The two groups who project the cultural and socio-political interests of the North and the Southwest are this time engaged over the propriety of implementing the report of the National Conference convened in 2014 at the behest of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Though, the conference was greeted with mixed feelings by critics and supporters, the confab eventually held and recommendations were made.

While handing over to President Muhammadu Buhari, the former president expressed confidence that his successor would implement the recommendations of the conference.

But the expectations from those who clamoured for the conference may be dashed following reports that President Buhari may jettison the contents of the report despite the fact that Jonathan handed over the recommendations to him.

However, Afenifere, that has over the years clamoured the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference, will not back down from getting the reports implemented.

The group has been particularly peeved by assertions by the ACF that the report should be consigned to the dustbin.

Confab report against North — ACF

The ACF, has particularly fumed that the national conference, and its report were skewed to the disadvantage of the North.

National conference

Rising in defence of the North’s position that the report be thrown away, the ACF’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Muhamma Ibrahim admitted that the North participated in the conference.

Ibrahim, however, picked holes in the constitution of its membership, which he described as “lopsided and skewed” to favour the South over the North.

He said: “The selection process of delegates by President Jonathan’s government to the confab made the North that has a population of 75,268,686 people (NPC 2006) with a land mass of 730,885 square km (80 %) as a minority with 189 delegates while the South with a population 65,151,458 people (NPC 2006) with a land mass of 193,438 square km (20%) as a majority with 303 delegates.

“Despite this glaring injustice and disadvantage, the North, as a region did not only participate in the overall national interest of Nigeria but also stabilised the conference on crucial issues of national unity. The 2014 Confab was therefore not a platform for constitution making and did not unanimously recommend a new constitution for Nigeria as claimed by Chief Ayo Adebanjo.

“The learned Chief knows better the process of constitution making and certainly the delegates to the 2014 Confab did not qualify for such process, as they were not elected as representatives of the people but selected or nominated by government and interest groups.”

Ibrahim noted that: “The delegates therefore did not have the legitimate mandate of the people to draft or recommend a new constitution for Nigeria and did not even do so.”

The ACF wondered whether it was the fault of the North that Jonathan, who had ample time to implement the recommendation of the confab, failed to do so.

Besides, he maintained that “the 2014 confab, in which ACF fully participated made about 600 far-reaching recommendations on policy issues, legal and constitutional amendments to the 1999 Constitution as amended and submitted the report to the former President on August 21, 2014 and not a new Constitution.”

He continued: “Was it the northern interest that stopped him, being a southerner or a southern interest? The confab report, being a public property, is subject to the usual due process of implementation through the three arms of government and not singularly by President Buhari as Chief Adebanjo is canvassing.”

Afenifere’s salvo

The statement did not go down well with the leadership of Afenifere over the way ACF cast aspersion on it.

Firing its own salvo, Afenifere’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Odumakin, said the organisation would have ignored the statement but for perceived “usual feudal arrogance, outright misinformation, atavistic obfuscation and delusory myopia were it not that falsehood repeated time and again may start to wear the garb of truth.”

Odumakin expressed amusement “that ACF is still peddling the funny claim of the North being 80 per cent of Nigeria in land mass and with a higher population. We thought these fallacies had been laid to rest in 2014 after the Arewa insensitivity ruffled feathers with offensive propaganda to that effect and some of their delegates taunting their co-conferees from the south with map of Nigeria drawn at the back of their babanriga showing the North as 80 per cent of Nigeria.”

Pooh-poohing the demographic superiority of the North over the South as claimed by the ACF, the Afenifere spokesman said: “The figures of all the censuses held in Nigeria till date have not been credible due to hegemonic interferences with what should have just been  an exercise to provide scientific data to aid planning and development.

“That the natural boundaries of the North and the South are Rivers  Niger and Benue but the British drew artificial boundaries to favour the North and punish the South for agitating for independence. And having cornered that advantage of bigger landmass, why using it to harvest revenue from the central purse instead of cultivating it. Is land no longer an asset to our Arewa compatriots?”

“Even if the higher population claim were true, why would a man say his neighbours should not send their children to the best schools because they have to cater for his own children who are more than theirs?”, he wondered.

Dismissing the claim of lopsidedness of representation at the conference, Odumakin maintained that contrary to ACF’s stance, each zone of the federation was well represented.

He said: “we are bewildered how some people can continue to tell such untruth about a recent event. Each state of the federation was asked to nominate three delegates to the conference while the nationality organizations in each of the six geo-political zones were asked to nominate 15 delegates each. The other categories of delegates were either professional groups, civil societies, who were also asked to reflect the geo-political zones.

“The view about the  lack of capacity of  the conference’s decisions to be the  basis of a new constitution is laughable when it emanates from those who know that the 1999 constitution is a document written by one unelected professor for Abacha’s self-succession and yet they are defending it because of the non -sustainable advantages they think it confers. Arewa is free to do as it pleases with the decisions of the confab but the immutable laws of social engineering do not bow to any hegemony in the long run”, he stated.