"THIS NATIONAL CONFERENCE HAS ACHIEVED A LOT" ---- SAYS CONFAB DELEGATE, YINKA ODUMAKIN!

Yinka Odumakin is the national publicity secretary of AFENIFERE the pan Yoruba Socio-political organisation. He is also a delegate to the ongoing National Conference in Abuja. A few weeks back he spoke to an Online Newspaper about his experience at the confab. Below are excerpts of the interview

*****

What are the fundamental decisions the confab has come up with?

One, we removed Local Government from federal constitution and made them residual, unlike the present arrangement where local Government is seen as a 3rd tier of government. It does not happen in any federation. There are only 2 tiers-the Central Government and the Federating units. But in Nigeria we’ve made Local Government to be the 3rd tier while making them to share revenue at the same time. We succeeded in removing that.

This conference looked at the issue of Policing. Having a central or unitary policing system has failed us. We have approved state police. That’s a major step. This is because in a Federation, the federation units when they make laws should be able to enforce their laws. Not only that we have also approved that each state should have their own constitution. But where the constitution of the state conflicts with that of Federal, the Federal takes precedence.

This conference has agreed on rotation of Presidency.

This conference has done so many things that will move this country towards a true federal arrangement. And to now allow out brothers from the North to use the issue of derivation to reverse everything we have done, we said let them go and that committee. That was why the conference ended abrutly. But by and large, if you look at this conference and prior conferences, this conference has been very qualitative in terms of discussion and in terms of the delegates. The quality of delegates at this conference. Though the conference was rocked by ideological division and that clash of civilisations between those who want federalism and those who want us to continue under a feudal kind of arrangement where the federating units cannot be in charge of their lives, except what the centre dictates.

What are the new lessons you have learnt about Nigeria being part of a group of people picked from different parts of Nigeria?

It was an opportunity to interact with people from every part of the country, because we had the whole Nigeria represented there. We were able to see that there are clear gaps in terms of what we want, in terms of our appreciation of the issues confronting Nigeria. You will begin to see that some of the issues that we are passionate about here and the way you feel about Nigeria is not the way other people feel. Some of the things that really worry many of us is not even an issue to them.

A fellow delegate from the North recently argued with me that it is not the culture in the Nigerian University system that for someone to be made a Professor in the University they must write certain number of papers, that it is like a promotion in the Civil Service. I said haa! No! I told him to become a Professor you must have written general papers, books. He said no, unless that just started recently. This is someone coming from the academic world.

I now reminded him about the joke in the 80’s about VC’s without CV’s. He said to become a VC is like Civil Service promotion that you will just move from level 1 to level 2 to level 3.

That tells you all what is wrong with Nigeria. The Bible tells you in the Book of Amos that “can 2 walk together except they agree”

If we don’t see issues the same way, if our situations are not the same and you say we should march at the same pace there will be problem.

Chief Awolowo it was who gave this analogy, that if you have a convoy of boats, that the speed of that convoy will be that of the slowest because the fastest moving will have to move at the pace of the slowest unless they try to break away.

That to me has been the challenge and the crisis of nationhood in Nigeria. And I have now come to the conclusion that there is no way this country can progress.

We cannot address good governance until we address the issue of nationhood. That is why Awolowo wrote in all his books that the only way a country like Nigeria can move forward, make progress, have peace is through federalism, that is we should understand that there are different civilisations. Let everybody move at their own pace. What we have seen over the years is an attempt to equalise underdevelopment and backwardness which explains why like I said at the National Conference in response to the Presidents speech that the question we should ask ourselves is why is it that our best moments are in the past?

Look, Western Nigeria built University of Ife, a world class University which attracted a lot of students from all over the world. Ife, Ibadan, UNN were ranked globally.

Today, there is not one Nigerian University that is among the best 100 Universities in the Commonwealth. The Federal Government took over all there universities and messed them up.

If we don’t address the issue of nationhood which some people don’t want us to address, I am afraid, this country may end up like many of the British experiments. Many of the places where Britain has done this experiment they did in Nigeria, it is either they have pulled apart or they are under intense strain like India, Sudan and Nigeria is now under intense strain. Britain itself is not finding it easy. This September there will be Referendum in Scotland to determine the future of that group of people. This means the British have not been a good at building nations.

The concept they brought here is Amalgamation of people, not considering the people, but for their own commercial interest in Nigeria. That is why 53 years after independence and 100 years after amalgamation, we are still locked in all these constitutional issues, conferences and the rest. I have told some people that if this conference fails, as a person I am not prepared to go for another conference.

Why did you say that?

Because Awolowo, who was described by former British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, as a man gifted enough to govern Britain and America, spent his entire life, talking about Nigerian Constitution. Awo left Chief Enahoro came with RRONACO. Baba Omojola too came, he died. He died at Okunronmu Panel on this constitution issue . So when are we going to get it right as per our constitution? And we heard all sorts of funny arguments that will make you pique at the Conference.

When you raise the issue of state police they will tell you its only the South West, the Yorubas that is ready for it, we in the North are not ready for it. We are not ripe for it. That is the stage we were 50 years ago. We are still there now. Governors will misuse it. When you talk of constitution they will tell you no, states can’t have constitutions. What are you talking about? In the 1st. Republic, in the 1963 constitutions, we had the Federal Constitutions, Western Region Constitution, Eastern Region Constitution and Northern Region Constitution.

So, what you were ripe for them, they are trying to say we are now not ripe for it, because we are in what I call National Greed, like the Electricity Grid. What do I call National Greed? It is a policy that if Sokoto does not have Electricity Lagos must not have. That is what I call National Greed Rather than allow everybody to develop at their own pace and do their own thing, they said no, no, no, only Federal Government can touch Electricity and it’s National Greed.

So, in every sector of our lives, we are been caught in a National Greed, so that if the Almanjaris are not ready to go to school or until they are ready to go to school, our own children here must not go to school. The truth of the matter is that we have to unbind.

I think this conference has taken major decisions that if implemented, can get us out of that bind. But I have also heard that some of our friends out there are threatening to scuttle this and that, honestly if they do that, it will amount to aborting a baby that has already been born. That will be murder. It means they want to murder the future of Nigeria and I don’t think even the mood of the conference people are not ready to continue this experiment that has held everybody down and put them in a bind and they cannot determine their lives. There is an unwritten consensus that we can’t continue this way.