Nobel Laureate Professor Wole
Soyinka has urged Nigerians to desist from calling for a sovereign national
conference. Speaking at a South South Economic Summit held in Asaba where he
presented a keynote address the erudite professor argued that it had become
unnecessary to clamour for such a conference but rather asked regional groups
and states to determine their own fate as against the current situation of
leaving their destinies in the hand of the federal government.
“The constitutional ‘envelope’
that currently holds the parts together should be pushed as far as possible,
without it actually bursting, leading to a vibrant competition and
collaboration among its constituent parts. “Each regional grouping should, by
its policies, declare an uncompromising developmental autonomy. “This will
leave the centre only with its competence provenance of foreign policy,
national security and inter-state affair,” Mr. Soyinka said.
The Nobel Laureate is urging
Nigerian states to be assertive in the quest for a truly federal republic where
the centre is only concerned with foreign policy and national defence among few
other issues. While this call sounds contradictory for a man who before now was
a champion for such a conference and was indeed a huge participator in PRONACO
(Pro-National Conference Convocation), it is wise to note that only stubborn
fools do not change plans. Soyinka’s
change of plan is welcome.
PRONACO had in time past urged
for a truly Nigerian constitution as the present 1999 constitution was
militarily imposed and bars the National Assembly amending it absolutely. With this
latest call, it becomes necessary to say that the states of each region can convene
a parley where regional advancing policies can be brought to the fore,
contemplated and acted on
Soyinka’s call for a stronger regional
control is not new. The Aburi Accord which was struck in Ghana had such
conclusions but was soon discarded for a unitary system. The central pillar
called the federal government has tried too hard for too long to be an octopus
or an Omniscient god with little success. There is clear need for stronger
regional participation in development as against this present system where
every state courts the attention of a very distracted central government.
As has been proposed before by
yours truly, there is a far more positive alternative to the sovereign national
conference which many thought before now is a cure all. The alternative to a
Sovereign National Conference written earlier in the year comes again to mind: http://www.blogplusxtra.blogspot.com/2012/02/alternative-to-sovereign-national.html
With a regionally strong
Nigeria, the federal government can concentrate on national security, interstate
crimes, terrorism, international policy, customs and a few others. Nigeria
becomes better and develops faster. There has never been anyone who chased two
rabbits and caught any. Professor Wole Soyinka is not alone in this call for a
better Nigeria through wider participation at the federating unit level.
Predictably opposition to any
idea will spring up. Resistance to change is a common phenomenon on the planet.
We cannot however, continue to do things the same way and expect a different
result. Think, ye antagonists of this way: how long shall we continue to ask
the federal government to do this or do that when we can enthrone ourselves
locally and get plenty done? Many there be though, that profit from this
present scheme. They must learn to put personal profit aside in the interest of
national development. Where they refuse, the tide of change will consume them,
besides, whatever good exists at the centre exists also in the regions, bend a
little to access it.
Change we can believe in
should not lie in the hands of a central government but in our own hands at the
regions.
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