Sharia council’s war threat: Ethnic groups canvass National Conference 
By Niyi Odebode, Segun Olatunji , Olusola Fabiyi,   
Tuesday, 26 Jul 2011 


PROMINENT ethnic groups on Monday canvassed the constitution of a Sovereign National Conference to decide the future union of the country’s component parts.

The groups, as well as prominent lawyers, including constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itsay Sagay, and former President of the Nigeria Bar Association, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, said there was an urgent need to determine how the different parts would relate in view of a statement credited to the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria.

The SCSN, at a news conference in Kaduna on Sunday, had said that Moslems were prepared to go to war to defend the establishment of Islamic banking “with the last drop of our blood.”The group had spoken through its president, Dr. Datti Ahmed.

In its reaction, the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, through its Secretary General, Senator Femi Okurounmu, said that if the North wanted the country to remain as one, there should be a sovereign national conference. The Afenifere Renewal Group spoke in a similar vein.

The South-South Peoples Assembly described the SCSN statement as “irresponsible.” But the Northern apex body, Arewa Consultative Forum, cautioned Nigerians not to be “unduly sensitive to any disagreement in the polity.”

Okurounmu said, “Since the annulment of the 1993 presidential election, the call for the SNC has being very strident. We (Afenifere) have been unrelenting in calling for the SNC. Interestingly, it is northerners who are opposed to it. The opposition has always come from the North, especially, the North-West and the North-East.

“Anytime we call for the conference, they say we want to break up Nigeria. They want the country united at all costs. Interestingly, they now want the country to break up over Sharia. It is a threat that the rest of us should not ignore.

“If they are threatening to break up the country, we should call their bluff. If they want the country to break up so be it. They cannot impose Sharia on the rest of the country

“They claim that they are in the majority and they can tell the rest of the country what to do. From what they are saying, the Islamic banking is their programme. They are the ones forcing the agenda on the Central Bank of Nigeria. Nigeria should call their bluff. The least we should do now is to say that if they want the country to remain one, let us have a sovereign national conference.”

The Chairman of the ARG, Mr. Olawale Oshun, said there was no time the country needed a SNG than now, in view of the numerous issues confronting her.

“There are so many pressing issues that we need to talk about. The country certainly needs a national conference now more than any other time. Like we are talking of a state police, any federating unit who wants it can adopt it for the purpose of its security. A federating unit should be able to build its schools and do what will please it. Then, if any of the federating units wants an Islamic banking system so be it.’’

A former minister of foreign affairs and prominent member of the SSPA, Chief Matthew Mbu, explained that the SCSN statement contradicted the secular nature of the Nigerian Constitution.

Mbu, who spoke in a telephone interview with THE PUNCH on Monday, advised Nigerians to desist from making inflammatory statements. He warned that the country did not need to go war over Islamic banking, adding that Ahmed should be careful with his utterances.

Mbu said, “It is an irresponsible statement for anybody to make. We have always insisted that we must be together as one country. We of the SSPA believe that Nigerians should respect the secular nature of the Nigerian Constitution.

“Nigerians have seen what is happening in the North. We don’t need to go to war, and those making such statements should be careful with their language.”

Sagay and Agbakogba also believed that the SNC would be the best forum to tackle some of the challenges facing the country.
Sagay said, “I support it (SNC) absolutely. But what I have always found is that when people are in power, they see any prospect of change as a threat to their power. They want to maintain their positions at the expense of a long term solution to our national problems.

“I will not be surprised if President Goodluck Jonathan does not support it. If you look at Boko Haram and the Niger Delta problems, there is a link. Each one wants autonomy. This is what everybody is calling for. Each of them wants to be able to rule itself.

“The Boko Haram wants to be able to institute their culture in the area and region under their control. The Niger Delta people want to be able to have a greater say about their resources. They want to be able to move forward without being suffocated.”

Agbakoba said the call for autonomy should also be embraced at the National Assembly.
“Yes I subscribe to the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference and I also subscribe to a second process of engaging the National Assembly as both are mutually reinforcing. If we go by the National Assembly, it must be inclusive and requires a referendum by Nigerians,” he said.

The former Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, called on the leaders of the North to be wary of their comments.
“People who talk should think about the welfare of their people before making comments. If what Datti Ahmed said is true, he should have considered the welfare of his people before making such comments.”

Also, a Lagos lawyer and presidential candidate of the National Advance Party, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, said Nigeria’s survival was dependent on the convocation of a sovereign national conference.
“So, we have got to sit together and find out what is troubling Boko Haram and others. It is Boko Haram today, it will be another protesting organisation soon. These things do not just begin spontaneously. It is the ventilation of accumulated grievances,”Braithwaite stated.
He said that Nigeria was not practising a federal system of government but a unitary one, stressing that power must be devolved to the zones. Braithwaite said, “We need to talk because the cost of governance in Nigeria is too large. It is disproportionate. We can use a substantial amount of what we spend on legislature, for instance, for infrastructural development.”
He said that it was through dialogue that people could right the wrongs in this country, arguing that Nigeria’s democracy was far from being a democracy.

“Are Nigerians truly free in their own nation? Are they participating in the development of their country? Are they participating in the resources of their country? The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer; and nothing works. Never mind the accolades that the international do-gooders give you. They give you all that for what they intend to take away from this country in terms of resources.”

But the ACF, which spoke through its National Publicty Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani, said, “Progress comes from change that results from debates. Why are some of you unduly sensitive to any disagreement in the polity?
“Worse still, you regard altercations between interest groups as fissiparous, as if there had been no disagreements or even violence in the past. I believe that national goals are sacrosanct, whereas means of attaining them are subjects of discussions. I hope Nigerians and their media will not call on the authority in Norway to convene a sovereign national conference.”

      http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201107264414315

I just hope the polity continues being heated-up so that it will lead us to either remain together or breakup.

where does it says we will go to war? stop spreading hatred