Away with military rule
By Ochereome Nnanna
YOU may be surprised at the title of today’s main article, but please do not be. It is true: we are still under the rule of the military.
On May 29th, 1999 , the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria handed over to a democratically elected government headed by President Olusegun Obasanjo. One of the instruments handed over to Obasanjo at the Eagle Square was the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. He was sworn-in based on its provisions. So were 36 governors and elected federal and state legislators all over the country.
We may not have realised it, but this was the biggest fraud and act of sabotage ever committed against Nigeria . What actually happened was that the military decided to bow to popular pressures to return the country to a democracy. But they left behind a constitutional order that was a travesty of democracy; a system that is killing rather than developing the country. They gave us “military rule without the military”.
What they actually forced on us as a constitution was a military decree – Decree No 24 of 1999.
What is my proof that the constitution is a fraud? Just take a look at the opening passage: “WE the People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: HAVING firmly and solemnly resolved: TO LIVE in unity and harmony as one indivisible and indissoluble Sovereign Nation under God….”
Pray, when did “WE” make this resolution? Who, what, where, how and why? A group of military officers dominated by a section of the country selected a few men and women and asked them to propose amendments to the 1979 presidential constitution.
The military rulers then inserted what they wanted and removed what they did not like. They withheld the final draft until a few days to handover of power before announcing its publication. This was obviously done to ensure that people did not raise the necessary inquiry into its contents that could derail General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s hurriedly contrived transition to civil rule programme.
The military was only furthering its own legacy of imposing constitutions on the populace any time they were forced to vacate power. Back in 1979 when they left after thirteen years in power, they caused to be created the presidential system of government and a constitutional structure that imposed a centralised system of federalism on Nigerians. Its main masterminds: General Murtala Mohammed, General Olusegun Obasanjo and Major General Shehu Yar’ Adua, used the 1979 Constitution to entrench permanently the policies of inequities which were put in place after the civil war to ensure the continued dominance of the North.
With the oil wells of the East and Niger Delta churning out a surfeit of easy petro-dollars, the 1963 Republican Constitution that prescribed semi-autonomous Regions and 50 per cent derivation was overturned. Even though the country had been split into smaller political units, power was concentrated at the centre.
Units of representation and revenue allocation were arranged in such a manner that the North would always have the lion’s share, with the West, its Majority wartime allies, given the second largest share, while the Igbos and the Minorities were consigned to a distant third class. The Igbos who led the fight for the independence of the country and constituted a formidable leg of the tripod upon which independence was granted to Nigeria , were granted a “minority” status.
The ruling class thus sat down around the buffet table to gorge themselves on the booties of “winning the war of UNITY”. The conspicuous consumption syndrome set in and spread like cancer cells to all parts of the body politic. Recurrent vote now takes 75 per cent of the annual budget.
The country is unable to develop because everybody in government wants to steal as much of the petro-naira as he/she can lay his/her hands on. Excessive centralisation has forced governors to spend three quarters of their time in Abuja waiting for federal allocation or waiting to see the president for one flimsy favour or the other. Chairmen of local councils also spend much of their time in state capitals and only return to base when federal allocation arrives.
Because of easy petro-naira derived from the soil of the Niger Delta, government is no longer able to run even the most mundane of enterprises. Before the war, while the country was under a genuine constitutional rule, governments in all the regions including the federal ran businesses profitably. The federal government had thriving agencies such as the Nigeria Airways, the Nigerian National Shipping Line, the Nigerian Railway Corporation, the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (the famous ECN, which was replaced by the National Electric Power Authority, NEPA). Governments operated high quality educational and health systems. The incidence of rushing people abroad for treatment was a rarity.
It was under the genuine pre-war federal Constitution that the Western Region achieved free education at all levels for its people and pioneered so many things being wealthier than even the federal government at a point. The North had the famous groundnut pyramids of Kano and the second largest regional economy.
The poorest region in the 1950s was Eastern Nigeria . But by 1964, due to competitiveness and superb governance, it emerged as the fastest industrialising economy in the Third World , with its academic products towering over those of Western Nigeria even in Ibadan and Lagos varsities.
Every Region had industrial parks. Those of the North were concentrated around Kano and Kaduna. The West had hers in the greater Lagos areas and Ibadan .
The East had industrial clusters in all urban towns such as Enugu, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Aba, Onitsha, Owerri, Abakaliki and others. But today we hear that government can no longer establish industries. Government can no longer run businesses! All the industries established by our founding fathers are dead and we now import everything from pen to pin, while our youth languish in idleness, abject poverty and some take shelter in violent crimes and terrorism.
It is time to retrace our steps and return to a true constitutional order. We either go back to the 1963 Constitution or call a Constituent Assembly to evolve a new constitutional structure that will make Nigeria work again as it once did. If Nigeria dies before 2015 as predicted, it will not be because of Boko Haram terrorism.
It will die from being forced to live a constitutional lie for too long. This constitutional order is harming even those who set it up for the selfish interests of their region. They have eaten more of the National Cake but they have ended up poorer and more destitute than the rest. And their youth are protesting with bombs and AK 47s.
The gathering of eminent Nigerians last week in Lagos to drum this message home was a reminder that time is running out.
Bravo! The Army is “dialoguing” with Boko Haram!
MY heartiest congratulations go to the officers and men of the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force and the Department of State Security Services (SSS) for their recent gallant exploits towards crushing the Boko Haram terror machine in the North.
I knew our armed forces had the capacity to exterminate the enemy
. The days of Boko Haram and their supporters and sponsors are numbered. More and more patriots (especially northern Muslim clerics and leaders) are finding their voices and speaking out against these devils, saying they are not true Muslims.
Once again, bravo to all! When a nation is faced with a common enemy all patriots come together and the enemy is isolated and eliminated. Those calling for dialogue with Boko Haram are now getting what they asked for. The Nigerian armed and security forces are giving Boko Haram the dialogue they richly deserve.
They are giving the BH cowards the dialogue reserved only for terrorists everywhere in the world. The vultures perched on rooftops calling for “amnesty” (and of course post-amnesty largesse) for Boko Haram will salivate in vain! No one can take oil money from the Niger Delta to pay soon-to-be-vanquished Al Qaeda terrorists. It won’t happen, you better believe it!
The Ojukwu season is here
WITHIN the next one week, the whole world will know that an important burial is going on in the African continent. The period between now and a little after March 2, 2012 is what I call the Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu season.
During his very eventful life, Ojukwu made the news for the noble reasons. Sometimes he also showed the imperfect human side of him.
But the Igbo nation has decided that this man who brought out the best in them during the civil war in military prowess and technological ingenuity; a man who inspired barely armed and ill-fed soldiers to carry out daring suicide missions to die for the “fatherland” (Biafra) and a man who now symbolises for many Nigerians the struggle for justice and freedom, will be laid to rest in a manner never seen in these parts.
I am ready for the Ojukwu season. Be ready too.
