Tinubu Advocates Sovereign National Conference

Date: 24 November 2011

Nothing short of a sovereign national conference (SNC) will save the weakening pillars of Nigeria as a federal entity, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos and national leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), has said.

Speaking at the 1^st Anthony Enahoro Memorial Lecture at the Benin Club, Benin City, Edo State, Asiwaju Tinubu, represented by Mrs Funmi Olayinka, deputy governor of Ekiti State, he declared: “Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you today that because of the multiple issues surrounding our skewed federalism and constitutional flaws, the state of the Nigerian nation is weak.  Unless we move to strengthen it through dialogue and equity,” he warned, “we will remain a nation in mere words.”

The former Lagos governor added that fixing the Nigerian national pillar would entail a robust people-driven debate, insisting that any artificial tinkering of the present constitution would fall short.

“The 21-member Presidential Committee on the Review of Outstanding Constitutional Issues (PCROCI) recently set up by President Goodluck Jonathan falls short,” he told the cheering audience.  “It is a backdoor approach to the issue of national conference.  In memory of Chief Enahoro,” he added, “we must convoke a national conference.  It should provide a platform to address our pressing concerns.”

He said it was ironic that Nigeria that was a product of dialogue at independence has leaders that now seem to make the avoidance of robust dialogue state policy.  But he stated that free and unfettered dialogue held the key to Nigeria’s rebirth.

“The people ought to be consulted on the issue of subsidy.  We ought to have a referendum on the question, not only of oil subsidy but also on sovereign wealth fund as well as the proposed one-term of seven years proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan,” he said.

Returning to what he called addressing “our pressing concerns”, Asiwaju Tinubu said the foremost of those was the federal question, which he explains should be the restructuring of the country along true and vibrant federal lines.

He added that unlike the misconceptions in most quarters, restructuring was more of an economic than a political question, since it stresses the funnelling of resources to where they can best develop the country and deliver prosperity.

Asiwaju Tinubu said federalism as a development paradigm for a multi-national country was no mere labelling, adding that it assures both economic and political fairness.

“Our economic system is supposed to be open and fair.  But it is even more slanted and biased than the political system,” he told the audience.  “We do not operate a free and fair merit-based economy.  We operate a feudal economy, where those in power decide by the whim of the moment who becomes rich and who stays poor.”

Going back memory lane, he recalled how Chief Obafemi Awolowo, as early as 1947, had recommended the federal formula for an independent and prosperous Nigeria.  He said though competitive federalism worked in the first six years of independence, he blamed the military for rolling back that developmental formula which, he added, they had replaced with a sterile unitary system, after their command mentality.

He regretted, however, that the military over-centralisation had arrested growth and stunted development.

“This has not only stalled development, it has affected recurrent and capital expenditure.  This fuels corruption at the centre and makes the system a mockery of development,” he explained. “It gives a winner-takes-all quality to the presidential election.  This is wrong.  That is why progressives have been calling for fiscal federalism.”

Asiwaju Tinubu said a Nigeria restructured along federal lines would avoid the pitfall of hitherto solid nations like Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and former USSR who later broke up because of intra-national dissonance and tension.

The ACN national leader urged a re-think of the presidential system, aligning with the late Enahoro’s view that the parliamentary system of government should be reconsidered.