Hmmmm, something is brewing and its hot. I think this is what the Late SAM, Gani Fawehinmi and a lot of Nigerians have been asking for for years! A group of Nigerians have come together under the umbrella of CHANGE and released a communique today. I would have pasted it but its kinda long but I assure you, its interesting and seems the way out of our present dillema in Nigeria. The good thing is I do not think they are just making mouth like others before them.

If you find it too long, please just make sure you read therecommendations at the tail end.

link is
http://www.saharareporters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3652:qthe-face-of-a-new-country-beyond-partisan-politicsq-&catid=114:press-releases&Itemid=362

and the members of the group include:

(1) Rear Admiral G.N. Kanu (NN Rtd)
(2) Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade (Rtd)
(3) Mr. Solomon .A. Asemota (SAN)
(4) Alhaji Yerima Shettima
(5) Hon. Olawale Oshun
(6) Mr. Fred Agbeyegbe
(7) Prof. Ben. Obumselu

I support ANYTHING that will stop the the evil greed of the typical Nigerian politicians today!

Il post a part of the recommendations here but please take the pains to read the whole stuff in the link provided above.

It is on that basis also that we now tender our POSITION for general consideration and above all, call upon all our countrymen and women and you all here today to stand up and begin your participation in this worthwhile pursuit, here and now, by joining us to STATE as follows:

1. THAT THE ETHNIC NATIONALITIES OF THE LAND MASS CALLED NIGERIA ARE THE SUCCESSORS TO THEIR VARIOUS FOREBEARERS’ ETHNIC PRIMORDIAL SOVEREIGNTIES FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL - THE ONLY SOURCE THAT CAN GIVE BIRTH TO THE PREAMBULAR TEXT OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA 1999: "WE THE PEOPLES OF NIGERIA …"

2. THAT THE ETHNIC NATIONALITIES OF THE LAND MASS CALLED NIGERIA NEITHER MET, NOR RESOLVED AND NEVER PARTICIPATED IN THE FORMULATION OF NOR CONSENTED TO THE 1999 CONSTITUTION AS CLAIMED IN THE SAID PREAMBULAR TEXT.

3. THAT HAVING NEITHER BEEN CONSULTED NOR PARTICIPATED IN ITS FORMULATION, THERE IS THE SERIOUS POTENTIAL THAT MEMBERS OF THE ENTRAPPED ETHNIC NATIONALITIES COULD REJECT THE 1999 CONSTITUTION AS A BASIS FOR THE SURRENDER OF THIER GOD-GIVEN ETHNIC AND PRIMORDIAL SOVEREIGNTIES.

4. THAT TO ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES THE ETHNIC NATIONALTIES HAVE NOT MANDATED ANY LEGISLATURE TO NEGOTIATE THEIR SOVEREIGNTIES. THE MANDATE CONFERRED BY ELECTION DOES NOT INCLUDE SOVEREIGN CONSTITUENT POWERS WHICH AT ALL TIMES RESIDE IN THE SOVEREIGN PEOPLES OF NIGERIA.

5. THAT THERE IS SO MUCH DESIRE AND GOODWILL BY THE VARIOUS PEOPLES OF NIGERIA TO LIVE TOGETHER IN A COUNTRY FOUNDED ON JUSTICE, EQUITY AND FAIRPLAY. THEREFORE URGENT STEPS SHOULD BE TAKEN, ON EQUAL ETHNIC REPRESENTATION BASIS, FOR THE EVOLUTION OF A TRULY PEOPLES’ CONSTITUTION MERITING THE PREAMBULAR TEXT: "WE THE PEOPLES OF NIGERIA…".

6. THAT THE CONDUCT OF ANY FURTHER NATIONAL ELECTIONS UNDER THE 1999 CONSTITUTION IS FURTHER PROPAGATION OF ILLEGITIMACY. THEREFORE WE DEMAND THAT BEFORE ANY FURTHER NATIONAL ELECTIONS, A SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE MUST BE CONVENED AS THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS THE INSTITUTION OF A PROCESS THAT WOULD PUT IN PLACE A TRULY PEOPLES CONSTITUTION.

7. THAT FAILURE TO IMMEDIATELY INITIATE A PROCESS BY WHICH A FRESH CONSTITUTION IS NEGOTIATED COULD SPELL DOOM FOR NIGERIA AS ALREADY PREDICTED. THEREFORE ALL THOSE NO MATTER THEIR ETHNIC NATIONALITIES, NO MATTER THEIR POLITICAL COLOURATION, WHO CONTRIBUTED IN ONE WAY OR THE OTHER TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THIS COUNTRY SHOULD BE PREPARED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS.

I confess I've not yet read the article. But first impressions. . .
How much can they muster? Some of the folk in the list are past rulers (bear some sort of stamp from past regimes), I hope they aren't just seeking relevance sha?

Akinriade is a loser. Where was he during/after Aburi Conference of January 1967?

I am sick and tired of all this yesterday men advocating for solutions they fought against,  40 years ago , either by cowardice or acqueiscence without first publicly acknowledging their tragic role.

Change we believe in.

The one name that could have given them credence is missing.

Wole Soyinka!

All the same, this quote (from an otherwise shabby article) is worthy;

Lord Malcolm Hailey, a British historian recorded Nigeria’s short-coming in these essentials when he said of his own peers’ creation: "Nigeria is perhaps the most artificial of the many administrative units created in the course of European occupation of Africa". Henry Bretton, an American political scientist wrote in the same vein: "there is no universally acceptable and understood rationale for the existence and functioning of a state called Nigeria and efforts at an artificial creation of a national mythology or a Nigerian ideology will be unproductive."

Damn! . . .From the horses mouth.

Beaf:

The one name that could have given them credence is missing.

Wole Soyinka!

True plus Ebitu Ukiwe, Tam david West and Olu falae.

^According to the article, some other "missing names" have already taken the matter to court (Gani style);

Unfortunately, we cannot even attempt an answer to that question here; why, because it is sub-judice as a few fellow Nigerians whose historical lessons at school as to how Nigeria came about, are already asking it at the Federal High Court in Abuja and Lagos. The plaintiffs include: Prince Tanimose Bankole Oki (SAN); Chief Anthony Enahoro; Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu; Professor Wole Soyinka and Biship Bolanle Gbonigi. The Late Chief C. C. Onoh was on that list up to his passage. From the younger generation, we also have plaintiffs including Ralph Uwazurike, Alhaji Shettima Yerima and Mujahedat Dokubo Asari. There is a legion of other prospective plaintiffs applying to join.

Gani can smile about that (RIP).

sovereign national conference? na today?, e don teh, weh yansh de for back

what of pronaco? did anybody listen to them! think these old men shud jst go and sit in their homes and stop all these nonsense.

they keep holding their bla bla bla, while the politicians laugh to the banks with billions of naira.

sovereign national conference, my fucking ass

The only thing Nigeria needs right now is a fair and unbiased sovereign national conference, But I am unsure if it would be taken seriously by a majority of the citizenry due to the cynical mindset of most Nigerians and the fact that this wont the first time such events emerged to be futile after wards.

Na2day?

It'll fizzle away just like any and every other thing in Nigeria

"Sovereign National Conference" sounds too cryptic and nebulous to be meaningful.

A lot of Nigerians are now eternal pessimists when the issue of Nigeria is being discussed, and I do not blame them at all. Our parent, and our generation have long hoped for a new Nigeria but nothing has come out of this hope. However, Im one who believes that as long as there's Life, there's hope.

My belief is not just plain old religious belief, history has taught me that consistency is all that is needed to bring about change. The Israelites where in Egypt for 400 years before the 'deliverer' came in form of Moses, the entire black race were in slavery for over 3 generations before slavery was abolished, American blacks suffered discrimination before a ceratin MLK jnr dreamt a dream. I know, without any iota of doubt, that some day, a new Nigeria will emerge.

Meanwhile, here are some of the problems in the 1999 constitution as highlighted by the CHANGE group.

The last use to which the discarding of our ethnicities and the stealing of our sovereignties were put, manifests in the 1999 Constitution in the following realities:

1. A structural setting in which one Region pre-1966, has become 19 States plus the Abuja Federal Capital Territory and three Regions plus the erstwhile Federal Capital Territory of Lagos of the same period, have been collapsed into 17 States with the implications for representation at the National Assembly and revenue allocation.

2. A federal/states power relation equation in which the states (the supposed federating units) have become beggars at the feet of an almighty, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent federal government with the states having minimal legislative power or resources to address the needs of their peoples. The tail ("federal" – Centre) now wags the body ("federating units" – States). Even where the States exercise legislative power, they have no enforcement machinery of their own since the centre ‘police’ the whole of the federation.

3. An expensive Presidential system has replaced the relatively cheaper Parliamentary system in which the executive branch were fully accountable to their peers in the legislature.

4. A unitary system of Government in which the Centre noses into all the nooks and crannies of the land-mass, sniffing out revenue producing resources to be hijacked, appropriated and shared under a skewed Revenue Sharing Formula, with almost no reference to derivation, the very antithesis of justice and fair play; a departure from the federal system under which the then federating Regions developed at their own pace using mostly their own resources between 1953 and 1966.

5. A Land Tenure System that deprives indigenes of their natural right to their lands but vests access to land in the hands of stranger elements.

6. Appropriation provisions that practically hand over blank cheques to the President and the 36 Governors who are at liberty to spend from the treasury while appropriation debates are still going on in the legislatures.

7. An immunity clause that effectively puts beyond our reach for query and sanction, the 37 men and their deputies whose signatures move all the monies contained in our treasury and who exercise full control over our commonwealth. Corruption remains hale and hearty, dwelling in the impregnable fortress of the Immunity Clause.

8. An electoral system in which the Centre and the party in power at the Centre have absolute control over the entire electioneering machinery throughout the country.

In all, over-centralisation, product of the 1999 Constitution, is at the heart of the inefficiencies and corruption that has brought Nigeria to where it is today.

Was this Alani Akinrinade around during the Aburi Conference?

proudly9ja:

Meanwhile, here are some of the problems in the 1999 constitution as highlighted by the CHANGE group.

That 1999 Constitution as a whole is the problem we have today, How can few people impose their mind on the whole country.
The ideas "change" tabled are the way forward but we are in Nigeria where motives means different thing from idea. As some of the posters above me has said we don't know their motive, is it to make noise and get settled?.

Most of the names that signed are unknown to me, are they seeking relevance or billions of the petro dollar?.

olabukola:

That 1999 Constitution as a whole is the problem we have today, How can few people impose their mind on the whole country.
The ideas "change" tabled are the way forward but we are in Nigeria where motives means different thing from idea. As some of the posters above me has said we don't know their motive, is it to make noise and get settled?.

Most of the names that signed are unknown to me, are they seeking relevance or billions of the petro dollar?.

I totally agree with the highlighted.

To have a sovereign conference, we need leaders that represent the people. Do we have such leaders left now that Gani has passed? My take will be that the people of that generation should nolonger represent their people. We need people like the younger Lawyer that worked with Gani and other fresh faces. How can people who have enriched themselves within a corrupt system have a moral standing to attempt a new beginning? This will indeed be a farce.

asha 80:

Was this Alani Akinrinade around during the Aburi Conference?

Yes, he is.

naijaking1:

Yes, he is.

Then make im go siddon for gutter!

Nigerians are too pessimistic.

If no National Conference, then what are we waiting for? Laughing at SNC is like condemning yourself to prolonged suicide. If so, then lets divide the country jare.

On SNC we stand.

This is long overdue,

but i dont know what is in our nature as a people that makes us suffer in silence and stop us from acting against the rubbish being fed to us as a nation, everyday i am disturbed at the fraud my children will grow up to accept as a country!

For too long this country has been ruled by those who just want to gain from the nation.
No country can be formed unless there are people willing and able to give everything to their country, including their lives.
So, if this is the group, so be it.
Despite their past individual mistakes, I'm one to give them benefit for a fresh start.
Whether you agree or disagree with SNC, everyone of us agree that we're not going anywhere with the present, northern favored, Islamic induced, and military dictated constitution.
Every evil in Nigeria today is tracable to this constitution.

canuck:

"Sovereign National Conference" sounds too cryptic and nebulous to be meaningful.

SECONDED!!!

larez:

To have a sovereign conference, we need leaders that represent the people.
Do we have such leaders left now that Gani has passed? My take will be that the people of that generation should nolonger represent their people. We need people like the younger Lawyer that worked with Gani and other fresh faces. How can people who have enriched themselves within a corrupt system have a moral standing to attempt a new beginning? This will indeed be a farce.

Not just reps, but reps actually SELECTED BY THE PEOPLE and in the case of Nigeria, REPS( not the current ones in the house who are just dummies, in my opinion) representing each sub-group. So this one, e still get K-leg as e dey!

Now is there a website of some sort for this?

We the Egbe Omo Oduduwa totally reject this portion of thier statement.  We ask that the United nation is allowed to conduct a voting in Yorubaland, edo , delta and bayelsa state on this Issue.


Let give the United nation the power to conduct a vote if we want to live together in Yorubaland, edo , delta and bayelsa state with the rest of NIGERIA.   Or is anybody scared of the United nation.??

5. THAT THERE IS SO MUCH DESIRE AND GOODWILL BY THE VARIOUS PEOPLES OF NIGERIA TO LIVE TOGETHER IN A COUNTRY FOUNDED ON JUSTICE, EQUITY AND FAIRPLAY. THEREFORE URGENT STEPS SHOULD BE TAKEN, ON EQUAL ETHNIC REPRESENTATION BASIS, FOR THE EVOLUTION OF A TRULY PEOPLES’ CONSTITUTION MERITING THE PREAMBULAR TEXT: "WE THE PEOPLES OF NIGERIA…".

Sign


Egbe Omo Oduduwa

An Oduduwa Political organization established in 1945


EgbeomoOduduwa@live.com

Besides one or two individuals listed as the members of the so-called “CHANGE NIGERIA”, the rest of members are prime time comedians or outright jokers. How could one Alani Akinrinade talk about national conference after 42 years of laying down his life fighting for a dilapidated one-Nigeria?

He stood bye and watched as Ndigbo were massacred in Asaba in 1967 when he served in 2nd Division. He was in Calaber as a sector commander and personally commanded the 15th Brigade of 3MCDO at Bonny. I guess he should have known better.

I would have, at least, listened to what the group has to discuss about dilapidated Nigeria if individuals such as Lt. Col. Ayo Ariyo and Wole Soyinka were members of the group.

Anything short of disintegration of the colonial contraption called Nigeria amounts to silly and misguided jokes.

ON EQUAL ETHNIC REPRESENTATION BASIS

When our population is not equal, how can we have equal representative. God forbid, Is that justice? that is ethnocracy and not democracy and we reject any form of ethnocracy.

@Becomrich

With all due respect, there shall be no inch of Igbo land that will be included in your dreamt and conjectural nonsense termed Republic of Benin. To avoid a war, you had better dreamed a reasonable and acceptable bounded Republic of Benin than you have been posting.

Dont worry we would not include igboland. You can stay with the north as you want. that why we have the united nation, each state vote yes or No.

issele uku history. state they are from Benin