By Godwin Onyeacholem
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President Goodluck Jonathan
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The
power game currently going on in Nigeria is nothing but an embarrassment. If the contest as being carried out were
truly driven by selflessness and an honest desire to serve the people as the
jostlers often claim, the atmosphere would be reassuring. But this is not so.
And they know it. The unbroken boisterous shout from one side to the effect
that Jonathan must not go for a second term, and the sometimes over-the-top
counteractive defiance from the other, is down to only one thing: elite
self-interest.
It
has to be emphasised that the enduring nonsense about the country’s presidency
as an object of do-or-die tussle between the North and the South is an elite
concept perpetuated by the privileged class in both sections of the country. For
them the essence of grabbing power has never been for the purpose of
development and improvement of the lives of the people. It is to preserve
elitism by furthering class distinction to the absolute disadvantage of the
lower class. This perception is informed by the experience of not-too-distant
past.
It
is germane to recap it. Of all the long years that one northern leader after
another held the reins of government, years that would be more than enough for
a focused, selfless leader to positively transform the region and the lives of
its people – not to talk of the entire country – the only thing they had to
show for it was absolute poverty and widespread misery for their own people.
Measured
with the same index of dispassion, similar horrendous fiasco is known to have
defined the tenure of their southern counterparts. Meanwhile, in turn, these
leaders, or rulers, come out stupendously richer than they were before they
took office. Lest you are deceived, in practice, there is no difference yet
between the northern leader and the southern leader.
Without
doubt, a common thread that runs through the hideous tapestry of Nigeria’s arrogant
leadership over the past decades is the shameless preoccupation with stealing
public funds by both elected and unelected state officials. Barefaced treasury
looting and crass corruption has long since been elevated to high art, to the
detriment of the higher ideal of sacrifice and service delivery in the interest
of the vast majority. Funds that are meant for servicing the needs of society
often end up in the pockets of politicians and government officials and their
cronies. In the end, no one benefits other than these few thieves in government
and their immediate families and cronies.
In
the face of a deliberately designed deficiency in the mechanism for
accountability, and the glaring absence of consequence for impunity, the
looting extravaganza goes on unhindered. Therefore, it is the determination to
seize control of the juicy central government, the heartbeat of the gravy
train, which fuels the perennial struggle for power between the north and the
south. Nothing more. There is so much money available for stress-free stealing
at the centre that the elite in either camp are ready to risk anything to
succeed.
But
fate has presented one man a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change all that
for the sake of stability and progress of a country in serious need of
all-round fine-tuning. There can be no better time for President Goodluck
Jonathan to redeem his presidency by leaving a lasting legacy through the restructuring
of a dysfunctional federal system that de-emphasises development and
concentrates enormous power and financial resources at the centre, thus making
it so attractive as to encourage unending bitter rivalry among tribes in the
north and the south.
This
country has to be saved from its self-inflicted demons, and it can only be
saved by re-inventing it. Therefore, Jonathan must, for once, prove to the
Nigerian people that he is the leader they elected by seizing this moment to
convoke a conference of Nigerian people to debate constitutional reforms.
The
conference is of urgent necessity for no other reason than the fact that the
1999 constitution under which the country is currently governed is, as has been
stated many times in the past by many astute analysts, a defective product resulting
from a Decree enacted by the Federal Military Government headed by General
Abdulsalami Abubakar.
So
flawed is this constitution that it decisively foists on the country an unbalanced
and lop-sided federal structure that confers more benefits on the centre at the
expense of the states which accommodate the ethnic nationalities. Unfortunately,
as a result of the disproportionately powerful and extremely profitable office
of the president of Nigeria, virtually all ethnic groups have been intensifying
struggle for the control of the federal government.
Hopes
of redressing the dangerous imbalance were raised in February 2005 by President
Olusegun Obasanjo. Making a show of investing in efforts to produce for the
country an acceptable constitution, Obasanjo convened the National Political
Reform Conference which was made up of all sorts of persons chosen by him and
the state governors.
There
was nothing democratic about the conference; not even a law establishing and
backing it up. It turned out that the delegates were only at the conference to
make recommendations which the presidency and the national assembly would sift
through and see which ones would be incorporated in the constitution.
At long
last, with the conference in total disarray, it dawned on everybody that
Obasanjo only convened it to deviously obtain tenure elongation for himself.
Thanks to the national assembly, he was blocked. Meantime, yet unverified
billions of naira (for conference and inducement of sundry legislators and
state officials) had gone down the drain!
That
is not the type of conference Nigerians expect this time. Surely Jonathan would
be better off if he rises above selfish and clannish considerations to facilitate
the process of fashioning a constitution the country truly deserves – one that
will effectively sort out the many injustices that have clogged the path to a
new, vibrant nation.
Unlike
the one in use now, the constitution the people are looking forward to will
have no choice but to finally institute and preserve an authentic balance
between the requirements and burdens of creating a nation and the sustenance of
diversity in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural society.
Coming
from the Niger Delta, the oil-producing region with the confounding paradox of
being Nigeria’s major source of revenue, as well as the poster child of cruel
injustice and criminal neglect, Jonathan is better placed to appreciate the crucial
need for Nigerians from every part of the country to sit down, talk and reach a
decision on how to move on as a people of one country.
But more specifically,
he can use the window to negotiate terms and relationships that will ultimately
improve the lot of his people in the region. That is something they have long
been clamouring for anyway.
By
all means, the constitution derived from such an exercise will not be a
cure-all for the country’s multi-faceted problems. But it certainly will be an
indispensable step in the onerous task of building a new, functional nation.
If
Jonathan makes this possible – there is no reason he shouldn’t – he will
forever be remembered as the president who gave Nigeria a fresh beginning.
Should he then allow this golden chance to elude him? No.
Godwin Onyeacholem is a journalist
based in Abuja He can be reached on gonyeacholem@gmail.com
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