Last week, in the middle of the #ENDBADGOVERNANCE protests, an assemblage of eminent Nigerians visited President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential villa in Abuja with propositions on how to move the country forward. Quite expectedly, they were well received by the president who acceded to their request for a visit, flung the doors of the seat of power open for them, welcomed them warmly, and then excitedly responded to their bouquet of requests. A man in the cold, like Tinubu was weathering the #ENDBADGOVERNANCE storm, wouldn’t reject warm clothing thrown at him from any quarters! Besides, The Patriots were led to the meeting by one of the country’s few respectable elder-citizens still living, Emeka Anyaoku, one-time Secretary-General of the Commonwealth. He gathered the other “patriots” under his wings.
There is a trend nowadays of younger elements queuing behind nonagenarians and octogenarians who, in the murky and muddy waters of Nigeria’s politics, have managed to keep their image unsoiled and their integrity intact. I dare to say that the younger elements do this not out of love or as a show of affection for the elders concerned but for their own selfish interest of maintaining a semblance of relevance in the scheme of things.
They jostle for recommendations. They lobby for appointments. Some of them leverage this cover to repair the damage already done to their reputation by past misdemeanor.
Hiding here, they lie low as they bid their time, ready to pounce again at any opportunity that may come their way. Many who ought to work and bring food to the elders are the ones eating from the elders’ hand. Not allowing these “living ancestors”, as someone described them, to enjoy their well-deserved retirement does not speak well of the younger generations at all. I must admit, though, that keeping one’s head above waters in a roundly depraved Nigeria cannot be an easy task.
Back to The Patriots. They did not say anything new. In other words, none of the suggestions they put forward was original to them. They asked for a National Constituent Assembly to produce a people’s constitution for the country. Since the 1960 Independence constitution and the 1963 Republican constitution, we have had the 1979, 1989 and 1999 constitutions. There was a Constituent Assembly which approved the constitution for the Second Republic (1979 – 1983).
On January 13, 1986, military president Ibrahim Babangida set up a 17-member Political Bureau to make recommendations for the country’s political future, after which a constituent assembly of 566 members worked on the Political Bureau recommendations and delivered a draft constitution to Babangida’s military council on April 5, 1989. The council produced a final draft on May 3, 1989 and promulgated it into law two days later on May 5. 1989.
Even General Sani Abacha set up a constitutional conference in 1994;the conference turned in its report a year later. Of course, there is the 2014 National Conference popularly known as 2014 Confab set up by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. So, constituent assemblies, confabs and whatever name they are called are not a new phenomenon to us.
The only difference one can see here is that The Patriots are emphasizing that the constituent assembly it is proposing should come up with what they described as “a people’s democratic constitution” What this means is that all the constitutions that we have had since after 1963 are not people’s constitution and they are also not democratic. I agree. Although the preambles of those constitutions allege that “We the people of Nigeria” made those constitutions for ourselves, we all know this allegation or averment to be false!
This is why those constitutions, especially the reigning 1999 constitution (as amended) is widely regarded as a fraud and also a military imposition. When The Patriots told the president that a plural society, such as Nigeria, must, to survive and flourish, adopt a federal constitution properly so-called, they stated the obvious. The good examples they cited: India and Canada (what of the Scandinavian countries?) are apt; so also the bad ones: Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Sudan, among others. Commentators after commentators have said ad nauseam and ad infinitum that this is the imperative that Nigerian leaders have shied away from.
The Patriots avoided using the word “Restructuring” Why? Perhaps for the same reason that Karl Marx and Engels, in 1848, avoided the word “Socialism” and, instead, called their political manifesto “The Communist Manifesto”! But does anyone need to preach restructuring to Tinubu who, himself, was an apostle of restructuring? Except of course now that the shoe is on the other foot!
They say it is easier said than done. It is easier to criticize than propose workable solutions. While I support the right to protest as an indispensable feedback mechanism, I marveled at some of the unworkable proposals put forward by some of the #ENDBADGOVERNANCE leaders. One wanted three members from each of the 774 local governments to write a new constitution for the country! The Patriots, too, want a new National Constituent Assembly to be mandated to produce a new constitution! But do we need another constituent assembly jamboree to do that?
Hear them: “And we suggested that such a National Constituent Assembly should consist of individuals elected by the people on non-party basis” If so, on what platforms? They added: “Say, for example, three individuals per state, each of the 36 states, and one from the Federal Capital Territory” Again, on what platforms or basis? One per senatorial district or what? How many contestants will be eligible to contest and what criteria shall we apply to screen them? Then, they want whatever is produced by this assembly to be subjected to a referendum: What percentage of votes qualify as “Yes” and what percentage is “Nay”? What happens if the proposal fails to scale through the referendum?
I do not think Nigeria’s problems are easily amenable to the solutions advanced by The Patriots. In one word, what they are proposing is restructuring; the question is whether the opponents and antagonists of restructuring have seen the need to shift ground. If not, they will fight tooth-and-nail to stall any constituent assembly and ambush any referendum. We have seen that happen again and again. Right now before our very eyes they are desperately striving to truncate this democracy because they feel Tinubu has moved their cheese.
President Tinubu’s response to The Patriots is equally baffling: He was quoted as saying that he is preoccupied with economic issues for now; once he is done with that, he will turn his focus on the political angle. Do you think he will ever “finish” solving Nigeria’s economic problems? In which decade and under what ruler did Nigerians not experience an economic downturn?
Herbert Ogunde sang of hard times. IK Dairo, Adeolu Akinsanya aka Baba Eto, Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, Orlando Owoh; fuji musicians like Ayinde Barrister – all of them, different genres of music and at different times, sang about hard times. Fela sang of Nigerians suffering and smiling. Eedris Abdulkareem sang Nigeria jaga-jaga during the Obasanjo administration in 2004.
We voted Jonathan out of office because we agreed with APC propaganda that his incompetence and cluelessness had made life miserable for us. We regretted putting Muhammadu Buhari in the saddle because we all agree we jumped from frying pan into the fire itself. Now Tinubu is there and it appears the whole world is coming to an end!
If Tinubu wants to solve Nigeria’s problems before addressing its foundational, structural problems, he will discover, when it is too late, that time is not on his side – like Obasanjo discovered, and like Jonathan also discovered.
Besides, it is the foundational problems of Nigeria that should first arrest the attention of Tinubu. Scripture says if the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3). Jesus counsels that we build on solid ground and not on quicksand. “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the wind blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7: 24 – 27).
It is when the faulty foundations of Nigeria are repaired that the country can start to blossom again. It is then that whatever structure is erected on the foundation can stand and flourish. It is a solid foundation that will propel a strong economy and not the other way round. Placing the economic woes of the country over and above its foundational problems is tantamount to putting the cart before the horse. What gave rise to the economic problems in the first place? Is it not our foundational problems? Why, then, leave the tap root of the problem and dissipate energy cutting branches?
FEEDBACK: Nigerian hospitals: Now worse than consulting centres?
Only God knows how many people had suffered such a deadly experience (as Yusuph Olaniyonu)! What would have happened if it were a man of lower status ? – Wale Ajao.
Mr. Olaniyonu’s case is a pointer that makes our fear more poignant. – Mohammed Adelola Bello.
The attitude and quality of our health practitioners fall below expectations and these did not just start today. However, Mr. Olaniyonu’s travail can also be viewed from the prism of destiny. What is wrong in being fastidious about one’s health? – Oludoye.
I just hope this piece reaches those in authority! -Felix Adewale.
This expose is a wake-up call but will they listen and do something? I don’t think so since they do not patronize Nigerian hospital. – Dele Asaju.
* Former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/Editor-in-chief of THE WESTERNER newsmagazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S Day column in the Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in THE WESTERNER newsmagazine. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.
