PALAVER TREE COMMENTARY – Examining The 2014 Nigeria National Conference

Editor’s Note: The 2014 National Conference was inaugurated by the Nigerian President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on March 17, 2014 in Abuja, Nigeria. There were about 492 delegates that represented a cross-section of Nigerians including the professional bodies group.

The Conference was headed by retired Chief Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi. Principal Officers Chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi (rtd), Vice Chairman Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi Secretary Dr Valerie Azinge.

Following a plenary session that lasted for weeks, the Conference was broken into 20 committees. Main Committees: Devolution of Power Committee, Political Restructuring and Forms of Government National Security; Environment; Politics and Governance; Law,Judiciary,Human Rights and Legal Reform. Social Welfare; Transportation; Agriculture; Society, Labour and Sports; Public Service; Electoral Matters, Foreign Policy and Diaspora Matters, Land Tenure Matters and National Boundary. Trade and Investment Committee, Energy; Religion; Public Finance and Revenue Generation, Science, Technology and Development Immigration

Prior to the conference, there were the 1987 Constituent Assembly, organized by the military government of President Ibrahim  Babangida, and the 1995 Constitutional Conference  by the Abacha regime but which did not produce any tangible result. The most recent was the National Political Reform Conference of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

This blog presents to you a summary of the 2014 National Conference (Download Draft Final Report here) from a reviewer’s point of view, an outsider's analysis of the Conference achievements and a newspaper’s editorial on subsequent actions on the same conference. We also present to you a link for downloading the draft Final Report adopted by delegates before they disappear from the internet.

Special Report – The Road To A Restructured Nigeria

By Henry Umoru

WITH his determination to expand the space for political and social discourse, to determine the future of Nigeria and to create a new political direction for Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan announced the setting up of the Presidential Advisory Committee, saddled with, among others, the responsibility of fashioning out modalities for a National Conference where Nigerians would brainstorm on the future of the country as well as proffer solutions to knotty national issues.

Senator Femi Okurounmu was the Chairman of the 13- member body which laid the foundation for the conference.

At the end of its three-month brainstorming, travelling round the country, the Okurounmu Committee, in January 2014, submitted its 69-page report.

The decision to have the conference was unfolded during the President’s independence anniversary broadcast where he, among other national issues raised, said: “In demonstration of my avowed belief in the positive power of dialogue in charting the way forward, I have decided to set up an advisory committee whose mandate is to establish the modalities for a national dialogue or conference. The committee will also design a framework and come up with recommendations, as to the form, structure and mechanism of the process.”

Prior to the conference, there were the 1987 Constituent Assembly, organized by the military government of President Ibrahim  Babangida, and the 1995 Constitutional Conference  by the Abacha regime but which did not produce any tangible result. The most recent was the National Political Reform Conference of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

The conference ended, but not well as the report that emanated from it was thrown out by the Senate against the backdrop of the section which sought to extend the term limit for elected government officials, tagged, “Third Term Agenda.”

Matching his words with action, barely two months after the submission of the report by the Okuruonmu Committee, Jonathan nominated a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Idris Kutigi, as the Chairman of the National Conference and his deputy, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi. Consequently, the president rolled out 492 names as delegates.

On March 17, 2014, at the National Judicial Institute, NJI, Jonathan inaugurated the National Conference.

The delegates were drawn from different sections of the society. They include: Elder Statesmen (37), military and security (18), traditional rulers (13), retired civil servants (13), Organised Labour (24), Organised Private Sector (8), youths (18), women (24), political parties (10), Christian and Muslim leaders (12), Civil Society Organisations (24) and Nigerians in the Diaspora ((8).

Others were People Living with Disability (6), Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (2), Nigeria Guild of Editors (2), Nigeria Union of Journalists (2), Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (2), socio-political/cultural and ethnic nationality groups (90), professional bodies (13), national academies (13), judiciary (6), former political office holders (24), Federal Government (20), state governments and FCT (109) and former council chairmen (6). Government at both the state and federal levels nominated most of the delegates.

While the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Accord Party, Labour Party, LP and All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, had representatives, the main opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC), pooh-poohed the idea of a National Conference and did not send any representative.

Some of the big names who were delegates include the South-south leader, Chief Edwin Clark; Dr. Tunji Braithwaite; Chief Ayo Adebanjo;  Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie; Chief Nosakhare Ishekure,the Chief Priest of Benin Kingdom; Mrs Patricia Ogbonnaya;  Prof. Jubril Aminu; Chief Richard Akinjide; Chief Olu Falae; Erelu Olusola Obada;  Gani Adams; General Ike Nwachukwu; Achike Udenwa; Chief Olusegun Osoba; Nduka Obaigbena; Chief Raymond Dokpesi; Senator Jim Nwobodo;  Chief Mike Ahamba, SAN; Senator Azu Agboti; Chief Peter Odili; King Alfred Diete Spiff; Prof. Jerry Gana; Gen. Jonathan Temlong; Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Muazu; Arc. Ibrahim Bunu; General A. B. Mamman; General    Alani Akinrinade (rtd; former Senate Presidents Adolphus Wabara, Iyorchia Ayu; Ken Nnamani; Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN; Femi Falana; Commodore Olabode George, rtd; General Zamani Lekwot (rtd); Gen Jerry T. Useni (rtd); Sen Daisy Danjuma, Charles Edosomwan, SAN; Ambassador Hassan Adamu; Umar Ghali Naaba; Iyom Josephine Anenih; Mohammed  Umara Kumalia; Lt. Gen. Jerry Useni; Prof. Iyorchia Ayu; Bashir Dalhatu; Gen. Salihu Ibrahim; Amb. Ibrahim Gambari; Air Vice Marshal Mutari Mohammed; Emir of Askira and Alhaji Abdullahi Ibn Muhammed.

The Committees were as follows:

Delegates commenced the assignment with 20 committees set up by the leadership of the conference Devolution of powers, national security; environment; politics and governance;  political restructuring and forms of government;  social sector;  transportation; science technology and development; agriculture; civil society, labour and sports; public service; foreign policy and diaspora matters; political parties and electoral matters; land tenure and national boundaries; economy, trade and investment; energy; religion; public finance and revenue;  immigration and related matters as well as that of  law, judiciary, human rights and legal reform.

After weeks of brainstorming, with memoranda from the public, summoning of ministers, heads of parastatals, government agencies, among others, delegates, through the committees, churned out reports. The recommendations were subjected to debates, voting, approval and adoption, with the conference, at the end of the day, dealing with very thorny issues. After intrigues and compromises, delegates came out with a 22-volume report and adopted about 600 resolutions.

The conference itself was a test of leadership on the part of Kutigi and Akinyemi. The first major challenge they handled was the adoption of 70% majority vote benchmark as the issue almost marred the exercise. The bone of contention was whether voting pattern should be by two third, three quarter or 75% of delegates.

Debates were robust and almost resulted in fighting, but Kutigi and Akinyemi had firm control of plenary; they did not give room for critics to achieve their mischief on the rumoured secret agenda on the conference. Even when a delegate, Ishaq Modibbo Kawu, raised a point of order that there were publications that Akinyemi was lobbying northern delegates to smuggle in a new Constitution, in their transparent manner, Kutigi asked his deputy to explain his own side of the story. They understood the fact that they were leading people of different ages and backgrounds.

One issue that proved contentious at the conference was the 13 percent derivation. The conference could not agree on the increase of the derivation fund accruable to oil producing states. The issue was referred to the president to resolve through a technical committee to be set up for that purpose. Before the delegates arrived at the conclusion that a technical committee be set up, it could not be resolved by the delegates even with the intervention of the Elder Statesmen Committee.

The elder statesmen came up with harmonized position of 18 percent derivation resource control as against the present 13. 5 percent  for exploration and development of all mineral resources, not solid minerals as against the present 4.5 percent and 5 percent federal revenue  for rehabilitation, stabilization of and construction of areas affected by insurgency in the  North East. They had also recommended, as part of the consensus, that  50 percent of money allocated to each state on derivation must go directly to the communities from which the mineral resources are extracted.

Leadership of the conference was able to handle the North – South divide by ignoring distractive points of order when voting on reports and recommendations commenced and it did not also give room for reversal of decisions reached.

The National Conference initially had a time frame of three months, but there was an additional one month as it could not round off its work on schedule. It concluded committee sittings and plenary sessions in mid-July after which delegates went on a short break to enable the conference’s secretariat compile the report.

After 151 days of serious work, the conference, which started March 17, ended on Thursday, August 21, 2014.  The main report, which is in two volumes with volume one made up of 528 pages, volume two, 906 pages, had the Draft Constitution made up of 357 pages while the bill is 47 pages.

Initially, the 357-page Draft Constitution, as produced by the Secretariat, did not go down well with northern delegates who described it as a plot to introduce a Third Term Agenda. At the end of the day, however, all issues were resolved through consensus.

After receiving the report, President Goodluck Jonathan, in September 2014, approved the composition of a Presidential Committee, with the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, SAN, as Chairman and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, as Secretary.

The committee was saddled with the responsibility of studying and drawing up the implementation strategy.

Its terms of reference include studying the report of the National Conference; articulating the recommendations therein and developing appropriate strategies for its implementation and advising the Federal Government on all matters necessary for the effective implementation.

As a follow up to this, the Federal Executive Council, FEC, last Wednesday, approved the main report of the National Conference.

The Presidency, while describing the council’s approval as the first leg of concrete steps aimed at implementing the conference report, however recalled that, apart from the report, the National Conference had recommended to government how to implement the resolutions.

According to Anyim, what FEC did was to approve that those modalities be adopted in implementing the report, just as he stressed that recommendations and resolutions which require constitution amendment and enactment of new laws would be forwarded to the National Assembly for promulgation into law, adding that he had been asked to compile, vet and make such recommendations available to the President for onward transmission to the National Assembly for enactment into law.

The SGF explained that agencies’ policy matters in the report shall be referred to the affected agencies and the tier of government concerned for action.

With the action of President Jonathan, analysts say he has shamed doubting Thomases who have concluded that the report would go the same way of previous conferences.

Restructured Nigeria

The National Conference recommended:

• Anybody aspiring to become the country’s President must be a degree holder.
• It approved the rotation of Presidency between the North and South and governorship among three senatorial districts of each state.
• Creation of 18 new states: The conference recommended the creation of 18 new states (three per geo-political zone). The proposed states are Aba State to be created from Abia State; Adada State from Enugu State; Amana State from Adamawa State; Anioma State from the present Delta State; Appa State from Benue State and Edu State from Niger State.
• Others are Etiti from the present South-Eastern Nigeria; Ghari to be created from the present Kano State; Gurara out of Kaduna State; Kanji from Kebbi and Niger states; Katagum from Bauchi State and Ijebu from Ogun State.
• Other expected new states are New Oyo from Oyo State, Akana-Anim from Anambra and Imo states; Ogoja out of Cross River State; Oil Rivers out of Akwa Ibom State; Ose from Ondo State and Savanna from the present Borno State.
• Apart from the 18 proposed states, the conference also recommended one new state for the South East to make the zone have equal number of states with the other zones except the North West which has seven.
• It also recommended that states willing to merge can also do so based on certain conditions.
• The conference voted in favour of drastic reduction of number ministers to 18 from the six geo- political zones of the country and not more than 30% of his ministers from outside the Legislature. Reduce Cost of governance by pruning the number of political appointees and using staff of ministries where necessary. Presently, there are about 42 ministers with one coming from each of the 36 states of the country and one each from the six geo-political zones of the country.
• The conference resolved that the Minister of Finance should be be presenting annual budget to the National Assembly instead of the President as it is currently obtainable.  Under the new arrangement, both the President and the ministers would be expected to appear before the National Assembly to render account of their stewardship on quarterly basis.
•  Local Government will no longer be the third tier of government. The federal and states are now to be the only tiers of government. States can now create as many local governments they want. The Joint State/Local Government Account be scrapped and in its place the establishment of a State RMAFC with representatives of LG and a Chairman nominated by the Governor. The Constitution should fix the tenure for Local Government Councils at three years.
• Conference recommended for the scrapping of State Independent Electoral Commission, SIECs.
• That the sharing of the funds to the Federation Account among the three tiers of government should be done in the following manner: Federal Government – 42.5%, State Governments – 35% and Local Governments – 22.5%.
• Recommended the Modified Presidential System, a home-made model of government that effectively combines the presidential and parliamentary systems of government.
• Recommended that the presidential power should rotate between the North and the South and among the six geo-political zones while the governorship will rotate among the three senatorial districts in a state.
• With this, all the three senatorial districts would now have the opportunity of producing Governors as against the present arrangement in some states where it is close to a taboo for some senatorial districts of a Senatorial to think of it, while that of the local government chairmen shall to be rotated within the local government area. It thus means that while the Governorship would rotate among the three Senatorial Districts in the states; Local Government Chairmanship would rotate within the Wards of the local government area.
• Delegates also agreed that the President and his deputy should run on a joint ticket, thereby rejecting the Committee’s recommendation that the President should pick his deputy among the members of the National Assembly after he must have won an election.
• The conference agreed with the existing  Bi-cameral legislature, but all elected members of the legislative arms of all the tiers of government should serve on part-time basis
•  Recommended that the immunity clause should be removed if the offences attract criminal charges to encourage accountability by those managing the economy.
• On independent candidacy, it recommended that every Nigerian who meets the specified condition in the Electoral Act should be free to contest elections as an independent candidate.
• The creation of the Office of the Accountant General (Director-General) of the Federation as a distinct and separate office from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federal Government. The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation shall oversee the accruals of revenue into and disbursement from the Federation Account as and when due; and shall administer these funds as required by the Constitution, while the office of the Accountant General of the Federal Government shall oversee the accounts of the Federal Government.
• Special Courts to handle corruption cases should be established in the light of undue prolongation in the trials and prosecution of corruption cases in the regular courts. A non-conviction-based asset forfeiture law should be enacted with broad provisions to deal with all issues of proceeds of crimes by the anti-graft agencies and the courts.
• That the  Land Tenure Act should remain in the Constitution but be amended to take care of those concerns, particularly on compensation in Section 29 (4) of the Act to read “land owners should determine the price and value of their land based on open market value
• That the old National Anthem be re- introduced.
• The Conference recommended that there will be no government sponsorship of Christian and Muslim pilgrimages to the holy lands. It also resolved that churches and mosques should begin to pay tax to government.
• It was also agreed that hence forth anybody arraigned before the court by EFCC, ICPC and by any law enforcement agencies, the accused person will be regarded as guilty, unlike the present situation where he is innocent until proven guilty.
• On the issue of state police, as controversial as it appears to be, a decision was taken that those who want it should have it.
• The conference agreed that there will no sponsoring of Christian and Muslim pilgrimages to the holy lands, just as it resolved that churches and mosques will now pay tax to government.
• There is succour for people living with disabilities as delegates voted that government at all levels should grant allowance to them which will be equivalent of government workers on grade level 06 as that would enable them employ aides to assist them carry out domestic activities.
• Recommendation on the creation of a separate Foreign Service Commission was unanimously accepted by delegates.
• The long standing agitation for the creation of a Mayoral status for the Federal Capital City was approved.
• Two additional area councils were approved in addition to the existing six area councils with strong warning that all compensations be paid.
• It was also approved that where the President dies in office, or he is incapacitated, impeached or where he resigns, the Vice President shall operate in acting capacity for a period of 90 days during which an election to the same office would be conducted.
• According to the delegates, the decision became imperative against the backdrop that each zone was expected to run the full course of the constitutionally allowed tenure without undue disruption; and it was also agreed that based on the adopted zoning formula, when a president leaves under any of the circumstances stated above, another president would be elected from the same zone where the previous one came from.
• Delegates also voted unanimously for life imprisonment for those who engage in the sale of fake drugs in the country.
• Another strong position taken by the delegates was that public schools taken over by various state governments across the country forty two years ago would henceforth be returned to the religious missions which were the original owners.
• Conference adopted a recommendation to confer financial autonomy on State Houses of Assembly as a way of freeing them from direct control by the executive. It was also voted that for functionality, local government should be politically and economically independent.
• Conference also voted for the complete abolition of the concept of plea bargain by the Federal government, just as they frowned at the level of delay of cases in the nation’s courts as this will enable criminal and corruption cases to run their full course in contrast to the present situation where people accused of corruption are set free after parting with a fraction of their looted public funds.     Originally published in Vanguard Newspaper

Analysis: What did Nigeria's National Conference achieve?

BBC Analysis; 26 August 2014

Some 500 Nigerian delegates have just finished five months of deliberations about the political system and future of a country which has seen bitter conflicts between its numerous ethnic, religious and linguistic groups. Analyst Abdullahi Tasiu Abubakar looks back at what the National Conference achieved.

As the Nigerian government begins moves to implement the conference's resolutions, many Nigerians are asking if the exercise was worthwhile.

Experts question the viability of some of the decisions and the feasibility of their implementation. The delegates, drawn from all parts of the country and representing diverse interests, debated issues ranging from the contentious revenue-sharing formula to the divisive political structure of the nation.

They passed more than 600 resolutions and produced a 10,335-page report, which has been submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan, who promised to implement them.

"We shall send the relevant aspects of your recommendations to the Council of State and the National Assembly for incorporation into the constitution," he told the delegates' leaders.

"On our part, we shall act on those aspects required of us in the executive."

'More united'

Their chairman, former Chief Justice Idris Kutigi, said fears that the conference would lead to the disintegration of the country had been dispelled.

"We have held a National Conference and we are more united today than ever," he said.

Main recommendations from the National Conference:

• Scrapping the current system of 774 local authorities - this is intended to save money and reduce corruption. States would be able to set up their own local systems
• Creation of 18 new states - equally spread around the country. Also suggested that states wishing to merge can do so if certain conditions met
• Revenue allocation - proposes reducing share of national income going to the federal government and increasing share for the states
• Modified presidential system of government that combines the presidential and parliamentary systems of government. The president should pick the vice-president from the legislature
• Power should be shared and rotated at all levels of government. Presidency should rotate between north and south and among the six geo-political zones of the country. Likewise, the governorship post should rotate among the three senatorial zones in each state

Head of the northern delegates Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie said that whatever they did, they "did so for one Nigeria".

His southern counterpart Chief Edwin Clark said: "We came in, we came out and we conquered."

Mr Jonathan seems delighted by their words: "It is now very clear that as Nigerians, we have devised a way of addressing and resolving our differences amicably: We dialogue and dialogue until we agree."

But while the president and the delegates revel at what they see as the success of the conference, critics dismiss it as a diversionary tactic and waste of resources.

President Jonathan (c) and conference chairman Justice Idris Kutigi (r) are pleased with the results

They argue that conducting it just a few months ahead of general elections due next year and in the middle of a crippling Boko Haram insurgency was irrational.

Reports about the insurgency and the Ebola virus that hit the country in July often overshadowed the conference.

The outcome of the conference provides even more ammunition for the critics.

They say it neither meets the expectations of those who want a restructuring of the country, nor does it satisfy the yearnings of those who prefer reform of the existing system.

'Lofty intent'

There is also a question of legality raised by some of the delegates.

Many of them, including Auwwalu Yadudu, a professor of law, have openly rejected an attempt to turn the resolutions into a draft constitution.

Mr Yadudu said the conference "cannot discharge or exercise a mandate not conferred on it by law".

University of Lagos lecturer Wahab Shittu concurs, arguing that the absence of a legal framework has "made the lofty intent of the National Conference to be illusionary".

And even if legal backing is retrospectively provided for those issues that require it and others integrated into government policies, as seems to be the plan now, there are still issues of acceptability.

Some of the fundamental changes proposed by the conference, such as scrapping the country's 774 local authorities and creating an additional 18 states, were roundly rejected by many Nigerians.

The conference came as Boko Haram militants intensified their attacks

These changes - like several others such as altering the revenue-sharing arrangement and proposing a modified presidential system of government - require amendment of the constitution, which legal experts say is a long and tedious process.

It is impossible to do it under the current government which faces elections in the next few months, senior legal practitioner Tahir Shehu told the BBC.

"Constitutional amendment must be endorsed by the National Assembly and two-thirds of the states' houses of assembly," he said.

"You can't get that on any issue that has no clear national consensus. Scrapping local governments will not be one of them — nor will creation of additional states."

These are perhaps some of the issues envisaged by those who dubbed the conference a "jamboree" to underline what they regard as wastefulness.

Right from the onset, the reported 7bn naira (US$43m; £26m) budgeted for it - it is still unclear how much was actually spent as the tenure was extended to enable delegates to complete their work - was criticized by many Nigerians, including President Jonathan's main rival in the last presidential election, former head of state General Muhammadu Buhari.

"I do not think that at this time when governments are finding it difficult to pay salaries of workers, it can afford about 7bn naira to waste on a conference," he said.

Mohammed Haruna, the veteran columnist and former managing director of the New Nigerian Newspapers, has reviewed various post-independence conferences and concluded that "virtually every constitutional conference in this country has come with a hidden agenda by its convener and virtually all of them have come to grief".

Many feel this one will be no different to its predecessors.

NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL: Election 2015: Dubious Confab Report Approval

Punch Editorial Board; March 24, 2015

AMID the froth and fury of a cut-throat election campaign, the Federal Executive Council last Wednesday approved “the immediate implementation of the 2014 National Conference report.” In what seems like a last-ditch gambit to gain electoral mileage as Nigeria goes to the polls on Saturday, the bizarre order, coming just days to the presidential ballot, should be taken with a pinch of salt.

In all probability, the announcement by Pius Anyim, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, on behalf of the cabinet, is a cheap political stunt and a blatant attempt to deceive the electorate. Anyim said the recommendations and resolutions that require constitution amendment and enactment of new laws would be forwarded to the National Assembly for promulgation into law, while policy matters in the report would be referred to the affected agencies and the tiers of government concerned for action. As was expected, politicians have gone to town with it, making outlandish promises, including the creation of new states. But turning the strategic issue of restructuring to an object of a knee-jerk reaction to a seeming plummeting political fortune is a disservice to the country.

There is nothing altruistic or patriotic about FEC’s feckless authoritative approval of a document that holds so much hope for the country’s socio-economic transformation, but has been sacrificed on the altar of personal political ambition. This is another outrageous example of a political joke taken too far. The FEC statement lacks power to convince those who had been canvassing the implementation of the report since it was submitted in August 2014.

Instead, the President consigned the report to the archives. What, for instance, does it cost the President to trim his bloated cabinet, as recommended by the conference, when he had the opportunity to do so after some ministers resigned last October, and especially in the face of dwindling oil revenues? The President swore in another set of eight ministers last week to fill the vacancies left behind by those who resigned to contest elections.

On several occasions between the inauguration of the conference and the end of last year, Jonathan’s headline-grabbing statements had offered a ray of hope to Nigerians. Promising the conferees that their work would not be a waste, Jonathan had assured when the 22-volume report, containing over 600 draft proposals, was submitted that “it is a new dawn in Nigeria and a new nation is at the door.”

And shortly after this, the President had set up another committee to study the report, articulate the recommendations made and develop the strategies for the implementation. The committee was also meant to advise the government on how to effectively implement the report. Similarly, in his broadcast to mark the 2014 Independence Day on October 1, the President reaffirmed that he would keep his promise. “Every promise I make, God willing, I will see to its fulfilment. I assure you, we shall implement the report,” he had said.

But apart from the soundbites and fury, Jonathan seems not to be in a hurry to act on the report and has never built a reputation for implementing any report. There were the unimplemented reports of the Presidential Advisory Council headed by Theophilus Danjuma, which recommended the reduction of the cost of governance; the Presidential Committee on Review of the Reform Processes in the Nigerian Public Service; the Public Awareness on Security and Civic Responsibilities; the Stephen Oronsaye Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies; and the Justice Alfa Belgore Committee on Constitution Review, which also proposed the devolution of power to the states, scrapping of the office of the First Lady and autonomy for local governments. There were also four different committees set up to probe the fuel subsidy scandal without the government making any tangible use of their reports.

One of the signs that we are a long way off from the implementation was the failure to transmit the report to the National Assembly, which was also considering some amendments to the 1999 Constitution at that time. The Deputy Leader, House of Representatives, Leo Ogor, said during this period that there was no such report before the parliament. Things should have been handled differently if sincerity was in adequate supply.

The failure to do so might haunt the country for a long time. Today, Nigeria is further from being a proper nation than at any other time in its history. Since the advent of civil government 16 years ago, we have altogether missed our national goals in critical areas of development. Because of our failure to restructure, the component states that depend mainly on oil revenues are finding it hard to meet their financial and security obligations.

Even countries that have had a long history of being unitary entities are evolving novel ways of devolving power to their constituent units and cities for rapid economic development. In the United Kingdom, which is an example of a unitary state, the central government has ceded some powers to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales following constitutional changes in 1997 and 1998.

No doubt, our federalism is dysfunctional. The Punch editorial stance strongly supports the restructuring of the skewed political system. When the conference was inaugurated on March 17, 2014, we had warned, “We must not allow cynics’ narrative of failure to become an excuse for despair. Despite obvious constraints such as the deep suspicion of the motives of President Goodluck Jonathan, the controversial pattern of delegate selection and ambiguity over its legal status, the conference has a good chance of being the take-off point for the long overdue restructuring of this tottering political edifice.”

We will continue to stand resolutely for true federalism as the only political arrangement for the country. But it is all evident that Jonathan has failed badly to translate a credible and painstakingly worked out report to a constitutional reform. He has missed the golden opportunity to write his name in gold. Nigerians should reject the uncanny bait and cheap electioneering gimmicks.

All opinion expressed in the above editorial does not reflect the opinions of NAIJAGRAPHITTI BLOG or its publishers.