flawed the process and the constitution have also provided that they remain the only institution that has the right to amend the constitution.
No unelected group has the right; they can only make an input through the public hearings. In this case if PRONACO or others want to convoke SNC for the purposes of rewriting the constitution they must be ready to face the electorate and get elected. If it were that easy, the outcome of the group’s mock conference sometime ago should by now become law”, said a political analysts who would not want his name in prints.
And Jonathan Buried The Agitation.
A day after the senate dismissed the calls for SNC, President Jonathan again minced no words to cancel the idea. By inference he buried the agitation last Wednesday, when he foreclosed the idea of convening a Sovereign National Conference. Instead he informed that the Presidential Committee on Outstanding Constitutional Issues, headed by Justice Alfa Belgore, was set up to handle defects in the current 1999 Constitution.
Speaking when elders from the South-South and South-West geo-political zones came calling on him at the State House, he said the Committee was set up to bring up areas of national consensus from the 2006 National Political Reform Conference for the National Assembly’s consideration towards effecting constitutional amendments.
“In recognition of the demands by Nigerians for a constitutional amendment, we set up the Justice Belgore Committee to bring up all those issues which have been agreed upon at previous national conferences, for presentation as bills to the National Assembly, and subsequent passage into law, while a larger body will meet on issues that are still controversial for a national consensus,” he said.
The leaders of the South-West and South-South geo-political zones had approached the President to demand for a national dialogue. According to them, the current spate of unrests in the country was a symptom of a “unitary constitution foisted on Nigerian”. The leaders, including Chief Edwin Clark and Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, had presented a communiqué from a meeting held by the two groups on January 21, 2012 at Ikenne, Ogun State.
The communiqué had condemned the activities of Boko Haram, requested for the withdrawal of troops from the streets to reduce tension, urged stronger prosecution of the war against corruption, requested for a reduction in size and cost of governance, and called for a national conference to produce a truly national constitution. Collectively, the visiting groups are demanding “true federalism, which recognizes the differences of the component constituents.
Consequently, Gbonigi, on behalf of the South West group, warned that the present administration’s transformation agenda would only succeed if the polity is stable, with happy and contented citizens. “In the absence of these, no agenda can succeed, no matter how laudable.
And to achieve peace and stability, there must be justice and equity,” he said, adding that “the 1999 Constitution is neither just nor equitable to the overwhelming majority of Nigerians; neither does it promote development and good governance.”
All said, the call for SNC would remain at the realm of conjecture and as an instant weapon for agitation by the bourgeoning groups whose activities captured the essence of democracy.
But the truism is that the groups must of necessity recognize the state of the National Assembly and design a symbiotic relation if a holistic constitutional amendment that will reflect the aspirations of all would be achieved.