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From: Leye Ige ige.leye@yahoo.com [AfricanWorldForum] <AfricanWorldForum@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sunday, 22 November 2015
Subject: [AfricanWorldForum] Editorial:The National Question --Towards A New Constitutional Order
To: omo oodua <omoodua@yahoogroups.com>
"The alarm bells rung by the Nigerian Governors' Forum as to their inability to sustain the current wage structure in spite of the recent assistance rendered by the Federal Government raises the specter of Nigeria becoming an economic basket case relying on extractive commodity sales for sustenance more so when the state and central bureaucracies, along with the political structures take up a chunk of the proceeds. Thus, when the Government is talking about reducing the cost of governance via wage cuts, it is not even scratching the surface. The success of desegregation in the United States was a function of its economic impossibility ably demonstrated through the famous Brown vs Board of Education lawsuit, influencing, politically, the rise of the civil rights movement heralding both the Civil and Voting Rights Acts…….Nigeria itself was the manifestation of a political structure built on an economic enterprise where the continued retention of the economic basis of the present structure is not sustainable and which should make this the time for the Central Government to begin moves to boldly address these issues. It is in this context that "ooduapathfinder" adopts in totality and presents, unedited, Chief Anthony Enahoro's 2002 Lecture on The National Question at the Yoruba Tennis Club as its Editorial for this week.We believe that the prescriptions and thematic underpinnings enunciated in this Lecture will serve as a very good Working Document for the economic and political Reformation of Nigeria."
Read more@www.ooduapathfinder.com
Petroleum mode and pork barrel governance
"In a list of what to do, the president clearly promised in the first line of his manifesto the need for a new design of the polity bequeathed by military dictators. He has pledged to use his presidency to: initiate action to amend our Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties and responsibilities to states and local governments in order to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit. He and his party also seem to have recognized the need to return to regional economic planning and development: Balance across regions by the creation of 6 new Regional Economic Development Agencies (REDAs) to act as champions of sub-regional competitiveness. Details of what to do "to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit," are missing in the episodic narrative of change in the nation. But what to do to promote "regional economic planning and development" shows the impishness (birthed by the philosophy and sociology of spending petrodollars) of throwing money at problems by creating bureaucracies to administer, rather than solve problems. The pledge of Buhari and the APC to re-craft the 1999 Constitution with the aim of re-federalizing the country needs be addressed with as much speed and enthusiasm as doing everything else on the manifesto." Read more @www.ooduapathfinder.com
From Nation to State
""In 1914, Prat did not answer the call of history; he answered the call of politics, which is very different. The vision that he encouraged, together with a large group of professionals and intellectuals of different ideologies, was that the Catalonia of progress would have to expand across thousands of kilometers of roads, telephone cables and railroads that would transport goods and people, and at the same time it would enrich itself spiritually if it trained the population in all fields of knowledge and also in the practical skills of trades. Hospitals, libraries, schools, workshops, academies, museums and many more sprang up throughout Catalonia. As a Catalanist, Prat de la Riba became a great defender of social public policies, something rather unusual for a conservative. Following Prat de la Riba's theory, Catalonia was the nation and Spain was the State. His autonomist aspiration did not aim to break anything or separate anyone, as it is clear if we re-read the last sentence of the transcribed paragraph above when he is referring to what the Catalan Commonwealth meant: "it will be triumphant for Catalonia and in close fellowship with other Hispanic peoples." The problem was that the Spanish oligarchy that controlled the levers of the administration in Madrid was not capable of believing that this kind of proposal did not threaten the unity of the State, and that quite the opposite, it sought to regenerate it"
Read more @www.ooduapathfinder.com
Kabila Must Go: There are hints that the president of the DRC wants to delay presidential elections
"On Oct. 31, a spokesman for President Joseph Kabila's ruling coalition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo called for the country's presidential election — originally scheduled for November 2016 — to be delayed for two to four years in order to ensure their "credibility." Kabila's regime has forfeited its legitimacy by regularly committing atrocities and violating human rights. In January this year, Congolese security forces fatally shot at least 21 peaceful protesters by firing into a crowd. In the country's volatile eastern hot spots, Congolese soldiers often rape, loot, and kill civilians with impunity. In one especially gruesome case of mass rape, more than 130 women and girls were assaulted, but only two out of 39 implicated soldiers were found guilty of rape despite overwhelming evidence. This culture of impunity makes clear that Kabila's disdain for the rules has invalidated his regime's legitimacy. If Kabila disregards legally imposed term limits, he risks destabilizing his country's precarious peace. Although conflict never truly stopped in the DRC, it has become more localized and small scale since the Second Congo War ended in 2003. Causing several million excess deaths, the war involved multiple African countries and more than a dozen armed groups. If the chaos in nearby Burundi is any indication, an attempt to prolong a presidential administration beyond its prescribed limit risks sparking violent opposition. And the violence currently engulfing Burundi is much, much smaller than what we can expect in the DRC."
Read more @ooduapathfinder.com
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