Review… National Confab report: It’s Buhari versus NASS

The 2014 National Conference report is currently dominating political and public discourse in Nigeria at the moment.

And the National Assembly, seemingly opposed to the stand of the Federal Government over the issue has taken steps to appease Nigerians over the matter.

492 Nigerians of different ages, ethnicity, religion, profession, sex and professional divide, assembled and for months brainstormed, argued, quarreled, fought and at the end, were able to unite and in one voice made recommendations on how the country can move forward.

Among other recommendations, the conference proposed creation of nearly 18 more states, the systematic restructuring of the polity, rotational presidency, creation of state police and scrapping of state/local government joint accounts.

Though the recommendations of the conference were wholesomely accepted by good many Nigerians, many abound also who frowned at it.

Some, who had wanted former President Goodluck Jonathan back, did so with the hope that he would implement the report of the confab himself convened.

And like they feared, Muhammadu Buhari, after emerging President, kept mute on what will become of that report. And those unhappy with his muteness either find it difficult to boldly confront him on the implementation of the report, or had wanted to give him time to settle down before sounding their horns to call for its implementation.

But the bubble burst and the quiet water rippled when President Buhari, during an interview said he had not even read the report and that it would remain in the archives where it rightly belongs.

“I advised against the issue of National Conference. You would recall that ASUU was on strike then for almost nine months. The teachers in the tertiary institutions were on strike for more than a year, yet that government had about N9billion to organise that meeting and some (members) were complaining that they hadn’t even been paid. I never liked the priority of that government on that particular issue, because it meant that what the National Assembly could have handled was handed to the Conference, while the more important job of keeping our children in schools was abandoned.

Read also: Confab report is for the archives, Buhari says

“That is why I haven’t even bothered to read it or ask for a briefing on it, and I want it to go into the so-called archives,” President Buhari said in response to the conference the previous government spent several billions of naira to convene.

As if that was not enough, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, also in an interview, described the conference as “job for the boys.”

Babachir had said when asked if most likely the present administration will look into the 2014 Confab Report, “I understand that some Nigerians want it implemented but the government has been too busy with key areas of governance to talk about an exercise that we thought was essentially diversionary and a sort of, maybe, a job for the boys.”

These responses by the President and the SGF, appears to have unleashed the dragon. Many Nigerians in different forms and manners have continued to criticise the President’s position and are now, like never before, calling for the implementation of the report.

This may have prompted the House of Representatives Special Ad hoc committee on the review of the 1999 constitution, which late June said it has adopted the Confab report of the 2014 National Conference as part of its working document.

Even the Senate, last week said it will follow the footsteps of the House of Representatives and adopt the conference report, insisting on using the report for the amendment of the nation’s constitution.

Deputy Chairman, 2014 National Conference, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, in his reaction expressed shock at Babachir’s choice of words, describing him as being “crude, rude, offensive and unbecoming of the high office of state he occupies”.

Professor Akinyemi frowned that the SGF could refer to emirs, judges of the High Courts, a former Chief of Defence Staff, a former Chief of Air Staff, former foreign ministers, a former Inspector General of Police, former Senate presidents, a former SGF, former ministers, SANs, former governors, professors and other personalities at the conference as boys.

Saying he will not plead for the report of the conference to be considered by Buhari’s government, Akinyemi added, “Governments come and governments go. The problems will remain. We will all be judged by whether we were part of the solution or part of the problems.”

Reacting, Yinka Odumakin, spokesperson of Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), who was also a member of the confab, described the comment by the President as a show of total disconnect with the Nigerian reality.

According to him, Nigeria needs a reconstructive surgeon and not a bulldozer. “If a leader is presiding over 52 per cent of his country, he should know that something has to be done to improve on governance structure in an inclusive arrangement,” he noted.

For Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), that the President will attempt thrashing the 2014 National Conference report, will be the biggest mistake of his administration. “It will be ill advised and if you listen to the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, you will notice that the issue of restructuring the country is even now more urgent than it was in 2014 when former president Jonathan instituted the national confab.”

Also, for former Permanent Secretary in Rivers State and a delegate to the conference, Dr. Patricia Ogbonnaya, it is being narrow-minded and unpatriotic because the President cannot claim that the report is entirely useless to the development of Nigeria.

You may also like: Senate disagrees with Buhari, to adopt 2014 Confab report

At a time the Niger Delta Avengers are clamouring for Niger Delta republic, when Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), would not stop its agitation for Biafra federation, when Boko Haram terrorist are asking for Islamic State, it may be said there is need for a restructuring.

Recall that former vice president Atiku Abubakar not long ago argued that the country needs restructuring. Lagos and Kwara state governments are among the towering numbers calling for restructuring of Nigeria.

And supporters for the implementation of the conference report, are arguing that the very restructuring the country needs at the moment is already provided for in the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference.

 

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