Expectedly, the most
discussed issue since
October 1, 2013 is the
proposed national
conference consented to
by President Goodluck
Jonathan in his
Independence Day
broadcast. Since then, the
President has gone ahead
to inaugurate the Femi
Okurounmu-led National
Advisory Committee on
National Dialogue.
My take on this whole
issue is that it is a right
thing being done at the
wrong time. Yes, it is
better to jaw-jaw than to
war-war. However,
convoking a national
dialogue on the eve of an
election year is ominous.
Also, the quick succession
in which the opponents of
the idea became the
proponents is suspect...
First, Senate President
David Mark welcomed the
idea on resumption from
the National Assembly’s
recess in September
before the President
established a 13-member
committee on October 1.
The nation’s No. 1 and 3
citizens are known
antagonists of the idea
before now.
My main bother about the
timing of the conference
is that it may affect the
proper planning for the
2015 elections. Election
needs a painstaking
planning and enormous
funding; with all the
energy, time and
resources being
channelled towards a
national dialogue,
inadequate resources may
be made available to the
Independent National
Electoral Commission to
prepare for the 2015 polls.
Given that the
Okurounmu’s committee
has been given six weeks
to plan for the conference,
all points to the fact that
the main conference will
take place in 2014.
The Obafemi Awolowo
Foundation held a
colloquium on October 7
where it tried to do
agenda setting by asking
for a nine-month
conference of 400
delegates 90 per cent of
whom will emerge by
electoral colleges from
wards, local governments,
states and zonal levels on
a non-partisan basis. The
remaining 10 per cent, it
was suggested, would be
nominees of professional
bodies, trade unions, civil
society organisations,
which of course should
include youths, children
and women as well as
pan Nigerian religious
bodies. My concern is
that instead of INEC to
focus on preparations for
2015 polls, it might end
up being saddled with
organising or supervising
election of persons to
attend the national
conference and the
proposed referendum on
the outcome.
Is there really a way we
can have the dialogue
without the 2015 elections
being hampered or are we
going to have the
conference and still allow
INEC to go on with the
preparation for the polls?
What if the conference
resolves to alter the
current political structures
and systems? For
instance, what if it
resolves that we go back
to parliamentary system
of government as some
have said that the cost of
running a presidential
system is too prohibitive?
What if we decide to try
out unicameral legislature
as against the current
bicameral structure? What
if we agree to reduce or
increase the number of
states, local government,
federal constituencies,
state constituencies, etc?
Some people have also
suggested going back to
the First Republic regional
structure.
Others have called for the
scrapping of the State
Independent Electoral
Commission and its
functions being taken over
by INEC. What if the
conference approves the
proposition of a single
term of six or seven
years? Will it take effect
immediately or post 2015
polls? Will there be a new
constitution to be drafted
after the national
dialogue? The implication
of all these posers is that
the conference may very
likely impact negatively on
the plans for 2015
elections. If there is no
election in 2015, what
then happens? The
current political office
holders get to stay on?
Will that not confirm the
suspicion that the motive
for acceding to the
national dialogue is self-
serving rather than
altruistic? Or, will there be
an interim government?
I would have preferred a
situation where the
conference would have
held last year (2012) so
that the implementation of
the resolutions would not
hamper the preparations
for the next polls. What
that would also have done
for us was to save the
nation the enormous
resources already spent
on constitution
amendment currently
being pushed through the
national assembly. As it
were, both chambers
embarked on nationwide
public hearings with the
House of Representatives
holding historic peoples
public sessions in the 360
federal constituencies.
At present, the National
Assembly is expected to
set up a conference
committee to hamonise
the positions of the two
chambers, vote on the
proposals and send
sections that get two-
thirds majority approval to
the state Houses of
Assembly for possible
concurrence. If the
National Assembly had
not been tardy with its
constitution amendment
timeline and had met the
June 2013 proposed end-
date, that exercise would
have been concluded
before this scheduled
conference. Is our country
so rich to afford all these
exercises?
It would seem most of the
Nigerian political,
business and religious
elites and opinion
moulders have bought the
idea of national
conference and are willing
to give the President the
benefit of the doubt, but
let it be on record that I
warned the nation that it
is a right idea being
implemented at a very
wrong time. When Kenya
did her own in 2010, the
elections were some three
years ahead (the elections
held in March 2013). I
would rather we give INEC
the needed support and
resources to organise a
better election in 2015
than spending 2014
discussing Nigeria and
putting the election
management body in a
state of suspended
animation or uncertainty.
0 comments:
Post a Comment