Thursday, January 26, 2012

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria and the metaphor of rejected stone

Nigeria and the metaphor of rejected stone

KAYODE KETEFE

One of the things this writer hates about the 1999 Constitution is its description of Nigeria as "an indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation under God."  To start with, the expression is a negation of the prerogatives of the autochthonous peoples, that form this political package called Nigeria, as free and sovereign peoples.

That theoretical postulation automatically foists a fait accompli on the Nigerians by making mockery of the freewill of the peoples. Don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer in Nigerian unity, but only clamouring for that unity to be predicated on the solid ground of pragmatic and sound philosophies tethered to the peoples' wishes and aspirations rather than on the quicksand of enforced bonding.

Accordingly, that indivisibility and indissolubility clause in the preamble to the constitution should be jettisoned, being mere empty words that show we just love to day-dream rather than face our challenges squarely. Who has ever seen anything that can be put together by man that cannot be put apart?  The expression reminds one of all those glorious "For better or for worse" vows during ecclesiastical liturgy of marriage solemnisation. A visit to the Family and Probate Unit of the High Courts would reveal a shocking statistics of escalating rate of divorce that renders the mantra a ludicrous ritual.

A proper description of Nigeria in that most important document should have been, "A nation united by the collective will of the sovereign peoples of Nigeria".  Of course, being under God should have been omitted completely, not only because of its incompatibility with  our secularity status stipulated by the same constitution, but more importantly because it is our conducts as evinced in civility, forbearance, love for one another, etc, that would show whether or not  we are truly under God, and not through empty verbiage. In any case, since the whole humanity, nay, the entire creations, are conceptually under God, we should not be littering our grundnorm with such platitudes.

In a nutshell, our people must come together in fact, not in theory, to determine the nature of unity they want. We need to redefine the organisation of the governmental powers using the paradigm of a true federalism. If Nigeria must work, it is the people that would decide to make it work, no theoretical mantra, no matter how well-formulated, would transform it of its own accord.

The result of the last Presidential election is a sad reminder of the fractious state of the nation. The result, which was graphically illustrated by the National Mirror newspaper through its representation of the votes polled by the leading candidates in different colours, projected a shameful delineation of the country into a neat North/South dichotomy. How could a country vote like that? It shows no genuine integration has taken place after 51 years of independence and our peoples were polarized along primordial ethno-religious lines.

Now, the nation is in grief as bombs keep exploding all over the landscape, leading to massacre of innocent Nigerians, countless pogroms erupt in quick succession to deepen the tragedy. As of the time of writing this piece, there is cross-exodus across the lands with many Igbos, Hausas and Yorubas relocating from their places of sojourn to their indigenous areas to avoid being killed.  All this in our dearest "indivisible and indissoluble" nation!

Yet, each time Sovereign National Conference is mentioned as a panacea to Nigeria's problems, the powers-that-be always nipped it in the bud, having construed it a centrifugal political device that may actuate disintegration.

Ironically, convention of SNC would strengthen rather than dissolve Nigeria. It would give an opportunity for the people to provide curative prescriptions for all the malaises that bedevil our present brand of federalism. SNC is therefore the metaphorical stone that the builders rejected which, if now employed, would be the chief cornerstone of this House called Nigeria.

 The amazing series of events that unleash President Jonathan on us as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria smacks of divine imprimatur – a fact which goaded the people to bestow on him the unique sobriquet of "Signature of God". But his enemies who vowed to make the country ungovernable for him after his electoral victory derided the appellation.

They were bent on removing the hallo around him; to demystify, rubbish him and thereby expose the signature to be a forgery!

In the light of all the tragic occurrences in the land, the president owes himself, the peoples of Niger Delta whence he came, and indeed all right thinking Nigerians the duty to checkmate the evil machinations of these malevolent forces by ensuring that they did not succeed.

If the president fails to curtail the problem of insecurity and its concomitant wanton waste of human lives, amidst other woes, it would not be an excuse for him to claim he had good plans but was sabotaged by the fifth columnists. After all, God does not fail and God's endorsed agent should not be seen peddling puerile excuses why a putatively divine plan was thwarted. President Jonathan has no option than to succeed.

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