Penultimate Wednesday, eminent Yoruba leaders, including former candidate on the joint platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the All Peoples Party (APP) during the 1999 presidential election, Chief Olu Falae; Senator Femi Okunrounmu; Dr. (Mrs) Tokunboh Awolowo-Dosumu; Dr Erelu Abiola Dosumu; Dr. Kunle Onajide; and the Group Managing Director of Global Fleet, Dr Jimoh Ibrahim, stormed the Presidential Villa, Abuja with a demand for an urgent national dialogue for the purpose of re-negotiating and restructuring of Nigeria in the collective interest of all ethnic nationalities in the country.
The Yoruba leaders, led to the State House by Rt Rev Emmanuel Bolanle Gbonigi, had told President Joathan Goodluck that the sole reason for the call for a national dialogue was as a result of the need by the people of the South-West to give to themselves a new constitution that would be responsive to the character of Nigeria.
Members of Yoruba Unity Forum (YUF), who, after meeting the president spoke to some senior journalists, cautioned that the plan by Jonathan to redress evident imbalances in Nigeria through the National Assembly based on the recommendations of Justice Alfa Belgore Committee on Outstanding Constitutional Issues would not stop the on-going agitation for national dialogue.
The Yoruba leaders praised the president's intention to yield to the demands of Nigerians but observed that the Belgore Committee would not be able to restructure Nigeria in a way that would be acceptable to all ethnic nationalities in the country.
Said Okorounmu, who spoke on behalf of the group, "The Justice Belgore Committee would work on only the constitutional issues that were discussed in previous national conferences with the terms of reference imposed by the governments that set them up.
"Past conferences like the one set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo were not allowed to deliberate on fundamental issues like revenue formula which have been agitating the minds of the major ethnic nationalities in the country".
He went on: "Since the Justice Belgore's Committee itself is already limited by its terms of reference, there is no way the committee would produce a recommendation that would solve the problems which the national dialogue being demanded by the nation's ethnic nationalities is out address. "President Jonathan told us that his government was working on areas of national consensus from the 2006 National Political Reform Conference to be sent to the National Assembly for consideration.
The president said the move would form the basis for constitutional amendments. "President Jonathan had said the Justice Belgore Committee was expected to bring up all those issues which had been agreed upon at previous national conferences for presentation as bills to the National Assembly for their subsequent passage into law.
"Although the president hinted that a larger body would still meet on issues that are still controversial for a national consensus, there are no two ways of going about it other than the national dialogue being demanded.
"We can't do some tinkering with the constitution and say we have amended based on the outcome of all these previously held conferences.
"The national conference called by Obasanjo some years back had some no-go areas. For instance, during his time, he said the issue of 36 states and revenue sharing formula were settled. He also listed other areas that the conference must not attempt to discuss.
"Whereas, a real conference must be free to ask any question about our co-existence. That is why the present arrangement will not work. That is why the national dialogue must be allowed to hold. "When you attend a meeting with the president, you cannot reply whatever he says whether he has responded correctly to your demands or not. Our thinking is that that type of reply is stereo-typed and can't really solve the problem.
In his response to the issue of marginalization, he cited some appointments to prove that the Yoruba have not been left out of his administration. He cited the Chief of Defence Staff, Oluseyi Petirin, Director-General of National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission as Yoruba who are occupying prominent positions in his government.
This was for the purpose of compensating the zone for losing the position of the Speaker, House of Representatives which was initially zoned to the South-West. These were his responses to our demands and we could only thank him, but we hope he would go through our submissions. But if we have a forum where we can exchange views, we would tell him that even we are aware of the things he has been doing. They were not enough to address our demands.
"We know that governments usually respond to pressure. A government may want to commit any atrocity if there is nobody who says no. This is the role civil society organizations play. They mount pressure on the incumbent government to influence its decision in one way or another".
Asked how they think the National Assembly will react to their agitation for a national confab, Okurounmu stated: "One thing about this agitation for a national conference is that the pressure is really building up now. Before we had the Yoruba Leaders Summit, we had a joint meeting with leaders of the South-South. We agreed at that meeting that this was one of the demands of both zones. These demands are coming from very articulate people in both zones including some people from the North.
Even the National Assembly will realize that it cannot resist the agitation. One thing I know is that members of the National Assembly will never support genuine federalism because it would take away a lot of their powers which belong to the exclusive legislative list; it would be like legislating themselves out of power. This is because our constitution is unitarist in nature and therefore places a lot of powers on the central parliament.
In fact, when we talk of a unitarist constitution, it refers to the concentration of powers in the hands of the National Assembly and the President. So, they don't want to lose those powers. This is because in a truly federal system a lot of their powers would be devolved to the states. So they also have a vested interest in retaining the status quo. That is a problem.
Responding to a question as to whether there be no go areas at the proposed national confab, the Yoruba leader explained that Jonathan himself commented on that. He quoted the president as saying nobody could discard the government in place. "That was the reason he suggested that since there is already a government in place, maybe we could find a way of working with the National Assembly to agree on something.
"Even he gave the impression that he was not always having things easy with them. So if the civil society could put pressure on the National Assembly to accept the idea of a national conference, Mr President himself would have no choice but to comply", Okurounmu stated.
"But it is important to let the president know that the conference will not threaten the government in place. For instance, during the colonial days we had constitutional conferences preparatory to independence. The white men did not say we couldn't have a conference. Our position is that it is only after the national conference has ended and its outcome subjected to a referendum that it could become effective.
It is even the Government in place that would commence the implementation of whatever is endorsed during a nation-wide referendum. The conference would not affect governance; this is because the people would concentrate more on what is happening at the confab than what the government is doing.
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