BEYOND THE THIRD TERM AGENDA
BEING A CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE ISSUED BY THE NCP ON 12/1/2006 ON THE OCCASION OF THE FORMAL INAUGURATION OF THE MOVEMENT FOR UNITY AND PROGRESS IN ABUJA, NIGERIA
The National Conscience Party is excited by the birth of the Movement for Unity and Progress. We take cognizance of the integrity of the brains behind it and the unwavering patriotism of personalities like our very own Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (Rtd) as Interim Chairman and Bukar Zaman as Interim General Secretary. This formal inauguration of the Movement is auspicious and the issues raised thereby very challenging. For at no time has the need for unity and progress in Nigeria been in greater demand. We say congratulations to all whose untiring efforts made this event a reality.
1.
NIGERIA TO DAY
What dominates national discourse in Nigeria today is the speculation over whether Mr. President would perpetuate himself in office or not. We also watch as the intra-Party electoral arrangement of one out of the 30 political parties, the PDP, is being foisted on the national agenda to confuse issues, whip up divisiveness and antagonism. We view all of these side by side with the continuing brazen implementation of the IMF privatization program whereby the nation’s patrimony is being handed over to a handful of persons contrary to the express dictate of Section 16 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999). The harsh consequences of the last increase in the price of petroleum products, the impact of which is now being felt, has given birth to spiraling inflation in an era of choking cash squeeze. The threat of sack of thousands of Federal Civil servants for which Mr. President claims to have secured the consent of the Senate, continues to loom.
The agony remains of thousands of civil servants and their families who were made homeless by Policemen and Soldiers on the orders of Mr. President in spite of Court orders. Mr. President and his team are celebrating the forced collapse of many banks, threatening the lifesavings of many Nigerians and the government still cannot answer the fundamental contradiction of why there should be so much pain and suffering in the midst of plenty which is the lot of majority of Nigerians today. There is no doubt that the harsh economic and social policies of the Obasanjo government and the brutality of their implementation has made Nigeria hell for the majority of the Nigerian people whose lives have been unbearably dislocated, whose nerves are understandably at tenterhooks and who in anguish cry for justice.
2.THE SELF – PERPETUATION BID
The alleged 3rd term bid of Mr. President is a threat to elongate the lifespan of the unsavory bare existence of the average Nigerian of today. It is an affirmation that sooner or later, the refineries and all that is left of Nigeria’s wealth will be taken over by a small clique, composed of local and international predators. They are those who have concocted the 3rd term scheme to use mercenary and dishonorable members of the National and states legislative Assemblies to completely take over our national patrimony.
3.PROGRESS
It is the position of the NCP that there cannot be any meaningful talk of progress in Nigeria outside the parameters of what percentage of the Nigerian population enjoys social and economic rights. Until the government guarantees the right of the people to jobs, education, access to healthcare on the basis of need and not ability to pay, the right to social security and popular participation in the management of our collective affairs the country cannot be said to be one making progress.
Beyond terminating the alleged self succession ambition of Mr. President, the fundamental issue is how the Nigerian people can bring into existence a government that would first and foremost cater for the interest of Nigerians, that would rally the creative energies of the Nigerian people, by working with their organizations, in the formulation and implementation of developmental policies and leading by example in the propagation of a democratic ethic in public and private life and in interpersonal relations as a whole.
Rather than perpetuation of a one man dictatorship, the task is about how to galvanize our people, united in purpose and with defined goals in mind to take our destiny into our hands and chart our own future ourselves. Participation in this impending democratic revolution will uplift the spirit of oneness and deepen the commitment to democracy of the majority of our people who before now have been excluded from governmental process.
The events of the coming weeks and months will indicate whether or not the incumbent Obasanjo dictatorship would yield to a popular seizure of power in Nigeria through the electoral box or force on the nation, rebellion and insurrection that would expose the charade that the 2007 may have been designed to be. In this regard, an important milestone will be the extent to which popular inputs into the pending Electoral Bill will be given credence.
4.THE NATIONAL QUESTION
We have witnessed how lately, different organizations have sprouted to give vent to sectional dimensions to problems that are national in scope: For a while it appeared that the forces of division were going to succeed in setting the organizations against themselves. But the clamping into jail at the same time of Dr. Frederick Fasheun, Otunba Gani Adams of the OPC, Alhaji Asari Dokubo of the NDPVF and Mr Raph Uwazuruike of MASSOB by the Obasanjo government has sent a loud signal to the Nigerian people as a whole, that it is only a united effort that can effectively combat the monster that continues to hold Nigeria down and the potentialities of its people in abeyance.
5.UNITY IS A MUST
Let all the sufferers of injustice unite, let all those who are aggrieved come together; let there be an isolation of those who do not mean Nigeria well; let us expose those who relish at attacking our standard of living irrespective of ethnicity; let us be united on one thing – that the time has come for all those who have historically been victimized to enjoy the fruits of their labour and partake of the bounties of our national endowment. Let us put all ethnic and religious divisions aside to fight for the progress of our people across the board, to reclaim our humanity and sovereignty, which belong to us, and bring into existence a government that will subject itself to our popular control. Let us be united in the struggle to free Asari Dokubo, Gani Adams, Onwuzuruike and Frederick Fasheun who are political detainees and prisoners of conscience against whom a charge of treason is a smokescreen. Let us fight in a determined way towards the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference where national policies on all questions, including the class question, will be formulated and a new national ethic adopted under circumstances that guarantee participation for all. A new constitution in which social and economic rights will be justiceable will also be the product of such a process and elections thereon will set the nation on the path of true greatness. To us, this is the challenge progress in Nigeria poses; this is the progress we of the NCP are committed to fighting for and will unite with all patriotic forces to realize.
6.NIGERIA AND THE AFRICAN UNION
The failure of the President Obasanjo’s Political Reform Conference to address the pains of the Niger Delta people and the ongoing clamp down on self determination groups like OPC, NDPVF and MASSOB expose the inadequacies of the Ogbasanjo’s government in the management of divergence.
What Chief Obasanjo may claim to be doing at the level of the African Union would clearly be hollow showmanship (just like the anti corruption crusade) if the President’s charity cannot begin from Nigeria, his home country. The realization of the dreams of our Pan Africanist forefathers for African Union cannot be founded on dictation or over concentration of powers at the apex continental level. If President Obasanjo is, without batting an eye lid, stifling the practice of true federalism in Nigeria, one cannot expect him to facilitate an African Union whose vibrancy, locked in its diversity, is freed.
All too soon, Chief Obasanjo’s vision and style is outdated and so outmoded that in many instances it causes national embarrassment. This is the truth, whether Chief Obasanjo realizes it or not. The transition to anew leadership would have been less traumatic were the President to be disposed towards yielding to superior argument, but given that his imperial majesty has no respect for public opinion, the nation’s health would continue to be assaulted by a celebration of mediocrity by way of media hyping.
To allow self-perpetuation for Chief Obasanjo is to continue to hold down the great potentials of the Nigerian people. It is clear to us that the President has lost steam and his resort to brute force and detention of dissidents, violation of court orders is a signal of exasperation. It is mind boggling for anyone except scoundrels to talk of indispensability of Mr. President under these circumstances. Beyond stopping Chief Obasanjo, a united Nigerian people should be thinking of how to hasten the process of reclaiming our stolen sovereignty.
Once again we congratulate the Movement for Unity and Progress and look forward to the days, weeks, months and years ahead, of fruitful collaboration between the National Conscience Party and your Movement.
Thank you as we say:
Forward to the united and progressive Nigeria of our dreams.
DR. OSAGIE OBAYUWANA
NATIONAL CHAIRMAN
NATIONAL CONSCIENCE PARTY
