The resolution of the National Conference on the need for Nigeria to practice true federalism has been described as a reliable solution to the disagreements and agitations that have faced the nation in terms of revenue sharing formula.
While considering the reports of different committees at the National Conference, the issue of how revenue should be share amongst the states also brought a disagreement that saw the leadership of the conference referring the issue to the President, advising that a special committee should be set up to look at the issue.
The Director of Public Affairs in the Edo State government, Greg Ogiogwa, made the observation on Tuesday while giving his opinion on the achievements recorded by the National Conference that will reconvene on August 4.
Mr Ogiogwa pointed out that the ability of the centre to control all the resources of Nigeria had been the cause of the agitations and a shift from the initial agreement by the federating units – the East, West and North – to come together to form a federation.
“The component units of Nigeria, the north, east and west, agreed to come together based on laid down agreement that there would be certain autonomy of the federating units, but we are, at the moment, further back from where it was in 1960.
“The problems of Nigeria lie on the issues of devolution of power – true federalism – and that of resources allocation and the conference will not make very much sense if it fails to resolve these issues.
“The government should democratise the economy by letting the people manage the resources in their land and collect a specified amount of money from them.
“The Federal Government has to step away from the management of the resources and the National Conference has the opportunity to put this in their resolution,” he said.
Personalising Political Power
He also stressed the need for political office holders to stop personalising political power, pointing out that people are not building institutions.
“They rather build their personalities, acquire as much wealth as possible and use the wealth to impose their will on the people.
“Politics in Nigeria does not deal with the issues. It deals with personalities.”
He shared the views of some members of the political party he belongs to, the All Progressives Conference (APC), that the National Conference would not yield reasonable results because it was a way of distracting Nigerians.
According to him, discussing Nigeria’s issues was a good idea but he was sceptical about whether the conference would end on a good note – the implementation of the resolutions.
He said that the same situations, issues, quarrels and everything that had been experienced before now were still playing out in the national conference because basis issues had not been resolved.
“Everything they have done in most cases is a constitutional review. That is like building up or enacting a new constitution. So, if a body that was set up is not a constitution drafting committee and you have come out with something that is akin to a constitution, somehow somewhere you have lost the locus standi
“The people who say that it will not achieve anything are people that I agree with. In my opinion, it is like a bone thrown to the dog just to distract it, while the people go in and rob the house,” Mr Ogoigwa insisted.
He said that the issues on derivation principles, federalism and devolution of power had been agreed on before in previous constitutions.
The APC had always maintained that the National Conference was a distraction, insisting that apart from the gender equality issue, nothing else discussed in the conference was new.
Window Dressing
One major issue that several persons that share the belief that the conference would not yield any result had raised was that the conference was sovereign, with the National Assembly still in place.
For Mr Ogiogwa, the conference cannot make meaningful contribution to the challenges facing Nigeria if “the total number of the people in the conference cannot make any of their resolutions law or implement them”.
“A lot of the appointments and a lot of people that were they went with a mind-set that had been given birth to due to lack of trust and disharmony amongst the federating units.
“If the issue of whether Nigeria should stay together or not is not addressed and you say it is a forbidden area to go, everything else is window dressing,” he said.
Supporting his assertions, he cited the hoisting of a flag in the northeast by members of the Boko Haram sect, saying: “If the Boko Haram sect should be hoisting flag in the northeast, the issue of whether Nigerians should stay together has not been addressed”.
He expressed optimism that his political party would be able to address the issues through its ideal of creating a larger democratic space for new ideas and fresh people as well.
He said that that APC had been able to bring desperate people together and had found a way of putting them together to head in the right direction.
