Leaders of Thought meeting: Time to pray for Nigeria’s future
By
The recent two-day meeting at Abuja of the 126 - member Leaders of Thought drawn equally from all six geo-political zones could be said to epitomise the first of its kind since the imperial creation of Nigeria some one century ago. Unlike many government-sponsored constitutional conferences of the past which mainly comprised party political delegations and some hand-picked agents of officialdom, the latest Abuja assemblage was deliberately constituted in such a manner as to cover our various ethnic nationalities irrespective of party leaning or attachment to some instrumentality of public governance.
True, the meeting was convened, but not necessarily sponsored by a certain unity-conscious Committee of Concerned Traditional Rulers led by Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido, the Sultan of Sokoto, Oba Okunade Sijuwade the Ooni of Ife and Igwe Alex Nwokedi of Achala in Anambra State. However, the royal trio seemed to have intentionally steered clear of any temptation to draw up substantive agenda for the serious discussions that were to ensure. This critical responsibility had to fall upon the ready shoulders of the distinguished delegates themselves. And how effectively was the result!
The opening salvo was fired by Professor Ben Nwabueze whose keynote address on behalf of Ohaneze representing the South-East zone of the Igbo ethnic nationality, set the tone of subsequent debates. He quoted Thomas Paine who in his Rights of Man as defined in 1789, pointed out that "a constitution is not the act of a government but of the people constituting a government."
Referring to the ostensible attempt by the federal executive authorities and the national assembly to hijack the people’s constitution making power, the erudite professor, delved into the attestations of a number of scholars to reinforce his view that "the national assembly by their election is only a mandate to govern under and in accordance with provisions of the 1999 constitution." To him, a national conference was the panacea for the nation’s ills.
Next to deliver an address was Alhaji Maitama Sule who sought, albeit inoffensively, to lead this extremely memorable discourse down a diversionary cascade of aberrant oratory. Dissociating himself from having received any mandate of the North-West zone of which his Kano belongs, he made a persuasive but impassionate plea for national unity as well as the over-riding need for reciprocal tolerance among Nigerians. He said nothing in support of the need for a conference of ethnic nationalities.
Incidentally, Alhaji Maitama became the only speaker at the meeting to earn "another round of applause" from the moderator, Professor Anya O. Anya.
Coming on the heels of Danmasanin Kano, the leader of the South-West delegation and chairman of Afenifere, Senator Abraham Adesanya, mounted the podium. Not surprisingly, he made a Ferrand advocacy for a sovereign national conference, and assured the meeting that the Yoruba were not interested in the break-up of the country.
In the absence of Alhaji M.D. Yusuf, leader of the Arewa Consultative Forum, it came to the turn of Senator David Dafinone to deliver an address as head of the South-South delegation. Again, he reinforced the call for a national conference to address the diverse problems facing the country. This meant that all three geo-political zones in the South of Nigeria favoured a national conference. It was now the turn of the three Northern zones to contribute to the debate.
Chief Solomon Lar, as leader of the North-Central zone and Air Vice Marshal Dan Suleiman left no one in doubt as to their uncompromising stand in favour of a national conference. With four of the six zones calling for a conference of ethnic nationalities, it was left for the North-East and North-West zones to make their positions clear.
This was not to be. Senator Abubakar Tuggar of the North-East proved unable to lend support to the clamour for a national conference. Like Alhaji Maitama Sule of the North-West zone, Tuggar explained that he attended the meeting in his personal capacity.
A communiqué was however issued at the end of the second day of meeting. Quite apart from the over-flogged and often light- headed declaration in favour of national unity, as well as the pressing need to improve the people’s quality of life, the communiqué agreed that "a National Conference should be convened AFTER DUE CONSULTATIONS, (capitals mine) to address the various issues threatening the unity, peace and sovereignty of the Nigerian nation."
Herein lies the inevitable conundrum, a potential spanner in the works. First, the leading convener of the distinguished persons meeting, His Eminence, Muhammadu Maccido, Sultan of Sokoto was conspicuously absent from the event, on the expressed ground of ill health.
Secondly, Ambassador Maitama Sule graphically distanced himself from the main plank of the concourse, citing a lack of the North- West people’s mandate, a similar stand-offish stance within which senator Abubakar Tuggar of the North-East seemed to have found easy refuge.
And now, the meeting’s communiqué cheerily proclaims success in having agreed to convene a national conference, which ominously, could be aborted in an explosive ambuscade mounted by some suspected, traditional conference opponents. The insertion of the clause after due consultations carries with it a sinister forbidding against a consensual affirmation for convening, not to talk of holding such a vital conference.
With unavailability of the Sultan and unexplained absence of the Arewa leader, Alhaji M.D. Yusuf, from the Abuja meeting, it seems obvious that the core North may prove problematic, perhaps beginning from the stage of "due consultation." In which case, the euphoria over the acclaimed success of the Leaders of Though discourse may prove to be presumptive and illusory.
Besides, the presidency and the national assembly are clearly in no mood to lend their support to the popular agitation for a conference of ethnic nationalities, for the apparent fear that such a highly expansive parley could undermine their illegitimate penchant for appropriating the task of constitution making from the ordained sanctuary of the people.
In the kind of defective democracy, which today holds sway in our society, it could be said that the minority, acting in conjunction with the President, constitutes a majority. It should however, be necessary to take a lead from our recent history in which dynamic and resolute minority was able to end the repressive Abacha rule and usher in today’s prevailing democracy, despite its little or no discernible dividends.
The omens seem gloomy, with pitch darkness threatening to envelope the end of the nation’s tunnel. This looming tragedy notwithstanding, all citizens of good faith should continue to pray that the building tension of today may turn out to become a latent heat of national fusion rather than a cataclysmic ignition that may generate the fire of terminal disintegration for Nigeria.
May God forbid bad thing!