A lecturer of Political Science with the University of Lagos (UNILAG), has expressed fears that the National Conference holding in Nigeria, which adjourned until August 4, will go the way of other similar conferences held in the past.
While giving his opinion on the outcome of the conference on Tuesday on a Channels Television’s programme, Sunrise Daily, Mr Dele Ashiru, said that the disagreement over how revenue should be shared and the devolution of power were issues that needed to be resolved.
He expressed displeasure with the way the delegates were selected to represent Nigerians saying that they do not represent the mandate of Nigerians.
”One issue with the National Conference, is that when you nominate people to go to the conference and those names do not approximate Nigerians’ mandate, it is doubtful whether they can represent the true aspirations of Nigerians. From which sector of Nigeria society did they get them from and are they negotiating on behalf of the people they never discussed with but nominated by the president and not representing anybody,” Mr Ashiru said.
On the relevance of the issues that were discussed at the conference and the resolutions reached so far, he said that the devolution of power was a welcomed idea, explaining that “once the power is devolved it will reduce the quantum of resources at the Federal level and put people in charge of their own destiny, empowering them to hold political office holders accountable for their actions and inaction. Everybody hides their indolence on the premise that it is a federal exclusive item when they fail to deliver good governance”.
He also spoke on the resolution of the conference for more states to be created, pointing out that “everyone is talking about creation of state because they know they will get money and development will circulate, with derivation money to share”.
Mr Ashiru called for true federalism, pointing out that some of Nigeria’s problems would be solved if every federating unit, whether state or region, was allowed to control resources in their respective areas and pay a certain percentage. He also emphasised the need to take away all issues on the exclusive list such as currency, foreign policy and defence.
He stressed that Nigerians needed to engage the fundamental areas and solve the problem from those fundamental points.
“Also the people need to be empowered enough to be able to demand accountability from whoever is leading them or we will just be gravitating the way we are doing now,” the political scientist said.
