With $400bn stashed overseas, delegates want corruption tackled
CAN worried about religious imbalance, accuses FG of supporting Islamic superiority
The debate on President Goodluck Jonathan's speech during the inaugural address to the National Conference continued Tuesday, as delegates reflected on the state of the nation and a blame game ensued when a former Minister of Defence and Chief of Army Staff, General Alani Akinrinade said that the military had no apology to offer for being in government.
He also accused the Nigerian elite of aiding the military in their venture into governance and was involved in drafting the constitution that the delegates are condemning.
In the same vein, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Richard Akinjide said Nigeria as a sovereign entity had come to stay, urging the delegates to be agents of constructing a new Nigeria rather than being demolition agents.
This is coming as a former Assistant Inspector General of Police, Basheir Albasu, who is also a delegate lamented the low morale of the Nigeria Police, stating that they are poorly equipped and remunerated.
According to Alani Akinrinade, who was contributing to the president’s speech: “All the constitutions that were drawn up at the Dodan Barracks or Aso Rock were drawn up by you, the elite, not the military.
It is not true that the military drew the constitution and foisted it on Nigerians. The truth is that Nigeria's elders, most of them civilians assisted the military to prepare the constitution and to implement it”.
Accordingly, he said the military has no apology to offer being in government.
However, another delegate, representing former lawmakers, Obi Anoliefo from Anambra stood up and countered Akinrinade, saying, "I thought that the General was going to apologise to Nigerians. The problems of Nigeria should be laid at the door steps of the military because each time the country makes progress, the military takes us back," he said.
In his contribution, the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Akinjide urged the delegates to believe in Nigeria as the country has come to stay as a sovereign nation.
According to Akinjide, “Let us stop being demolition contractors, let us be building contractors and stop being agents of destruction against the country so that we can lift the country up to greatness.”
Akinjide spoke against the background of the tendency for some critics to always condemn or ignore great strides made by the country.
Also contributing, former chairman of the Nigeria Economic Summit, Prof. Anya O. Anya, in an apparent reference to the secession threat by the Lamido of Adamawa, Aliyu Mustapha, said that no part of Nigeria could solve its problems without the assistance of the other.
Anya said that the grand standing by the delegates should be discarded to enable the country tackle the challenges of development, unemployment, education and the gap between the rich and the poor. The former Economic Summit chief said that for Nigeria to move forward attention should be focused on education, science and technology.
In his contribution, the former Nigeria envoy to Uganda, Ambassador Fidel Ayogu said that for Nigeria to move forward it must discard the indigeneship as it is one of the issues that draws Nigeria backward.
He urged the delegates to imbibe the United States of America’s system where you become an indigene of a state where you were born or have stayed for more than five years.
He cited the example of former president George Bush, where his two sons, Jeb and George contested and won elections in Texas and Florida as governors.
Ayogu also called for equity in the federal system as it amounts to injustice where some zones have seven and six states, whereas only the southeast zone has five states.
The former Minister of Education and Petroleum respectively, Prof. Jubril Aminu said the problem of Nigeria was not with the constitution, but with the people. He said, “Our constitution is very good and there is no need to come here to rubbish it, we can only improve on it”.
The Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Bishop Femi Ajakaye said unless Nigerians believe that the country belongs to all Nigerians, “there is no way we can say that we are united. We must be honest and disciplined. We say that power belongs to the people yet the same people are being brutalised everyday on our roads. I believe that the president does not have a hidden agenda”.
Bishop Joseph Bakobiri of the Catholic Dioceses of Kafanchan, Kaduna said that many Nigerians are calling for the review of the constitution to correct the anomalies of the constitution. According to him, the constitution of 1999, prohibited government from dabbling into religion.
According to him, “The same constitution in another section made provisions for religious courts of a particular religious group”, this, he said if “we want a separation of religion from government then we should ensure the sanctity of the secularity of the country.
"But if we want to make government show some favours to religion, then it should be done to one to the exclusion of the other. What we advocating for is the neutrality of government that will spare us from religious crisis. We are asking that the constitution should be amended to provide for the establishment of an Ecclesiastical Courts just as we have the Customary and the Sharia courts.
"The option is for the constitution to provide that the various religious groups operate and fund the court independently without government sponsorship.
“We need to find out what is wrong with the Nigerian constitution for unless the inconsistencies, the imbalances that were ever smuggled into the constitution through the back door, which has been causing controversy and has been the reason for bad blood and disaffections among Nigerians.
"Unless this is redressed and justice, equity and fairness is given to all, then whatever we are doing here will not bring any solution to our problem,” the cleric said.
He said a close look at the constitution, will show that for the people of African traditional religion, the name customary court was mentioned 68 times in the constitution, for people of the Islamic faith, the name Sharia is mentioned 73 times, the name Islam is mentioned 28 times but the name Christian is not mentioned even once.
In the same manner, Pastor Emmaneul Bosun said there are over 25000 widows in Plateau state due to the killing of Christians in the state, calling on the federal government to address the religious intolerance.
“The conference need to deal with the issue of religious intolerance before it is used to scattered the country”. He said while the constitution bares government from being part of the constitution, the same constitution allows for the funding of one religious group and it's Sharia courts.
The former minister Onike Akande, shared her concern on the efforts by government to push for rapid development. She said there should be the encouragement of entrepreneurial development and massive investment in skill acquisition amongst the youths.
A delegate and a former Assistant Inspector General of Police, Bashier Albasu complained of insecurity in all the zones, blaming it on poor equipment of the police. He said that the police was poorly remunerated. He called on the conference to make recommendations to address insecurity in the country.
The chairman of the Nigeria Investment Council, Mustapha Bello drew the attention of the delegates that there was over $400 billion of Nigeria’s money starched overseas. He urged the conference to emulate the Indonesian government where stolen money was brought back to enhance development and industrialisation.
Nimi Barei Amange called for true fiscal federalism, stating that the structure called Nigeria was weak, old and faulty. When a structure is weak, you either pull it down or effect positive repairs, not just painting. He also asked how federal Nigeria is when the federating units depend on the centre for survival.
“We have only ten states, and the rest merely local governments depending on the centre. What is the duty of the federal government building primary schools and health centres? The solution to this is fiscal federalism.
The former governor of Bayelsa state, DSP Alameyesigha who commended the President in his contribution, said the speech captured all the problems of the country. He said the problems of Nigeria are man made and the President has giving Nigerians the opportunity to deliberate and discuss issues that affect Nigeria as a country.
Meanwhile, delegates complained of N10,000 per plate for their launch. After launch break when the chairman called for continuation of the debate, the delegates shouted that they were hungry, as they had not eaten.
Some of the delegates complained why they should be made to pay N10,000 per plate for launch, asking where in the world would a plate of food cost as much as N10,000.
The chairman however deferred discussion on the complaints, stating that the secretary to the conference, Dr. Valerie Azinge would entertain their complaints when she was back.
Source: Thisday
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