TWELVE years into civil rule and 17 years after the formation of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, leaders of the group said penultimate week that they were returning to the trenches, to save the country from imminent collapse, which they argued could only be prevented by the convening of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC).

To kick-start their new intervention project, the leaders at a briefing in Victoria Island, Lagos, presented a 14-paragraph statement titled: “Convocation of Sovereign National Conference before irreversible self-determination actions.”

Led by Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd), Chief Fred Agbeyebge, Mr. Alfred Ilenre, Mr. Tony Nnadi and Comrade Linus Okoroji, they said rising waves of ethno-religious and political violence, increasing deterioration of state of affairs in the country and a series of subsisting litigation against the 1999 Constitution, indicated that the country was sitting on  a keg of gun powder and that the US prediction that Nigeria would be a failed state in 2015 might come to pass.

They argued that only a sovereign confab would save the country from falling apart even as Elder statesman, Tanko Yakasai, dismissed NADECO’s call for SNC as laughable because it had no place under a democratic dispensation.

The NADECO statement read in part: “In 1993, Nigeria, even under the wings of military dictatorship, underwent an election deemed free and fair, only for General Ibrahim Babangida to thwart the wishes of the Nigerian electorate by denying them their chosen President: the late MKO Abiola.

Events deteriorated fast towards the abyss, leading to the heady days of General Sani Abacha, under whom autocratic governance sapped the souls of men to the point of killing and dehumanising Nigerians and leading in turn to the emergence in May 1994 of NADECO. mobilising  the people for a de-annulment of the June 12, 1993 election and a return to constitutional democracy through the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference.

The presumed President-elect, Abiola, affirmed his commitment to the convening of such an SNC if he was sworn in as President. That was the basis of his collaboration with NADECO in the struggle to actualise his June 12, 1993 electoral mandate. The rest is history. History has indeed come full circle.

“By some uncanny coincidence, it is not only May again, it is also the 17th anniversary of NADECO, as it is also an election year, largely hailed as free and fair, has again delivered a candidate of Nigerians’ choosing: Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan. Mayhem from a section of the country has consumed lives under a democratic dispensation, with the perpetrators proclaiming that they neither believe in democracy as a form of Government nor is it possible to get justice under the 1999 Constitution.

Rising citizenry dis-satisfaction
“In between, citizenry dis-satisfaction has given rise to Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB); Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), Action Committee for the Restoration of Odua Sovereignty (ACROS); Itsekiri Peoples Congress (IPC); Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND); Middle Belt Coalition (MBC); Movement for the Retrieval of the Stolen Sovereignties of the Ethnic Nationalities of Nigeria (MRSSENN); Boko Haram (BK); Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU); Ijaw National Congress (INC); and a myriad of other ethnic and cultural organisations.

“All these ethnic platforms are at one in asserting that their sovereignties have been stolen; their resources have been confiscated by an imposed and usurping centre and all are at one alleging that their persistent discomfiture flows from the negation of the federal principles upon which Nigeria secured its independence as a country. This imposition and usurpation now embodied in the 1999 Constitution has replaced that federalism. Furthermore, these ethnic nationalities are demanding that an opportunity be afforded the owners of the land, to come together, for once, to agree the rules of co-existence, which have been denied them by succeeding authorities.
“On the premise that sovereignty belongs to and resides in the peoples of Nigeria and in further advancement of NADECO’s mission, PRONACO took up the challenge of congregating the owners of the land to decide the terms of their mutual co-existence; an exercise that ended with a Draft People’s Constitution, which subsequently underwent a successful referendum.
“This PRONACO initiative led some people to the next legal step to dismantle the imposed Constitutional Order by instituting a suit challenging the legitimacy of the 1999 Constitution on the ground of fraud. The substance of their suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/367/07 filed 23rd May, 2007 at the Federal High Court, Abuja is that they the peoples, the owners of the land and their sovereignties neither met nor agreed to form a country called Nigeria as claimed in the preamble to the 1999 Constitution.
“The Plaintiffs were Chief Anthony Enahoro, CC Onoh, Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, Ralph Uwazuruike, Yerima Shettima and Hajia Mujaheedat Dokubo-Asari. A similar suit before the Federal High Court Lagos, asserts that the 1999 Constitution is a fraud and seeks its termination. The plaintiffs are Prince Tanimose Bankole-Oki, SAN, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Professor Wole Soyinka and Fred Agbeyegbe, Esq. Substituted for Bankole-Oki upon the latter’s demise.

Without restructuring Jonathan may not deliver
Asked the necessity of the latest move, Agbeyegbe, 75, a lawyer and poet, said NADECO was back to life because the ugly events that transpired when the military was ruling the country were back. Aside recurring killings, he said the post-election violence that claimed numerous lives in some parts of the country had shown that the cure for Nigeria’s problems was not just free and fair election. “We are practising unitarism in the name of federalism. NADECO is saying enough is enough. We have to come together under SNC where every ethnic nationality in the country will have a representative, to talk about it.”
On his part, Kanu said: “We have to draw the conscience and soul of the people. Now people are fighting over ministerial positions -‘it must come to my place.’ It should not be it must come to my place. Let’s restructure the country and ensure true federalism because without good structure, the ministers cannot perform. If President Jonathan doesn’t perform, it won’t be his fault if the structure is bad. We can’t leave things the way they are. Boko Haram is a child’s play to what would happen in future if we leave things the way they are. The Constitution is the only thing holding Nigerians in common. If we can’t relate to that document, it is disastrous. We are not begging for SNC. If we are not careful, you going to have people taking their destinies in their hands. Only SNC will return Nigeria to sanity.”
Ilenre, Okoroji and Nnaji echoed similar views, warning that SNC should be held urgently before it became too late.

SNC  has no place in democracy –  Yakassai
Elderstateman, Tanko Yakasai has dismissed call by NADECO for a Sovereign National Conference in Nigeria as laughable, saying that it had no place under a democratic dispensation.
In an exclusive chat with Vanguard at his Yankaba residence in Kano, the former chieftain of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) stated that those behind the latest move  were ‘a bunch of people seeking relevance in a stabilised polity.
The former Liaison officer to President Shehu Aliyu Shagari, said that the whole idea as ‘propounded by NADECO chiefs was confusing and not well defined, adding that what they asking for is possible under a military dictatorship.
‘I know the boy (Ndubuisi Kanu) is a retired military officer who has by this action demonstrated he is not properly grounded on the issue he had chosen to champion, and I strongly believe the retired Naval Admiral and his co-travelers are simply seeking relevance in a stabilised polity’, he said.
Tanko Yakasai stated that the late leader of NADECO, Pa Anthony Enahoro was forced by the ‘obvious deficiency’ inherent in the idea to redefine it to National Conference,  before he joined his ancestors.
Yakasai who made headlines recently over his acrobatic moves towards Jonathan following the turn of political events in the country, noted that “Sovereign National Conference is only possible under the military. The  conference of ethnic nationalities nominate or elect their representatives and are similarly  allowed by the presiding authority to choose their leaders that wield executive power, and what ever agreement they reach  becomes law and binding on the nation.”
The Elderstateman queried the NADECO chief to explain the possibility of the agitation under a civilian democracy “where the President wields the executive power, the bicameral legislature makes  laws,” adding that “NADECO agitation is laughable and out of tune with emerging challenges.”
Yakasai declared that the geographical zone he hailed from was never afraid of any conference in whatever name in Nigeria, stressing that the “North has the majority and would always have their way in a free and fair  competitive exercise. The North is never afraid of what Ndubuisi Kanu and his co travelers are asking for because by the time you constitute the body you simply realise we have the majority and will exploit that to our benefit,” he argued.
Yakasai, however, called on Nigerians to disregard the call in the face of existing order, adding that the agitators and the idea would naturally fade out with time.