Why lawyers back calls for National Conference
By JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU 28/02/2012 00:00:00
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The calls for a National Conference to discuss the challenges facing the Nigerian State received a boost last weekend when the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which met in Akure, Ondo State, supported the idea to resolve the problems plaguing the country. Legal Editor JOHN AUSTIN UNACHUKWU was there.
The state of the nation is always a permanent item on the NBA NEC meeting agenda.
Under it, the Bar always takes a critical appraisal and stock of events in the country.
At its Akure NEC meeting, which ended at the weekend, the lawyer’s association noted that there is an urgent and imperative need for a conference of all ethnic nationalities to discuss the multiple problems, issues and challenges confronting the Nigerian State.
The Bar noted that such issues, if not carefully and properly addressed at a conference of all ethnic nationalities, are capable of undermining the unity, security, safety of lives and property in the country.
In a chat with The Nation, the NBA President, Joseph Bodunrin Daudu (SAN), said: "Yes, I support the NEC decision and I am bound by it. The country appears to be confused about its future direction, and there is the need to straighten out some vital issues such as the basis of our relationship."
Daudu added: "A situation where some Nigerians seem not to be welcome in other parts of the country must be sorted out because we want every Nigerian to feel at home wherever he is and the rules must be made clear."
"We must come together to discuss such simple things as the issue of security, the issue of sharing the national revenue, the sharing formular has to be agreed on; the issue of eradicating corruption, the issue of the geographical boundaries in the country, to know whether we are going to operate on regional basis or a confederation or, incidentally, merge some of the states together, because it is obvious that the cost of governance is too strenuous on the resources of this country.
"We have 36 states, 774 Local Government Areas, that is just too many and it is making the execution of capital projects virtually impossible.
"If the National Assembly cannot sit and address these issues, let’s get Nigerians who want to address it to do so. The National Assembly appears unwilling to discuss these issues because of course, they are comfortable with the arrangement, it suits them, they want the status quo to be maintained, but the majority of Nigerians do not want the status quo to remain and therefore we don’t want to wait until there is anarchy, because now there is some form of gorilla tactics, it has degenerated into terrorism, we don’t want it to go beyond that.

"Let us sit down and make simple readjustment to the basis of our coexistence and we move from there."

The First Vice-President of the NBA, Mr Blessing Enumona Ukiri, said: "The conference is long overdue. First and foremost, we all agree that the Nigerian project is sick, that all is not well with the nation called Nigeria. Why are we afraid to sit down and talk about it?
"Let us sit down, discuss, agree and disagree, take everybody’s views, whatever you have in mind, come let us hear it.
"Everything, from the nature of the Federal system we are practising to the revenue allocation formular, to even our interpersonal relationships. In some states of the Federation, non-indigens are not safe, at the slightest provocation they are easily molested, attacked and in some cases killed.
"They are daily made uncomfortable and reminded that they are strangers, that they are not from that part of the country. They should not own property, they should not prosper. So, you see them living in agony in their own country. Their prosperity is limited because it is determined by how receptive the indigenes are to them.
"There is an urgent and imperative need for a conference, whether you call it a Sovereign National Conference, National Conference or extended Town Hall Meeting. Let us come together, let us reason together, you hear many own side and I hear your own side of the story, and we adopt the superior argument. It would be better for us rather than everybody sstomaching dissent and grumble. You stomach it and then transfer that anger into criminality and various forms of social ills. This cannot move the country forward, so let us sit down and talk," Ukiri stated.

The Chairman, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Chidi Odinkalu, said: "I am a member of NEC and I am bound by the decisions of NEC. I will not depart from what NEC has decided.
"Nigerians have a right to talk and, in my view, in certain circumstances they have an obligation to talk.
"I am not so sure that calling it a sovereign conference is of much importance because you cannot split sovereignty and a sovereign conference under our current constitutional process is a constitution and legal impossibility. Because those who have office can resign, but they cannot abdicate the constitution and no one person embodies the constitution. So, because of that, I don’t think it is legally possible to have a Sovereign National Conference.
"But should Nigerians talk and enjoy the benefit of talking, yes. Will it be easy to decide how participation and representation at such a meeting would be? No! I don’t think it will be easy but I think that there is going to be a mechanism for Nigerians to talk while co-existing with the institutions of government and seeing the outcome of such conference would then go into decision making and a voluntary process of decision making.
"One more thing is that I don’t think that it is going to be a one-off thing. I don’t think it is going to be a one-off process of talking. The talking should be a time device. We should continue talking and have a mechanism by which the things we haven’t resolved, which are a national problem, shall continue to be a subject of dialogue among all the stakeholders in Nigeria. Hopefully, over time, with the benefit of experience, we can find solutions to them."

Lagos lawyer and civil society activist, Femi Falana said: "This is a highly commendable decision on the part of the NBA. As lawyers, we must support the fundamental right of Nigerians to assemble peacefully and discuss all matters, engage issues of national importance and no moment is more timely for this than now, when the ship of state is drifting, when insecurity is the order of the day, when poverty is assuming a disturbing dimension.
"Going by the figures just released by the National Bureau of Statistics, about 112 million citizens have fallen into the poverty level in Nigeria. This is the class of people who live on less than N300 a day.
"When a nation gets to such a critical stage, we must come together and look at the structure of the federation, the nature of our system of governance, examine the presidential system of government and find out whether it is suitable for a developing country like ours. We must find out who gets what, from where? That is what the national conference is all about.
"For the national question to be resolved, it is not about which ethnic group should control power for the members of the bourgeoise, it is how to ensure that power is exercised to address the problems of underdevelopment, of poverty, of injustice, of security in our country. For those reasons, I support the national conference.

Hajiya Fatima Kwaku
said: "To be honest with you, when they started the agitation, men, women, North, South etc, I was not happy. But let us give them a chance. The NEC has decided, so, anybody opposing it will look like he or she has a hidden agenda. Let it be, let the conference hold, whatever will happen, will definitely happen. But personally, I have my own reservations, however, I am bound by NEC decisions.

"There is a lot of outcry for it so, let it be."
M. U. Ibrahim. Jam Jam said: "I advocated that we should go confederal or to put it properly, that everyone should go his own way. We love this country very well. I can only then live in Lagos as an alien, but the people will welcome me there. Why are we afraid of this? If need be, let us break up."

President, Muslim Lawyer Association of Nigeria (MULAN) and Bencher, Alhaji Tajudeen Oladoja, said: "As a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), particularly a senior one for that matter, being a member of the Body of Benchers, I am bound by the resolution of the NBA.
"There is need for Nigerians to sit down and discuss the future. Therefore, what we are saying in essence is that the existing federation of Nigeria is lopsided, is corrupt in every sense of it and that is why see divergent problems, issues and problems arising from different parts of the country. So sitting down to discuss our points of disagreement, is noble, it means that we don’t want to fight, we don’t want the country to break into pieces, Nigerians should consider the call as a genuine one’
‘If we want the country to break into pieces. There would not be a call for dialogue, a call for a conference of all the nationalities to resolve our differences’
"The call for a national conference is akin to arbitration, which the legal profession is embracing. Let every person from different parts of the country come to the conference table and let us chart a way forward.
"Look at the issue of state police. I am in support of the creation of state police. Is there any state in Nigeria today that does not give one form of assistance to the Nigeria police force or the other, by way of creating one security organisation or another. ‘In Kaduna State where I practice Law, there is Operation Yarki, which is a security outfit manned by the police and other security agencies funded by the Kaduna State government. We have a similar one in Lagos State, the Rapid Response Squad (RRS); there is one in Plateau State and all over the country’.
"State governments now buy patrol, armoured vehicles for the police. That is real. It shows that security is no longer a thing which the Federal Government can handle alone. Let states have their police, though there may be abuses, the abuses may be checkmated through appropriate legal frame works. Let us sit down and discuss all these things.’’
‘’ We should not wait for so long for these issues to be resolved. Let us meet and resolve them now.
"I am in support of the conference, give it any name you like, but allow the people meet, discuss and chart the way forward’’.

‘’We want to have a resolution on how the country is governed. Let us have frank discussions so that we can save ourselves and future general from destruction.’’
Chief Linus M. E. Ezeofor, a Bencher
said: "I strongly believe that there is a need for us to hold a conference to know how we really stand because you see, the way things are happening in Nigeria now do not portend good for us as a country. Let us really decide how the country would be governed, who gets what, is confederation the best option for us, or what. It is obvious that the current presidential system is not helping us to move forward at all.

"Look at the issue of insecurity across the country. You hear of Boko Haram bombing people here and there. That is not the best for us.
He stated: "See how the Igbo are slaughtered everyday by Boko Haram. Are we really part of the Federation called Nigeria. It is high time we organised a roundtable discussion on how to ensure and secure the safety of lives and property in Nigeria, whether it is called a sovereign National Conference or a national conference does not really matter.
"I know that members of the National Assembly will not support it because they feel that we are taking their jobs from them. But, unfortunately, they are not representing the interest of their people. The governors are also like that. How many of them care for the welfare of the masses? Look at them, when they get sick, they travel overseas for treatment, but how Nigerians can afford to travel like that? We really need to sit down and talk."