Why this national dialogue will fail, by Gani
By Chioma Anyagafu
Saturday, January 22, 2005
CHIEF Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) Lagos lawyer and human rights has been a die-hard advocate for the convocation of a sovereign national conference, SNC. Since the Federal Government proposed a national dialogue and set up a committee to that effect, there have been varied reactions from Nigerians including the recent Pro-National Conference (PRONACO) summit. Fawehinmi, in this chat, speaks on the issue as well as the re-emergence of G-34, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s rumoured third term bid, and the plan by the CNPP to present a joint presidential candidate for the 2007 elections. Here are excerpts:
The PRONACO group met last week in Lagos and issued a communique against Obasanjo’s national dialogue committee. Is that not an opposition to an opportunity for Nigerians to talk?
What President Obasanjo is trying to do is not a serious attempt to solve the problems of Nigeria and he knows that his proposed national dialogue will not achieve any result because already the members of the so-called confab are government appointees either from federal or state governments. That is saying that it is a PDP conference because the party at the federal level would nominate delegates and all the PDP governors will nominate the rest.
That sort of dialogue will not represent the interest of the people of this country and this is not the national conference we want. Rather, it is a PDP confab. They cannot tackle the problems of this country seriously and therefore cannot achieve any result. You know, we are talking about 50 people being selected by Mr. President and then the governors selecting the state delegates. That means about 226 members are government appointees. So, we are not going to have the right kind of conference.
In essence, we are saying that there should be a sovereign national conference planning committee that will ensure a proper national conference and in this conference, the representatives are not going to be on the basis of party but the people will choose their representatives from their communities, their local governments and that will augur well for them. Then, from the community level, other groups like lawyers, engineers, journalists, all professional groups including students will pick their own representatives to the conference. Then, the organised labour and industries will also be represented, including also the traditional rulers. The true conference should also have representatives from the armed forces, the immigration. All interest groups should be identified.
In this conference, all the problems in this country should be addressed. There shouldn’t be no-go areas and at the end of their deliberations, there should be a referendum from which should be fashioned out a new constitution for this country. In this referendum lies the sovereignty of the conference and that is what we mean by sovereign national conference. Its sovereignty lies in the fate of the document that will emanate from the conference.
Secondly, I don’t think Obasanjo’s confab can achieve any desired result because the approach is whimsical and it’s not based on any empirical facts. Actually, the convocation of this national confab is based on Mr. President’s decision to divert attention from the true essence of a sovereign conference. So, this one cannot succeed. It will fail and there is no hope for Obasanjo’s national confab.
Why do people not believe the intentions of the government or more specifically, Mr. President, such that people now insinuate that he may seek a third term in office?
I had always been saying it in the last two to three years that Mr. President has a hidden agenda, that he’s trying to go for a third term. I have said it several times that there is a hidden plan to be a sit-tight president. And that is the cause of all the problems we are having in Nigeria and even in Obasanjo’s party, the PDP. All these Audu Ogbeh, Ngige and several crises in the PDP are sponsored to work out a third-term for Mr. President. I saw this a long time ago. The national confab too is designed for that same goal too. The committee he set up is to review the constitution and make suggestions for amendment that will favour his contesting election the third time. He wants to insert the third-term amendment into the constitution and later seek an interpretation in the court.
Now, that opposition under the banner of CNPP which you belong to, is planning to field a joint presidential candidate in the 2007 elections. Is that aimed at stopping the PDP or the speculated third term agenda of Mr. President?
This CNPP came about when we were fighting for the registration of the other political parties and we went to the Supreme Court to fight our case but honestly, I don’t see how the CNPP can field a joint candidate for presidential elections. CNPP is a Conference of Nigeria’s Political Parties and that includes the PDP and I don’t see how the 30 parties can field a joint candidate. I think practically what the CNPP means is that all the 29 political parties should come together and have a common candidate against the PDP. But this is not possible. I mean, we don’t have the same ideology, the same political orientation.
So, I think political parties that share the same people-oriented programme should come together and field one candidate but for all the 29 political parties to come together and field one candidate is achievable but near impossible. I don’t know how that can be done. For me, what is important is to look at a programme of a political party and those with similar ideologies should field one candidate.
But for all these parties with different ideological backgrounds to come together and field one candidate will create problems in an election.
You talked about the crises in PDP. Though you are not a member of the party, do you think the re-emergence of the G-34 can help rescue the party from its present position of chaos and internal squabbles?
There is no problem with the G-34 but one thing you must understand is that G-34 came into being shortly before the 1999 election. It came into being to ensure that the then military dictator, General Sani Abacha left office. The aim then was to ensure that Abacha did not succeed himself.
The circumstances that brought G-34 into being had since expired. The relevance of G-34 now is suspect. Many of them are around and are in different political parties. They are not all PDP. So, G-34, yes, relevant for the circumstances that brought it about but G-34 post-Abacha, I don’t know how that can be relevant now except as their mission then was to prevent Abacha from succeeding himself and now, their mission is to prevent Obasanjo from succeeding himself.
G-34 is scattered in the parties and I don’t know how they can come together and have a common agenda against the self-succession bid of President Obasanjo but if all the political parties can come together and fight the (suspected) third term bid of President Obasanjo without the G-34, that will make more sense.
As for the many crises of PDP, how can they be resolved when you coerce a national party chairman to resign his position against his will? It is a very serious thing. This jeopardises the position of the Constitution very seriously but that is not a surprise. It happened the first time when the police went to the residence of the former Senate President, late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo to arrest him because of the mace, the symbol of authority of the Senate. So, we are dealing with an entity not given to morality, a cold character, not given to decency. It’s a serious issue really.
