Executive Director of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Ibuchukwu Ezike, who is representing the civil society groups at the national conference, speaks with Assistant Editor, North, CHUKS EHIRIM, in Abuja on some of the areas the conference should focus on to ensure proper governance of the country, dismissing chances of hidden agenda by the presidency.
You have spent some days so far at the conference. How do you see the atmosphere?
Ibuchukwu Ezike
Things are picking up for genuine activities of the conference. Things are taking genuine shape, and delegates are in high mood.
Looking at the calibre of persons, at least those you must have mingled with since your arrival here, what are your expectations?
Very high! We have seen people who fought for the restoration of democracy in this country. We have also seen people who are in the vanguard of the fight against corruption in Nigeria; people who want genuine justice, equity and fairness to be done to all sides of this country. We have seen religious leaders and traditional rulers as well as leaders of ethnic nationalities. Of course, these are the major planks that formed the society called Nigeria. So, we are looking forward to an idea-oriented conference where all the problems confronting Nigeria will be genuinely and democratically discussed, and genuine decision and democratic decisions taken.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who inaugurated the conference, seems to have reversed his early position regarding the issue of ‘no-go area’ or the indivisibility of the country. How do you see his latest stance signifying that he has no hidden agenda?
Even if Mr. President had a hidden agenda, he will not succeed because the delegates, as I have seen, are people who are agitated by patriotism to build a country that is just, humane, equitable, egalitarian, where people will go to sleep happily and wake in the morning in a joyful mood. So, even if the President had said there are no-go areas, the people are confident and they are committed to discussing all the issues. We are in a situation where everybody in the country is crying. Looking at all these issues, nobody could have made a statement that there should be no-go area, and this assemblage of credible Nigerians will come together and say don’t discuss it. Will you ask Igbo people not to agitate for an additional state, the denial of which has made them a minority in Nigeria, even as a major group? Will you ask the Yoruba, who feel that they have been neglected in the country, not to say this is the area where the shoe is pinching us? Or the Hausa/Fulani or those people where there are serious security issues?
So there is no person who could have confidently or comfortably asked Nigerians not to discuss issues that have been sources of discontent in the country and they will not discuss it.
There are speculations that the document may go to the National Assembly. But majority of the people prefer it being subjected to a referendum. How would you want the outcome of the conference handled?
The people who have assembled here are the true owners of the country called Nigeria. We want a new constitution that will be the outcome of the conference. National Assembly will not give Nigerians such a constitution. National Assembly has about 469 members and we are talking about 492 delegates who are here, who have converged from different constituencies in the country.
In the National Assembly, I don’t see anybody who is representing civil society or religious group, ethnic nationalities or the media and different professions or sectors in the National Assembly. But you find all of them in this conference, which means that this is superior to the National Assembly, despite that you talk about election. What will make this document or report of the conference to be natural or that it derives from the people is when you have taken the document back to the people to look at what was done at the conference, to give it legitimacy. So the legitimacy of this document will derive from the people. I am of the opinion and I strongly support that the report of the conference be taken to a referendum of people, for them to either accept or reject it.
Coming from the civil society, what are you taking to the conference?
If you look at the chapter of the 1999 Constitution dealing with socio-economic rights, which of course is the major plank of every constitution, the duty of every government is the welfare and security of the people. It is about the socio-economic rights, the right to life, the right to housing, the right to education, the right to health and all others that will make life meaningful.
So if it is not considered as the duty of government to give these rights to the people, it means that the government has failed. What caused the monumental corruption in our system is because these essential things are not being provided by the government, and government has no commitment to doing so to the people. So if we have a situation where the government or state actors have less amount of money available to them to steal, by providing these social amenities for the people; if we resolve those issues, electricity and all that, if the citizens have the rights to these things, then we have started having a country where everybody will say: this is my country.
We have to look at all those things. And then, devolution of powers, so that we don’t have too many powers concentrated at the federal level. Third is the issue of Land Use Decree and Petroleum Act that have denied the citizens the right to own properties, which God has bestowed on them. I would want a situation where this issue is resolved and we repeal the Land Use Act, so that the resources that are found on your land should belong to you and you pay royalty to the federal, state and local governments. This will reduce the tension in the country.
The other issue has to do with security, where the government must have the responsibility to secure the life and property of Nigerians. We can also go on to discuss the rights of Nigerians who live outside the shores of this country, where what is happening to Nigerians in foreign lands is not taken seriously by the government.
Executive Director of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Ibuchukwu Ezike, who is representing the civil society groups at the national conference, speaks with Assistant Editor, North, CHUKS EHIRIM, in Abuja on some of the areas the conference should focus on to ensure proper governance of the country, dismissing chances of hidden agenda by the presidency.
