Former Director-General, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Professor George Obiozor, has taken a swipe at the Nigerian politicians and the elite for politicizing national issues including discussions on religion and national security, warning that the resulting fire will consume everybody. He also notes that currently in the country, the risk factors in Nigeria’s military/strategic, socio-economic, political, diplomatic and security levels have risen so astronomically high that it will only take one careless unintended event or utterance to send the country cascading into anarchy. In this encounter with CHIBISI OHAKAH in Abuja, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Cyprus, raises some issues that must be trashed at the ongoing national confab
On the ongoing National Conference
The Nigerian Political elites in general and the Federal Government in particular must be conscious of the necessity for the ultimate success of the on-going National Conference. The risk factors in Nigeria’s military/strategic, socio-economic, political, diplomatic and security levels have risen so astronomically high that it will only take one careless unintended event or utterance to send this country cascading into a national disaster or disintegration or at best anarchy.
By politicizing all our national issues including the dangerous duo of religion and national security, our political elites are now playing with the fire which could consume both the country and themselves as well as many innocent Nigerians. Our leaders may have to learn the lessons of history that quite often such sensitive issues like religion and national security easily and quickly divide nations and territories.
Discerning Nigerians and indeed members of the public are treated to commentaries from well respected, educated, citizens; people in a position to know the implication of their commentaries and arguments and positions. We read them on the pages of the newspapers. We hear them on radio and television. They even present their arguments with terrible impunity and awe. Sometimes, one is forced to imagine if the commentators believe in what they say.
On religion and national security
The danger of religion and national security pose for a precariously balanced Nigerian nation cannot be over-emphasized. Nigeria after all, is a nation of competing hostile sub-nationals or sub-cultures and groups nefariously brought into an uneasy alliance through the amalgamation of 1914. Also at independence in 1960, Nigerian leaders arranged a federal system of government specifically to share power among its various peoples and regions. The federalism they constituted was principally a contractual decentralization that respected and recognized the autonomy, legitimacy, and the cultural identity of each region.
As a result of the civil war 1967 – 1970 and prolonged military rule, the political restructuring of Nigeria took the forum of Internal Colonialism with its attendant Imbalances, incongruences and manifest injustice. That is precisely what this National Conference must address in order to restore Nigeria to its relative pre-civil war modicum of political stability, peace, progress and unity.
There is no denying that there is injustice in our country today, and history teaches us that those denied justice have no interest in peace. There must be justice before peace or all our labours to keep Nigeria united will be in vain. Therefore the primary duty of this National Conference will be to evolve a people’s constitution that takes into consideration the hopes and accommodate the aspirations of the various peoples of Nigeria.
It is important to note that nothing is most disturbing or distracting than when citizens begin to debate the future of their own country. In fact, at that point too they begin to question the basis of their own loyalty to the country and its leadership.
On federalism
Our political leaders should be careful not to lead the country to self-destruction. A lot of Nigerians find it as fashionable to make recommendations on the type of federalism Nigeria should adopt. Towards the conveying of the ongoing National Conference, we saw various groups approaching with what they consider as their versions of the federalism the nation should adopt.
While not quarrelling over anybody or group’s entitlement to an opinion, I must point out that many well-informed Nigerians know that there is no perfect federation and no two federations are alike. Historians and other scholars who have even travelled wide understand what I am saying. A lot of the people who have recommended one type of federalism or the other to Nigeria have not even had the opportunity of studying what happened or happens in other climes.
In many of them from Malaysia, India, Switzerland, to the United States, the federating units differ in accordance with their historical and cultural evolution. Nigerian federalism will be no exception; our federal system must be responsive and conscious of Nigeria’s socio-cultural, economic and political imperatives.
A federal system for Nigeria is excellent for though it may be an imperfect amalgam like other systems has endured and preserved our unity to the present day. The irrepressible pluralism of Nigeria which asserted itself even under military rule makes federalism a necessary choice system of government for Nigeria.
New Constitution
All that is required is for a new Constitution that transparently emphasises the doctrine of inclusiveness, equity and justice for all citizens along with decentralization and devolution of power. And only these measures will bring Nigeria into the club of a modern democratic system of governance, and also beyond doubt confirm that Nigeria has conclusively been transformed from the era of military regimes to a modern democracy.
For Nigeria, the result of such a meaningful political restructuring would moderate if not eliminate the persistent disintegrative tendencies present in Nigeria politics. It will also reduce the deadly competition and reckless pursuit for power and dominance at the center among Nigerian political elite.