advocates of status quo
Lamido: If you push us, we’ll cross to Cameroon
Agents of change versus
It was a class of 492 delegates, each with his or her own identity. These peculiarities manifested in what they said or did during the four-month interaction at the 2014 National Conference. Here, as in the previous weeks, we serve you the profiles and contributions of some of the outstanding delegates as captured by ONWUKA NZESHI
Ibrahim Coomassie
Platform: North West Delegate
Committee: Devolution of Power
Profile: Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie is a former Inspector General of Police. He came to the conference as cochairman of the Northern Delegates’ Forum (NDF) and while at the conference, he served as the Co- Chairman of the Committee on Devolution of Power.
Contributions: Like many political elites from the North, he came to the conference to protect the interests of the old Northern Region.
Coomassie like others never saw anything wrong with the constitution of Nigeria and the structure it has imposed on the polity. From the blast of the whistle till the end of the match, he fought relentlessly to protect the North as was shown in the protest he led over the so-called new draft constitution that emerged at the twilight of the parley.
Dr. Junaid Muhammed
Platform: Kano State
Region: North West
Committee: Devolution of Power
Profile: Junaid is a medical doctor, social critic and former parliamentarian. He was a delegate to the National Conference representing Kano State and the convener of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen. Contributions: Junaid was one of the key members of the northern squad who came to the 2014 National Conference with a single agenda – to ensure that the much-talked about restructuring of Nigeria never saw the light of the day. Although he had criticised the state of things in Nigeria, he was opposed to virtually everything that was proposed to alter the status quo. He believed neither in the essence of the conference nor its outcome.
Some of his views reflected the inner arrogance of a man who believes in the “born to rule” philosophy and the false mentality of a section of the country being masters and the rest, their servants.
The following were his exact words in one of his encounters with the media: “Every issue that has been canvassed for holding the conference has been found to be false. The issues canvassed are agitations by some people sponsored by the Presidency. Whether it is true federalism or true fiscal federalism, none of them has materialised.
Those who agitated for the conference should tell us why their darling National Conference has not produced true federalism. We’ll meet at the plenary; let’s see how the argument on resource control would go. The one we had in my committee, the Committee on Devolution of Power was knocked off by me and it was declared unconstitutional. Resource control is not going to happen as long as we (northerners) are part of Nigeria.”
Lt. General Jerry Useni
Platform: North Central
Committee: Devolution of Power
Profile: Gen. Jeremiah Useni (rtd) was on the corridors of power for several years. He served as the governor of the then Bendel State and later Minister of Transport and Aviation during the regime of President Ibrahim Babangida. Jerry Boy as he is fondly called by close associates was the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the days of General Sani Abacha. Contributions: Useni, though a native of the northern minority ethnic groups in Plateau State, did not pursue the cause of minorities but joined the delegates of the northern oligarchy to safeguard the status quo. He was mild in his views but was certainly one of the bulwarks of those perceived as the oppressors of the polity.
Senator Rashidi Ladoja
Platform: Accord Party
Region: South-West
Committee: Energy
Profile: Ladoja was born on September 25, 1944 in Gambari village near Ibadan. He attended Ibadan Boys High School before proceeding to the University of Liege in Belgium where he bagged a degree in Chemical Engineering. He worked with Total Nigeria, an oil multinational for 13 years before setting up his private business.
Ladoja joined politics and was elected to the Senate in 1993 during the short-lived Third Republic. After the 1993-1998 military interregnum, he returned to politics and was elected the Governor of Oyo State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the general election conducted on April 19, 2003. He was sworn in as the governor on May 29, 2003 and was to serve in that office for a term of four years.
However, following a dispute between him and his political godfather, the late Chief Lamidi Adedibu, a faction of the Oyo State House of Assembly loyal to Adedibu, impeached Ladoja on January 12, 2006. Due to the controversial circumstances surrounding the said impeachment, he challenged his removal from office in court and was reinstated in December 2006.
Contributions: Ladoja came to the national conference on the platform of the Accord Party and went on to serve as the chairman, Committee on Energy. While at the conference, Ladoja and some other delegates narrowly escaped death when the aircraft they boarded from Ibadan to Abuja had one of its wings damaged while it was airborne.
He was not so lucky the second time as he lost one of his sons in a motor accident and had to take a little break. Even these did not deter him from spearheading the committee’s review of the energy sector to ascertain the essence of the recent divestment of the Federal Government from the sector and the transfer of the power generation and distribution of assets to the private sector.
Chief Dan Nwanyanwu
Platform: Labour Party
Region: South-East
Committee: Politics and Governance
Profile: Nwanyanwu is a trade unionist, lawyer and politician. He was first elected national chairman of Labour Party (LP) in 2004. Under his leadership, the party has maintained control of one state, Ondo, and made incursions into Anambra, Enugu and Plateau states. Contributions: At the national conference, he was one of the most vibrant advocates of restructuring Nigeria and made no pretence about his belief that the Federal Government was overburdened with a lot of issues and responsibilities which could have been left to the states and local government councils. “It is because the federation is doing things they are not supposed to do.
We must reconstruct it. Some were asking what is the business of the Federal Government building a primary school in my village? What will be the job of the states and the local governments? What is the concern of Federal Government issuing driver’s licence and motor licence?
These are some of the issues that have to be removed from the hands of the Federal Government. You can see that it is a pitiable situation now,” he submitted at the conference plenary. While at the conference, he became a convert of the advocacy for state police after he said he became convinced that multi-level policing would enhance security of lives and property.
He also supported the recommendations that the states should be the federating units; local councils should cease being a tier of government and the members of the National Assembly should serve on part-time basis. He said: “I will insist that anybody who has no means of livelihood has no reason being in politics. If you have no verifiable means of livelihood, you have no reason to be in politics. They are the ones who are spoiling politics because everything about them will be hinged on what they get from the system. A law must be passed to make sure you have a verifiable means of livelihood before you enter into politics so that you will not see it as a full-time employment.”
Dr. Ahmadu Ali
Platform: Peoples Democratic Party
Region: North-Central
Committee: Devolution of Power
Profile: Ali is a medical doctor, exsoldier, administrator and politician. He trained as a medical doctor but joined the Nigerian Army where he rose to the rank of a Colonel. He became the pioneer Director of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 1973 but came into limelight when he served as the Federal Commissioner of Education in the late 1970s. While in office as Federal Commissioner of Education, Ali incurred the wrath of the defunct Nigeria Union of Students when he introduced tuition fees and pursued other policies that were considered unpopular by the students.
This triggered the infamous “Ali Must Go” demonstrations in tertiary institutions across the country in 1978. He later joined politics and was elected to the Senate during the aborted Third Republic. Ali later emerged the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where again he promoted a strange concept in party politics called the garrison commands, referring to fiefdoms controlled by political godfathers whose commands must be obeyed. Contributions: Ali does not seem to believe in democracy as such as his actions showed he was a garrison commander himself.
When many delegates mounted pressure on the conference leadership to allow members of various committees choose their chairmen and deputies, Ali cautioned that such freedom would be difficult to manage. He advocated the appointment of the committee leadership which some delegates saw as an imposition. His fear was that if the committees were allowed to choose their leaders, majority of them might come from a particular region of the country. He vehemently defended the controversial census figures which put the North ahead of the South in terms of population. He was not comfortable with the renewed clamour for Nigeria to return to the old regions and the recommendation on the creation of an additional state for the South East. He said every region that desired new states must fight for it. He wanted states that wish to merge to do so. He canvassed that regionalism was retrogressive and making the six geo-political zones federating units was dangerous.
Chief Olabode George
Platform: Peoples Democratic Party
Region: South-West
Committee: Science, Technology and Development
Profile: Born on November 21, 1945, Olabode George is a retired officer of the Nigerian Navy. As a Commodore, he was the Military Administrator of old Ondo State and on retirement, he joined the PDP. He became Deputy National Chairman (South) of the party as well as Chairman, Board of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA). It was while serving as the chairman of NPA board that he got entangled in a contract scam and was convicted and sent to jail.
He challenged his conviction and the courts later ruled that he was wrongly jailed. Contributions: He was a bridge builder during the conference. George was among the elders whom the leadership of the conference relied on to put things right when there was tension. He was at the forefront of the campaign for the conference to approve the creation of Isale-Eko State out of present Lagos State.
Comrade Peter Esele
Platform: Trade Union Congress
Region: South-South
Committee: Social Sector
Profile: Esele is a trade unionist who began labour activism as President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and was later elected President, Trade Union Congress (TUC). He is currently a member of the Petroleum Investment Board. Contributions: Esele continued his advocacy for better conditions of service for Nigerian workers and creation of job opportunities for the unemployed segment of the population.
He, however, caused an uproar when he took on past Nigerian leaders and blamed them for the current deplorable situation of the country. At some point, Esele went emotional when he said that he felt like shedding tears as he listened to some delegates, many of whom had held positions of authority in the country.
According to him, many of those lamenting about the condition of Nigeria were ministers, state governors and retired top brass of either the police or the Nigeria Armed Forces. Esele wondered aloud why these crop of past leaders were shedding crocodile tears when they had the opportunity to change the system and did nothing to right the wrongs.
Yinka Odumakin
Platform: Afenifere
Region: South-West
Committee: Political Restructuring and Forms of Government
Profile: Yinka Odumakin is a journalist and pro-democracy activist. He came to the conference as a representative of Afenifere, the pan Yoruba sociocultural organisation. He once served as spokesman for General Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) during the 2011 elections. He is the spokesman of the Save Nigeria Group and National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere.
Contributions: Odumakin came to the conference armed with the agenda of the South-West which is political restructuring to achieve fiscal federalism in Nigeria. He said the fundamental issues were concentrated in the committees on political restructuring and forms of government, devolution of power.
Dr. Josephine Okei-Odumakin
Platform: Civil Society Organisations
Region: South-South
Committee: Civil Society, Labour and Sports
Profile: Okei-Odumakin was born on July 4, 1966 in Zaria, Kaduna State. She attended St. Barnabas Primary School and later Queen Elizabeth Secondary School, Ilorin in Kwara State. She grew up in a Catholic home and wanted to be a nun but ended up an activist and got married to another activist, Mr. Yinka Odumakin.
Joe came to the conference on the platform of the Civil Society Organisations, representing the Campaign for Democracy and Women Arise for Change Initiative. Contributions: While the talks went on, she took out some time to campaign for the release of the Chibok girls.
Here is her impression of the conference: “A lot of people have said it is a talk shop and that it is another jamboree, but I firmly believe that with some of the people I see here – a lot of people that have not even attended conferences before – I think we should insist that whatever resolution this conference will have must be subjected to referendum. It is only referendum that will now tinker with the proceedings of this conference.
‘“We also need to discuss the National Assembly. As I speak today, I think that our people have lost it. Sovereignty belongs to the people, but because of military psyche, because of military dictatorship, a lot of people don’t even know that the existence of military rule had whittled down the power of the people. We, the people have the National Assembly members as our agents and we the principals. The principals can dissolve the National Assembly.
The National Assembly remains our agents as long as they have their tenure. So, we should utilise our powers. I believe it is going to be a colossal waste of time and resources if, at the end, the outcome of the conference is taken to the National Assembly. They are going to tinker with the outcome if we do that. They are also part of the problems that we are supposed to discuss.”
Okon Osung
Platform: South-South
State: Akwa Ibom
Committee: Public Finance and Revenue
Profile: Chief Okon Osung was a two-term National Vice President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He was also the Chairman of the Nigerian Election Monitoring Group (NEMG), the first organised structure to monitor elections in Nigeria and it was the NEMG that declared the June 12, 1993 election free and fair and called on the then Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Prof. Humphrey Nwosu to declare the eventual winner of that election.
The General Ibrahim Babangida regime was uncomfortable after that world press conference declaring June 12 election free and fair. Okon was among the several Nigerians who were hunted, arrested and detained in the junta’s gulag.
He is currently, Chairman, Oron Think Tank, an institution whose responsibility is to proffer solutions to social, political and economic problems facing the Oron people of Akwa Ibom State. Contributions: Okon was an active member of the South-South delegation and made his mark canvassing restructuring of the federation, resource control and fiscal federalism during the plenary sessions.
However, he stirred the hornets’ nest when he came with a proposal seeking the postponement of the 2015 general election by 18 months and the extension of the tenure of the present government by the same margin. The proposal provoked a lot of reactions and the conference disowned him and the idea which some described as the hidden agenda of the conference.
When confronted about his proposal, he said: “We must consolidate this democracy but one of the greatest threats to democracy in Nigeria today is this attitude of fixation on the forthcoming elections. We are still pretending as if this country is not at war. We are still pretending that it is only the North-East that is entitled to emergency rule.
The truth of the matter is that the country is at war and in an emergency situation as we have found ourselves, desperate illness needs desperate remedies; extraordinary problems need extraordinary solutions.
“Inherent in a democracy is the doctrine of popular sovereignty which means that power belongs to the people and if power belongs to the people, the people can take that power from anybody.
If this constitution in the strictest sense of the word lacks legitimacy, it means that in periods of crisis; in periods of national emergencies certain actions need to be taken by the Presidency to stabilise the polity and my own proposal was very simple.
I am not discriminating against any political party that is in power, I said all the democratic structures should be allowed to remain in place and let us use this 18 months to retool.”
Chief Olusegun Osoba
Platform: Forum of former Governors
Region: South-West
Committee: Political Parties and Electoral Matters
Profile: Chief Olusegun Osoba is a veteran journalist and politician who served as governor of Ogun State.
He holds the traditional titles of Akinrogun of Egbaland and Aremo Awujale of Ijebuland. Born on July 15,1939 at an Egba settlement in Osogbo called Egbatedo and educated at the University of Lagos.
He is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Contributions: Osoba was one of the most vocal advocates of true federalism during the conference. When he got frustrated by the reluctance of some northern delegates to accept the proposals for changes in the polity, Osoba warned the conservatives against scuttling the efforts of other zones seeking fundamental changes in the political structure of Nigeria. According to him, such a negative disposition to maintain the status quo will count against them in the future.
“It appears that some people have come here with a mindset to maintain the status quo. In today’s world, devolution is the word. The United Kingdom is now devolving powers from Westminster to Scotland, Ireland and Wales. In 1977, a referendum was held in Wales and Scotland where they decided that they want power to devolve for them to have their own parliaments. In 1998, in what they called Good Friday in Ireland, they voted in a referendum to have power devolved to Ireland. If countries that have been together for centuries are asking for devolution of powers, those asking for status quo here should rethink.
“This conference is not just about maintaining the status quo. If you are not careful, those of us from other zones will not agree with you on other issues. Let us cooperate and support one another; you rub my back, I rub your back. If you don’t rub my back, when it comes to the presidential elections in 2015, we shall deal with those people who want status quo and who are not rubbing our back now,” he said.
Senator Femi Okurounmu
Platform: South-West
State: Ogun
Committee: Politics and Governance
Profile: Femi Okurounmu was the Commissioner for Works in Ogun State before he was elected Senator for the Ogun Central constituency at the National Assembly at the start of the Fourth Republic. He won the elections on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and was in the parliament from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2003. While in the Senate, Okurounmu was a member of the Committee on Commerce and Economic Affairs.
He ran for re-election in 2003, but was defeated by Ibikunle Amosun of the PDP. Okurounmu was appointed Secretary General of the Yoruba sociopolitical group, Afenifere. President Goodluck Jonathan also appointed him chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) on the National Conference, the platform that designed the 2014 confab.
Contributions: Like someone who midwifed a process, Okurounmu was a resource person to the National Conference. He had the blueprint having helped the government in developing the vision. He fought for restructuring of the country to bring back the old regions but did not quite succeed. He was happy that the states were recognised as federating units and local councils moved out of the centre to the federating units.
He applauded the recommendation that contiguous states could merge if they so desire to form something close to regional blocs. He played an active role in the debate on what should happen to the conference report and most of his recommendations were eventually adopted by the general house.
Muhammadu Barkindo Mustapha
Platform: National Council of Traditional Rulers
Region: North-East
Committee: Land Tenure and National Boundaries
Profile: Muhammadu Barkindo Aliyu Mustapha was turbaned as the Lamido of Adamawa Emirate on March 18, 2010. Born in February 1944 in Yola, Adamawa State, he attended Barewa College, Zaria and later obtained a Diploma in Law from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He also attended the North London Polytechnic (1973-1975) and Saint Clements University in the Turks and Caicos Islands. He worked with the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Ports Authority and the National Freight Company. He also served in the old Gongola State as Commissioner for Works and later Commissioner for Animal Health.
Contributions: The Lamido came to the national conference in royal ambience. His entourage of royal guards was a sight to behold every morning as he arrived the conference venue in splendour and dignity.
He was not among the class of elder statesmen who were given the front row seats, but in less than one week of the conference, he forced his way to the front pages in screaming headlines. It was the Lamido who threatened that if he and his people were pushed to the wall or felt intimidated by other sections of the country, he might relocate to the Republic of Cameroon where there is an extension of the Adamawa Kingdom.
He stated: “Some so-called elders who claim to be supporters of the president are causing problems at this conference. If you push us to the wall, we can easily walk out of this country. There is a state in Cameroon called Adamawa and if I run to that place, I can easily be assimilated. Jingoism is not the preserve of anyone.” It was an unfortunate utterance from a royal father.
Barely two weeks after this controversy, the Lamido exploded yet again as he accused an elder statesman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo of ranting at the age of 86. The royal father earned a notoriety for his short temper and apparent reluctance to change when he accused Adebanjo and other delegates of jumping the gun and canvassing issues such as fiscal federalism and resource control when the conference had not started real business.
Atedo Peterside
Platform: Federal Government Delegation
Region: South South
Committee: Citizenship, Immigration and Related Matters
Profile: Peterside is a renowned banker and Chairman of the Board of Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC, one of the key players in the banking and pension sectors. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from City University London and a Master’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
He has served as Chief Executive Officer and Director of IBTC Chartered Bank Plc. He is on the Boards of Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Ltd, Cadbury Nigeria Plc., Nigerian Breweries Plc., Presco Plc., Unilever Nigeria Plc., Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc.
Contributions: He came to the conference in search of like-minds who would not only make beautiful proposals for a new Nigeria but were equally prepared to see these changes come to reality. He want Nigerians to live as free citizens of one country and not as people of different states, ethnic, linguistic and tribal affiliations that superseded their citizenship of Nigeria. He said: “People forget one thing about many countries around the world that you look at and you call them a nation and you say they are one people. They became one people because at some point some leaders made some rules and everybody bought into those rules.
One of those rules was that as soon as you are a citizen of that country and you have their passport in your hands, you can live anywhere in that country; you can choose wherever you want to reside. When you get there and you meet your obligations, you have the full rights like anybody else to practice your trade, to run for elections, whatever you want to do which means you encourage mobility. “I can leave Lagos and go to Sokoto and I should be welcomed when I get there, likewise somebody should be able to leave Sokoto and move to Calabar.
The country belongs to all Nigerians and we should be able to choose where we want to stay, where we want to work. And wherever you stay and meet your obligations, reside there for a number of years, pay your taxes, you should be able to take part in elections, claim all the privileges that come with being a resident who have met all his obligations including paying taxes to the state government where you reside. I also wish that we should stop asking people in forms they fill for anything what their state of origin is. We should be asking them what their place of residence is so that if I am in Sokoto I will say Sokoto State is my place of residence.”
Gen. Zamani Lekwot
Platform: Retired Army, Navy & Airforce Officers Association
Region: North Central
Committee: National Security
Profile: Lekwot is of the Kataf ethnic group and a retired officer of the Nigerian Army. Born in 1944, Lekwot rose to the rank of a Major General and was the Military Governor of Rivers State during the Murtala/ Obasanjo regime. He had a successful career in the military until he retired in 1985.
He went into private business but he and some of his Kataf kinsmen were, on February 2, 1993 sentenced to death by the Zangon-Kataf Civil Disturbances Special Tribunal in Kaduna. Their sentences were, however, later commuted to jail terms. Contributions: He stood out as one of the advocates of a more united, secure and peaceful Nigeria.
He dismissed the insinuations in some quarters that Nigeria was on the verge of disintegration. Instead of dissolution, he said the grievances of the various sections of the country should be addressed. “When you talk of split, you are talking of breaking up into different republics. That will never be a solution because whether anybody likes it or not, there is prosperity in every part of Nigeria and we all need one another.
The intellectuals are responsible for the kind of tension we are witnessing. Go to any market in Nigeria, you will see that Nigerians at that level are happily buying and selling from one another and there is no problem.
The ordinary Nigerians are basically happy people. “But some dishonest intellectuals, whenever they need something, they either apply tribal or religious cause and there is no need for it because we have a very fine constitution that guarantees all manner of freedoms. But while exercising your freedom do not disturb your neighbour. If we all do this with discipline and stability, Nigeria will be at peace and once we are at peace, our neighbours will also be at peace,” Lekwot said at the conference.