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(PRONACO)
OPENING CEREMONY OF PEOPLE’S NATIONAL CONFERENCE
SATURDAY 1ST OCTOBER, 2005
OPENING ADDRESS BY CHIEF ANTHONY ENAHORO, CFR
National Chairman of PRONACO
Representatives of Their Royal Highnesses, of Excellencies, of
Civil Society
Groups, of Women’s Organisations, of Mass Organisations, of fellow
travellers on
the toilsome road to freedom, and of Nigerians in the Diaspora,
Fellow Citizens of Nigeria,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
On January 12th and 13th of this year, Pro-National Conference
Organisations held a meeting in Lagos, after widespread
consultations with ethnic organisations and civil society groups.
The meeting decided to organise a National Conference for the
resolution of Nigeria’s critical problems of existence.
Those of you here today who attended that meeting will recall that
our welcome address contained the following, and I quote: “The
journey since Nigeria’s formal independence in 1960 has not
propelled our country to the level of development to which our
founding fathers aspired.
“Since independence, self sustained growth has eluded us. Political
bickering, violent politicking and dictatorial outbursts have
distorted the landscape of the Nigerian polity, and there has been
consistent countrywide clamour for progressive change. Civil
democratic rule with the necessary vitality, which we hoped would
lead to structural transformation, has not emerged. A lot of
State-inflicted and communal violence has beclouded the polity.
Now we need to sit together as a people to reassess our positioning,
and the clamour for a People’s National Conference has been
deafening. Even the Presidency has been obliged to join the train,
though unfortunately it has done so from a dictatorial stance. And
we have all seen the Abuja Conference come to its inevitable end.”
On its part, the country is still poised for restructuring capable
of building what could become a more national Union for the benefit
of the people of Nigeria and hopefully of Africa as a whole. This
has always been my ambition and the dream and ambition of Nigerian
nationalists.
“First, our various nationalities have to covenant, in a
Constitution, the form of federating units and the federal authority
they deserve for a multinational democratic state. Second,
devolution of powers, fiscal federalism and a whole gamut of rights
and welfare provisions, must be foundational constitutional
requirements of the New Nigeria of which we all dream.”
And we concluded:
“There are those who have posited a fear that a national conference
may balkanise our country or begin such a process. Our own
calculation is that the People’s Conference of our dream will result
in a more cohesive Nigeria where every Nigerian of whatever ethnic
group can feel comfortable and free from oppression imposed by a
wrongly structured system.”
The communiqué of our January meeting restated the case for a
people’s national conference, thus: ‘Some 44 years after Nigeria’s
freedom from British rule, following a forceful merger of the
indigenous peoples of Nigeria by foreign powers, the people of
Nigeria remain continually traumatized by socio-economic misrule,
characterized by the misadventure of military rule, unbridled
corruption, ethnic conflicts, misgovernance, collapse of moral
values, extreme poverty, high infant mortality rate, collapse of
infrastructures, dwindling fortunes of the people of a country which
is the black man’s most populous nation, unparalleled misery and
death rate, and now underscored by the helplessness of the political
parties.”
“We realize that Nigeria came into existence in 1914 by the
fiat of Britannia without consultation with its indigenous peoples
who had lived as free people on their territories from time
immemorial, but that since after independence in 1960 the people
have not had the opportunity to deliberate freely on their political
and economic future.”
“Though Nigeria is the world’s 8th leading producer of oil at over 2
million barrels of oil per day, and is a country endowed with vast
human and natural resources, yet her citizens remain pauperized,
writhing at the very bottom of the heap of poor countries.”
‘For the past two decades, the Nigerian people. downcast and
troubled by their toil-worn condition. have renewed their desire to
create a platform, whereon born out of their common volition, the
people will decide their future, and in the process, determine how
they want to live together in a country of free people, under
sustainable development, democracy and overall human development.”
“In the past few months, the country has further gone down the
ladder rating of human development, and the crisis in the country
has taken frightening dimensions, with the forceful seizure of
democratic structures by armed forces, increasing cases of
assassination, armed uprising in some parts of the country and the
lack of vision and dynamic solution to the numerous problems that
seem to have grounded the nation almost to a state of anomie and
political stupor.”
‘The Nigerian people have long nurtured a consensus to organize a
People’s National Conference which will be made tip of delegates
freely chosen by ethnic, social and professional groups.”
“The Conference will address ethnic, religious, social, economic and
other relevant matters.”
The Conference will bring hope where there has been nothing but
despair, and confidence where fear and uncertainties have so far
prevailed.’
“The Conference will draw Nigeria away from the current brink of
socio-political explosion, and develop a platform where all
aggrieved nationalities and lawful interest groups in Nigeria can
sincerely and peacefully end the sore issues of our federation.”
‘The Conference will produce a people’s constitution for a
restructured Nigeria that conforms with the aspirations of the
nationalities for good governance, and build a new nation where no
person or ethnic group is oppressed and where justice, equity and
the rule of law prevail.”
‘The Conference will sensitise the population for a popular approach
to the National Conference.” We are here today at the
inauguration of that Conference. We are here to declare the historic
People’s Conference open.
The demand for a National Conference is very many years old.
Successive governments have long resisted this demand. Even the
current head of the federal government resisted it for many years
until the demand became irresistible. In partial deference to
the people’s wishes, the present head of government conceded
promoted the dialogue to a National Political Reform Conference.
That half-hearted attempt at a conference failed. It failed for five
main reasons.
First, it failed because of the choice of delegate exclusively by
the government. All the delegates were chosen either by the Federal
Government or by the State Governments. They were all seen therefore
as Federal Government supporters.
The second reason for failure was the non-representation or
incomplete representation of the ethnic nationalities.
Thirdly, there was gross under-representation of our womenfolk who,
as we are all aware, form more than 50 percent of our population. It
is relevant to recall that Nigeria subscribed to the Beijing
Convention tinder which women are guaranteed at least a third of the
representation in public life.
The fourth reason for failure was that the federal government was
not prepared to submit the outcome of the conference to a
referendum. In other words, Government was seen as intending to
impose the conclusions of the conference and its own will on the
people.
The fifth reason, which was the most impairing, was that the
Conference lacked any instrument for mediation and harmonization of
ideas.
1 assure you that our arrangements will not stiffer from these same
deficiencies. Delegates to our conference will be chosen by the
organisations participating in the conference, not by the government
or by the PRONACO leaders.
We have, in newspaper advertisements, set out recognition of over
300 organisations, including 1 79 ethnic groups, entitled to send
representation to the conference, and provision has been made for
objections to be raised and for omitted groups to protest if the
lists of the organisations are faulty.
We have arranged that where there is under-representation, that is
below the Beijing provision, steps will be taken to ensure that the
Beijing women’s quota is observe if not bettered.
Above all, we intend to submit the outcome of the People’s
Conference to the people themselves. I say quite solemnly that the
decisions of our conference will be submitted to a free and fair
referendum of the people of Nigeria. There will be no imposition of
the decision of the conference on the people.
It should have been obvious to the organizers of the Abuja
Conference - in fact I would describe it as elementary — that in a
conference of this nature, there should be arrangements and
facilities behind the scene for negotiation, conciliatory engagement
and harmonization. The Abuja Conference had no such machinery. Our
Conference will have.
In the conference proposed by us, the Conference which begins here
today, there will be no “no-go” areas. Among the subjects we are
proposing for discussion will be the following:
• Justiciability of welfare grants and social rights
• Constitutional provision of human rights and civil liberties
• Parliamentary Democracy or a parliamentarisation of the
presidential system
• Free political parties to manage the electoral commission
• Clear definition of women’s rights
• Statement of rights of minorities, marginalized peoples and
disadvantaged areas
• Rule of Law to compel all public servants, including even the
Commander in Chief, to observe and be subjected to the law
• Boundary problems
Since January, we have continued the interactive consultations with
several organisations. The major subjects for reformation have been
identified and they include the following:
(a) Federating Units
Are we to revert to the old four regions we had after Independence
or should the present 6 Zones become autonomous regions or should we
create new regions? As you may know, some of us have designed, after
extensive workshops, 12 Monoethnic Regions of the larger
nationalities and six multiethnic regions of the smaller
nationalities, all with equal powers and consideration in common
power agencies.
(b) Allocation of Powers
Is there to be clearer demarcation of power between the federal
union and the federating units, including residual powers for the
regions, including notably land, culture, industry and agriculture?
(c) Fiscal Federalism
Is there to be a new revenue mobilisation/distribution formula
whereby the federating units will support the federal government
with a universally acceptable formula?.
For example, will there be a formula that initially subtracts the
revenue required for essential welfare of the population of all the
regions before distribution of the balance revenue to the component
units of the federation? Most of the population requires basic
education, primary health care, habitable shelter, potable water,
other utilities and security of life, property, old age, etc. Most
audiences I have citizens of all ethnic nationalities. Most
Nigerians desire justifiable welfare grants and social rights.
Ladies and Gentlemen, at this historical juncture, we are gathered
to launch the work of consolidating the basis for an enduring Union
of Nigeria and consolidating its stability for the fullest
development of all the potentials of all our people for a satisfying
life.
it has been a tedious journey since 1914. In the historic past, our
sub-region was inhabited by nation states in co-prosperity spheres
in various stages of development, all imbued with their common
Africanness. The brigandage of slave raids from the North of Africa
and the transatlantic slave trade sapped the nations, preparing them
for imperial political and economic domination. The Berlin Congress
of the 19th century redrew the map of Africa, sharing its
territories among the Western European colonial powers.
The reversal from that turning point of pillage of our natural
resources, and exploitation of our other human resources to service
the colonial economy and the devastation of the arts and culture of
the people, has been long overdue. It is more than overdue to redraw
the map of Berlin. With structural change in Nigeria, the biggest
country in Africa, our sub-region may yet return to the
co-prosperity era of medieval times, albeit in the modernity of
today’s technological world.
A substantial beginning was made by the founding fathers of our
country. I refer to those dedicated youths whose struggle for self
government eventually led to concession of our free existence in the
orbit of our former colonisers.
And so, here we are today. At this inaugural ceremony we are opening
the registry for the receipt of memoranda from all interested
parties, including by concerned personalities and Nigerian state
institutions. Position papers are to be recorded by all Pro National
Conference Organizations and ethnic national organizations as per
PRONACO’s advertised list.
During the holy month of Ramadan, a harmonization committee will
work on the docurnentations indexed and collated by the Research
Committee of the Secretariat. The Committee, made up of technocrats
fairly representative of our geo-political zones and major interest
groups, is expected to coalesce the papers for proper presentation
to conference delegates ahead of the first plenary session after the
Ramadan.
Hereafter, that is after today, the Conference Committee adopted at
the General Assembly in Port Harcourt in 7th September, will be
empowered to develop the management of the Conference. You will
remember that the Committee will include a representative from each
geo-political zone.
At this juncture, we must remember with sorrow all those who have
died or suffered in our search for the a New Nigeria. Let us
remember all our dead, and let us note with bewilderment the
arrest of Dokubo Asari, the advocate of a happier tomorrow for the
Niger Delta.
Please rise for a few minutes of silence and prayer for our departed
and for our colleagues in suffering.
One last word. I honestly believe our Conference is the people’s. We
must seize the opportunities of our time to save the Nigerian Union,
strengthened with true federal principles enshrined in an
everlasting Charter. The vista is opened for harmonious African
togetherness of our peoples. A state restructured to enable economic
development rooted in a better life for all our people is the task
that we are engaging in from today.
May God Bless Africa! May our People’s new founding leaders live up
to the task!!
I great you all on behalf of PRONACO. And I say to you all:
To our Hausas, Sanu de zuwa!
To our Yorubas, E kabo!
To our Ijaws, Aiiua!
To our Igbos, Nuani!
To our F’ulani, Auwari Jam!
To our Kanuris, Wushe kin shero!
To our Gbagi, Hokugye!
To our Nupes, E ku be ebonvi!
To our Tivs, Msughu za van!
To our Edos, Wa Obokhian
To all our other nationalities, welcome in their respective
languages.
And to all of us here, the support of our forefathers and the
blessings of God.
God bless us all
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