2019: Soyinka, Afenifere, Ohanaeze state condition for support

L-R: Chairman of the Occasion Gen Ike Nwachukwu (rtd), keynote Speaker Prof Wole Soyinka, president General Ohanaeze Ndigbo Chief John Nnia Nwodo, and Alhaji Abbas Mohammed Dalhatu,during handshake across Nigeria on Nigeria beyond Oil held I Lagos recently. PHOTO: CHAMPION.

• Insist Nigeria must restructure to survive

By OBINNA EZUGWU

It was another opportunity for relevant stakeholders in the Nigerian project to proffer solutions to the country’s perennial development challenges on Monday last week at an event tagged ‘Handshake Across Nigeria: Towards A Productive Nigeria’ with the theme: ‘Nigeria Beyond Oil’ organised by Igbo think tank groups, Nzuko Umunna and Aka Ikenga, and Core Federalists, held at Muson Centre, Onikan Lagos.

In their respective addresses at the event, the keynote speaker, Professor Wole Soyinka; Chairman of the occasion, General Ike Nwachukwu (rtd), as well as discussants: Nnia Nwodo, president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo; Afenifere chieftain, Pa Ayo Adebanjo and Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu among others, maintained that unless the country is restructured into a true federal republic with component units having the autonomy to explore their own resources and develop capacity, it had no future.

In his submission, Soyinka maintained that restructuring had become inevitable going by the trajectory of the country. He said it was unacceptable for the government to reject the calls for devolution of power because it had no right to tell the people what they want.

Soyinka said that the need for restructuring had become even more compelling because it was obvious that different states have different ideas about the future. According to him, while some states are striving for development, others are promoting religion and manipulating same to cause crisis and promote backwardness.

“I recall that in the past, there was a governor in Akwa Ibom who decided that his mission was to change the perception of the people of the state as house boys or domestic servants, and he set out to do it. I also remember that at that same period, a governor in Zamfara decided to promote Sharia and today we can see the result in Zamfara.”

He argued that the government has no right to refuse to heed the calls for restructuring as it cannot decide for the people what they want.

“When people talk of restructuring, whether physical restructuring, decentralisation, reconfiguration – call it whatever you want, when people say that something is not functioning, that there is something rotten in the state of Nigeria, and it is very possible that the relationship from part to the whole or from part to part may be as a result of this, it is worth listening to. You have no right as government to say no, you cannot do it,” he said.

“It is not a new cry, it has gone on for years. And the cry is dismissed by those who govern because they are totally alienated from the people they are supposed to govern. I remember that I participated in previous exercise, there was one even more recent; the exercise that was inaugurated by President Jonathan.

“Before that it was PRONACO. And some of us that came to it early, yes, not from the beginning, but we came into it and said to the government that existed at the time that for Nigeria to come together, we must provide a framework for enhanced continuity, and they said we committed treason.

“The inspector General of Police then even got up and said, the meeting will not take place and that it is treasonable and the participants will be arrested. This is why some of us decided to form PRONACO to say that Nigerians are free human beings, we can meet and move forward.”

The Speaking on the theme of the occasion, ‘Nigeria Beyond Oil,” Soyinka said it was a productive handshake as it was aimed at advancing solutions to Nigeria’s challenges.

“Nigeria beyond oil, yours is a productive handshake, material handshake across Nigeria. I come from Ogun State for instance, where we have seen collaboration between my state and Plateau State which resulted in the production of rice.

“It is a green handshake across the nation and the concentration is on the basic fundamental concern of humanity for his very survival, food. And in this case, rice. This is also a very useful symbol in this sense, because the physical context reminds of when this nation used to be famous for the groundnuts pyramid.”

He however, lamented that the incessant killing by herdsmen has prevented the advancement of this handshake, as according to him, the herders step in before the fruit of the handshake is harvested to kill farmers and destroy farms while the government looks on.

“But lo and behold, what happens before the productive handshakes produce their reward? Or even before the time of harvest begins; what happens? Alarm comes in the name of nomadic herdsmen,” he said.

“They take over, burn the crops, slaughter the farmers and take over their dwellings. And this is a nation which is nearly a century old from independence at least, because nations have always been here. Let’s not forget that. What is horrifying is not just the lackadaisical attitude (of government), but the attempt to justify the impossible.

“We have a minister of defence who says to the farmers, the bereaved farmers; the survivors that, what else do you expect if you block the routes of cattle? What else do you want them to do? Unspoken answer is of course, pick up your AK47 and mow down the producers. And this goes on for so long.

“And you wonder, is it really possible to have a reward of your labour? And here we come to the critical question, what do you want to sow to one’s life, what do you want to sow for the future?”

The Nobel Laureate also criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for refusing to obey court decisions, describing it as “embarrassing” and “an invitation to chaos,” while praising the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for stretching their hands above religion and region to demand that Buhari obey court decisions and release Shiite leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki.

“There is good news in the midst of the gloom,” he said. “Only Saturday, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) met President Buhari and demanded yet again for the release of a religious leader, El-Zakzaky as well as the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

“They stretched their hands across the borders of religion and ethnic region and said to the president, obey the courts, release these people irrespective of their religious inclinations, irrespective of what part of the country they came from. They reminded the president once again that he is the first citizen of the nation – emphasis on the citizen – and a citizen cannot choose which laws to obey and which to ignore because that’s the beginning of chaos.

“We just had the 70th anniversary of the declaration of human rights. Actually, it’s an embarrassment to have a president who refuses to obey the decisions of the court.”

In his own speech, the chairman of the occasion, Senator Ike Nwachukwu maintained that Nigeria was still work in progress as her future remains uncertain. He regretted the inability of the country to harness its diversity, noting that restructuring was the only way out of the current dire situation.

“As Nigerians zero into the 2019 general election, the preservation of Nigeria’s unity in diversity, our cultures, our different linguistic and religious faiths and sects, and sovereignty, is to my mind, paramount,” he said.

“People might differ in their understanding and methodologies of achieving this, but the corporate existence of Nigeria as a nation, and survival is work in progress. While successful countries have been able to admirably harness their diversities, ours threw up mixed results.

“Like a candle in the wind, our ways are uncertain and our collective destiny as a people plunges. This unhealthy state of affairs invariably makes a gathering of this nature inevitable.

Nwachukwu said the country could only be salvaged when constituents units are allowed to use their resources unhindered, arguing that contrary to popular belief, there is no state in the country that is not viable.

“I dare say that contrary to general belief, no state in Nigeria is unviable. In fact, none is without human and mineral resources; there isn’t any state without the basic requirements for economic and human capital development.

“Some states may have more of such resources than others, just as it is in the international community, however, the successful nations have used their abilities through the right political and economic policies to make them powerful and a reference point to others who fail to harness their resources and develop them for the common good of their people.

“If we return Nigeria to a proper federal constitution that allows the federating units to use their resources unhindered it would be amazing to see the human capital development, economic transformation that Nigeria will witness in the shortest possible time. What is required therefore is the basic freedom to develop those basic requirements.”

Also speaking, Nnia Nwodo made reference to various statistics and projections about Nigeria, warning that the country was in serious danger and could only be salvaged through restructuring.

“According to Budgit in its 2017 report on Nigeria budget, Nigeria’s federal government is now at a stage where it borrows more money than it generates in a fiscal year. It said that the Federal Government of Nigeria has a deficit of N3.8trilliln greater than its reported revenue of N2.65trillion.

“It says N1.2trillion oil revenue is not enough to meet its personal obligation of N1.8trillion. It concludes that a crisis is brewing if the growth in debt is not matched with corresponding rise in revenue.”

Nwodo said the current unitary system has ensured that most Nigerian states are not viable which, according to him, portend danger.

“Most Nigeria states are no longer viable, poverty is increasing rapidly and our population is growing rapidly. In 2050, Nigeria will be the world’s 4th largest country in terms of population with a population of 397 million, coming after China, India and the US.

“Our model has to change for us to survive. A model based on sharing of government revenue must give way to a structure that drives productivity in every part of the country. This model will take into account that factors leading productivity in today’s world are no longer fossil fuel but proliferation of knowledge based economy.

“Restructuring of Nigeria into smaller federating units and devolution of power to these generating units to pursue their human capital development is the only way to salvage our failing economy.”

Nwodo dismissed as false, the narrative that the push for restructuring was targeted at denying the North access to crude oil, insisting that with mass of arable land and abundant mineral resources, the region would easily be the most successful region in the country when such is harnessed.

In her own contribution, Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, former ambassador to Holland warned that a future without oil would be one with a lot of difficulties and therefore, urgent steps should be taken to now to salvage the situation.

“The future without oil is likely to be fraught with a lot of difficulty if we don’t start planning now. We know that only countries that develop their human capital do well economically. The future is going to belong to technology,” she said.

 “We hear that in 2025, countries in Europe and America are going to ban engines that use fossil fuel. And what that means is that global consumption of oil which as at today stands at eight million barrels per day will go down to one million barrels per day. And 2025 is less than seven years away.

“What does that mean for Nigeria? From now on, we need a leadership that understands and appreciate the challenges that we face. We need leadership that is forward looking.”

Awolowo-Dosunmu who is daughter of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, also maintained that the future lay in restructuring.

“The issue for me is restructuring and restructuring and restructuring,” she said; ‘because there is no way you can deliver the kind of development that we look forward to with the current system that we have. You have to devolve power; you have to allow the constituent units to have control over their resources and to have control over the direction they want to go.”

Dr. Bitrus Pogu, President, Middle Belt Forum, in his own contribution lamented that the Middle Belt is under attack by those he called terrorists who are out to change the demography of the region. Pogu said the Middle Belt had remained under the indirect rule imposed on it by the British and it was time to restructure the country such that everyone will exist in their own space.

“Middle Belt are the nationalities in the North who have gone through the indirect rule imposed on them by the British. We are found in 14 states of the North. We don’t dislike anybody, we don’t dislike the Kanuri, or the Hausa/Fulani, but we are saying that we want to be part of this country called Nigeria and we lean with our brothers in the South to say that restructuring is necessary for us to get it right,” he said.

“We need to also tell our story so that the handshake will be appropriately situated. We are being attacked by those being described as herdsmen, but we disagree with that narrative. We have lived with the local Fulani for years, what is happening is that terrorist are being organised to attack communities in the Middle Belt, dispossessing them of their lands and taking their lives.

What we have is not a conflict between herdsmen and farmers, that narrative is unacceptable.  What is happening is that terrorists are attacking Middle Belters, depriving them of their land and changing the demography.

He recalled that President Buhari had described the attackers as terrorists from Libya, but wondered why no serious actions have been taken to stop them coming to attack and kill people in the zone. He said communities in the Middle Belt are daily under attack by gunmen in military camouflage.

“We are being attacked by people in military camouflage. Unfortunately we have a situation where a general was killed by a community in Plateau. The incident is regrettable but it is as a result of what has been happening in the area. These are people being attacked daily by those in military uniforms, so the tendency is that when they see anyone in military uniform, they see the person as one of the attackers.”

In his own remarks, the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, observed that the narrative was changing and pleaded that more people from the North West and the North East be incorporated into the discourse so that there would be better appreciation of the issues in the zones.

Sanusi who was represented on the occasion by Alhaji Mohammed Abbas Dalhatu, however, promised to take home some of the issues discussed, expressing confidence that positives will develop there from.

“The narrative is changing, and I would had wished that more people from the North West and the North East are incorporated so that they can understand what is going on,” he said. “I will definitely take home the lessons and I hope that a positive reaction to the discussion here will develop.”

Speaking however, Prof Ango Abdullahi, convener, Northern Elders Forum, noted that the biggest challenge the country faces was leadership. He maintained that as the late novelist, Chinua Achebe wrote years ago, leadership remained the key challenge of the country and according to him, when the right leadership is gotten, the country will make progress.

Abdullahi who was represented by the Director General of the Forum, Dr. Yima Sen, said the biggest challenge the North faces is managing the diversity in the region. He said of the 500 ethno-linguistic groups in Nigeria, the North hosts about 400 and managing it has proved a challenge.

“One of the biggest challenges we have had is that we are managing perhaps a territory which has one of the biggest challenges of diversity. We have more than 400 ethno-linguistic groups in Northern Nigeria practising different regions, all of which are strongly represented in the area.”

On restructuring, he said the forum had decided to dialogue with the people of the region to know what they want.

“Northern Elders Forum has met several times with the Northern governors and traditional rulers over the issue of restructuring and discussions are still ongoing,” he said.

“But we have decided that we are going to dialogue with our people to know what they want. We need to move from the level of sentiments to the scientific. It is important that when such important issues are discussed, the elite should be humble enough to ask their people what they want.

“We are not going to decide for our people whether they want restructuring or not. We are going to ask them and listen to what they have to say.”