A STATEMENT BY THE SAY NO CAMPAIGN - NIGERIA
Introduction
The Say No Campaign is a nationwide campaign
against Impunity in all its ramifications, with Zonal Hubs and representation
across the states of the federation.
The Say No Campaign [SNC] has noted that in recent
times, the country has witnessed steady rise in the intensity of the
contradictions within the system and the often times mutually antagonistic
interests of the ruling political elites.
The SNC observes that these contradictions and the mobilization of
mutually antagonistic interests are being deepened and compounded with the
permutations around the upcoming general elections of 2015 and the series of
governorship elections preceding the general elections.
Given the foregoing, and in the context of the mounting tensions, the
SNC wishes to highlight the major sore points that currently characterize the
State of our Nation, and which constitute potential or active dangers to the
wellbeing of citizens and the security of the Nation:
1.
EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE [EVD] OUTBREAK:
The SNC notes that whereas EVD has been around for
decades, particularly since its first known outbreak in DRC in 1976; nevertheless
this is the first time the outbreak will be occurring in West Africa, the first
time it will be presenting as a multinational outbreak and the most serious and
severe outbreak of the disease recorded in human history.
However, while commanding the effort put into the
response by all stakeholders, which has enabled the country to more or less
contain the outbreak; we are worried and concerned about the alarmist nature of
the response, which we are convinced exaggerated the scale and scope of the risk,
and which led to the spread of panic across the country, and the mushrooming of
rumours about phantom cures, with often very fatal and near fatal consequences
across Nigeria.
We are particularly concerned that this somewhat
alarmist and deliberate overstating of the crisis, was part of the calculations
of politicians and political leaders to ensure mobilization of resources and
funds internally and externally into a pool, that like the response to the 2012
Flood disaster can be disappeared into the private pockets, looted and
converted into election war chests.
We note for example that a fund was established and
designated for the response; but without any clarity as to whether this was
appropriated for, and where the funds will be drawn from. Furthermore, to
buttress the point about the setting up of the fund as a conduit for
corruption, controversy continues to trail the disbursement or otherwise of the
said fund.
As usual, Nigeria’s ruling elites have resorted to
their traditional attitude of seeking to always convert our collective grieve
into the opportunity to loot. We condemn this continued display of
insensitivity towards the plight of citizens on the part of the ruling elites.
We
call on all stakeholders particularly the Federal and state governments to
eschew political sentiments in dealing with this menace. The Ebola pandemic MUST
NOT be politicized. We urge the Federal government to collaborate with state
governments in fighting this scourge in the best interest of the Nigerian
people.
We also urge Nigerians to collaborate with the government by ensuring
all suspected high risk contacts present themselves for treatment and
quarantine. We urge all stakeholders to conscientiously observe the preventive
measures suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO).
We
also urge ECOWAS to without further delay appoint a Special Envoy on Ebola that
will facilitate regional coordination and response to the pandemic.
2.
INSURGENCY AND THE VICTIM SUPPORT FUND:
We note again that the Federal Government of Nigeria
[FGN] has recently established a victim support fund for the victims of the
insurgency ravaging parts of the country, even as it inaugurates with fanfare
the committee to manage the disbursement of the fund.
While we commend this as usual belated response of
the state towards the plight and sufferings of Nigerian citizens caught up in
the cross fires of the insurgency and counter insurgency operations; we are
however concerned about several issues of interest relating to the processes
involved.
First, we wish to point out that there is a
constitutionally established National Stabilization
Fund, to be made up of 1.5% of funds deducted from the Federation Account
annually. Is this Victim Support Fund [VSF] drawn from this Stabilisation fund?
How much money has accrued into this National Stabilisation Fund since the
inception of the fourth republic on the basis of the 1999 constitution which
made provisions for the establishment of the fund?
What
has this fund been used for since its establishment? What is the balance in the
fund after deducting the VSF? What has happened to the N2bn allocated in the
2014 appropriation act as a North East Development Intervention Fund?
Given the frenzied pace with which all manner of
funds are now being established [in some instances targeting long overdue
initiatives, and in some others targeting deliberately overblown crisis] in a
year that is the eve of a general elections; again and again, we are being
forced to draw the conclusion that the reason for the establishment of these
funds now, has precious little to do with the plight of our citizens, but a lot
more to do with the gluttonous greed for politicians for funds that will enable
them wage the intensifying electoral battles.
Particularly given the lack of transparency and
accountability accompanying the setting up of these and similar intervention
funds of the recent past, we wish to condemn in very strong terms the cynical
abuse and conversion of our collective pains into a source of collective gain for
the political elite.
3. THE MILITARISATION OF ELECTIONS:
Whereas it has been argued by some that the heavy
and intimidating deployment of the Armed Forces during elections serves to
ensure security, and guarantee the sanctity of the electoral process. Nevertheless,
regardless of its seeming immediate and disputed short term advantages, this
trend witnessed on increasingly overbearing and overwhelming scale from the
Anambra elections, through the Ondo, Ekiti and the recent Osun elections, is
not a sustainable antidote to electoral violence and electoral fraud.
In the first instance the deployment of troops in
such numbers and in provocative manner, with heavily armed hooded personnel,
into communities with very high level of mutual distrusts, can itself become
provocative and a trigger for violence.
Secondly, whereas such humongous scale of
deployment may be manageable in the context of single elections in a single
state; this will become impossible to manage in the context of nationwide
general elections.
This is because to sustain the scale and scope of deployment
witnessed in Osun state for instance across the country would require the
deployment of nearly or more than half a million troops for election duties.
This is simply not a sustainable solution to the existing problem, which
requires simply ensuring adequate and effective policing in quantitative and
qualitative terms.
We are worried about the grave dangers posed to our
country and the ongoing intensely contested democratization process in the
nation. This overwhelming deployment of the armed forces for electoral matters,
poses a number of grievous dangers to the democratic process and the nation
itself.
Not only does it constitute a huge distraction for
the military and contributes to overstretching its resources thus rendering it
impaired in the execution of its primary duty of safeguarding the territorial
integrity of the country; it also contributes significantly to the
politicization of the military.
And the danger is real, the overwhelmingly militarization
of politics, engenders a consequent politicization of the military, that may
lead to a situation where a politicized military strikes and cashes in on a
general crisis partly created and partly reinforced by the militarization of
politics and civic life, and truncates the democratic experiment.
It is
for these reasons that we insist that the trend be reversed, and that the
police be adequately prepared to play its policing roles and functions, instead
of substituting a failed and failing police force with the Armed forces.
4. THE RECENTLY CONCLUDED NATIONAL CONFERENCE:
Now that the 2014 National Conference with 492
delegates and a 6 member management team has concluded and submitted its 600
resolutions/recommendations and 10,000 paged report to its Convening authority,
the President; it has become imperative for the resolutions and
recommendations, along with all of the supporting documentation of this
historic conference to be subjected to a very thorough scrutiny by the
populace.
A majority of the recommendations of the conference
are people oriented, patriotic, nationalistic, even radical and revolutionary
in some instances; just as a few of its recommendations also leave much to be
desired.
As Civil Society and active citizens, our duty is
to engage with this report, to scrutinize and own it, and to utilize it as the
basic fulcrum of our advocacy, campaigning and lobbying in order to ensure that
the report is implemented.
We are convinced that a thorough implementation of
the report of this conference will precipitate and lay the foundation for
radical, significant and fundamental transmission of the country. If all its
constitutional recommendations were to be implemented and utilized in amending
the 1999 constitution for instance, the outcome of that constitutional review
will amount to a fundamentally new constitutional framework on which to embark
on the nation building journey of the next 100 years.
But we are also convinced that because of the
fundamentally radical nature of some of the recommendations, these political
ruling elite will not feel obliged to implement the report unless compelled by
public pressure mounted by civil society and citizens organisations.
We
thus demand that the President having received the report of a conference
convened under his executive authority should take immediate steps towards full
implementation of the report. This should include in the first instance the
immediate release of a program and time scale outlining steps that will be
taken towards the various Policy, Legislative and Constitutional
recommendations of the conference.
We
call on Nigerians all over the world to demand of political parties and their
candidates their attitude towards the report of the conference and to extract
commitments from parties and their candidates towards implementation of the
report during the electoral campaigns.
May God bless Nigeria and may corruption and impunity end in Nigeria.
Signed:
Ezenwa Nwagwu
Co-convener
Awwal Musa Rafsanjani
Co-convener
Jaye Gaskia
Co-convener
Samson Itodo
Co-convener
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