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From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Chairman, Southeast Zone, Very Rev. Fr. Abraham Nwali has blamed the enormous challenges confronting Nigeria on the nation’s faulty constitution.
He stated this recently in a chat with Sunday Sun.
Recently, the call for referendum has dominated public discourse, especially in the Southeast. In a layman’s language, what does it actually mean?
Well, in a democratic parlance, it is one way of seeking the opinion of the public whether the constitution should be upheld or the country should seek disintegration, in a developed society, it is always treated as a policy and constitutional, in Africa, especially in Nigeria, it has been a continual bell that is ringing in everywhere, but there are conditions upon which the referendum will take place. The first one is constitutional review because it allows people to look at the constitution to see whether the masses are still comfortable with it or not and secondly, National Assembly has a role to play. Today, people are talking about the way which our regions were formed, they are saying that restructuring is needed, that the regions should be restructured in such a manner that we will have equal states and equal council areas, so that everyone will experience justice. For us, members of the clergy, our greatest concern is that there should be deep fear of God and additionally, the National Assembly should look into the request and make provision for constitutional review where all the matters shall be decided, if restructuring and referendum are necessary.
Formerly, there were agitations in all quarters over constitutional amendment, but after opinions had been obtained, suddenly the anxiety disappeared, thus what can you say about the move?
Nigeria is a funny country because when there is pressure in one side, every attention will be drawn to the area and once the pressure is shifted, attention will follow as well. Our major challenge has been insecurity which became so tensed that everyone began to pray for survival, as that problem was going on, suddenly Coronavirus erupted followed by poverty and hunger, now inflation has taken the centre stage because dollar is now sold at almost N600 and because of the situation, none is still talking about survival over COVID-19 and insecurity, attention is on how to feed. Therefore, for me, everything depends on the National Assembly. Let the lawmakers and the executive decide on what to do by looking into the constitution in order to put food on the table of the general public. Members of the public and the civil servants are crying because the inflation has become too high, as I am talking to you now, another attention has been distracted by the issue of oil regularization, whether all the subsidy will be removed or not. Nigeria is full of several segments of human challenges, that is why we are urging the National Assembly to hold the bull at the horn by treating the restructuring or referendum because of all of them are for the wellbeing of the masses.
What about the issue of inequality?
This has given rise to too many agitations as the case of Biafra, but the body of CAN in Southeast Zone is saying that there should be dialogue while those who took constitutional oath about security should endeavour to live up to their expectations. Dialogue, prayer and leadership are needed to brace up with the security challenge, those who have something to do with our economy should also do something about the inflation, we have been talking about N30,000 minimum wage, up till now, the issue has not been resolved and the inflation is going high regularly. The market is decreasing and the yearnings of the civil servants about the minimum wage have not been addressed, oil subsidy has come up and now another problem is oil which is more terrible, actually our problem is complex. The major cause of every agitation is poverty, if the Federal Government can embark on infrastructure and other projects capable of creating jobs, once one has infrastructure where there will be an enabling environment for companies to be built and if grants can be given to people, the agitations will end because the problem came up as a result of the hunger in the land, the youths are agitating because there is no job, no security, there is inflation and for the reason that the wellbeing of the people is no longer considered, there are several elements of agitation. For instance, when husband and wife are fighting for something, it may be that the man is a drunk, not living up to his parental responsibility, the woman is a gossip, there is no food on the table or the children are not helping matters, but once the people begin to live comfortably, the agitation will end.
What about items on the exclusive list?
When an item is said to be in exclusive list, it means that it is not in the list to be discussed, it is exclusive for the Federal Government, let us assume that we have a United States of Nigeria, mineral deposits can be removed easily from the exclusive list, as it is now, no state can mine the mineral resources because it is a part of the Federal Government. Before one can excavate any deposit, the person will obtain license from the Ministry of Mining in Abuja while the state which the mineral resources is embedded is being ravaged by poverty, this is why we are saying that there should be federating states. If the federating system is allowed in Nigeria, Ebonyi State will be the richest in the country because if not for exclusive list, it has 36 mineral deposits and none of them is being mined by the governor simply because the minerals belong directly to the Feder Ģovernment. It is on this note that I said, the problem of Nigeria is not in the grammar rather the constitution, when once it is exhumed in the constitution where each state can tap what it is blessed with and pay taxes to the Federal Government, everybody will see the difference. In this case, we can’t mine, but we can only suffer the hazards and environmental pollution because of the exclusive list, this is why everyone runs to Abuja, but if the system is in order, every state will be paying tithe to the Federal Government, the situation of travelling to collect allocation won’t be obtainable again.
How do you view rotational presidency or the position of the political parties on zoning?
The problem is in the constitution because democracy means that the people have power to decide, but in this case, it is the political parties that have power to decide because there is no constitutional provision for zoning, it is not constitutional and for that reason, nobody can contest it in any law court since it is a mere party arrangement and that is the challenge and lacuna in the constitution. The zoning boils down to dialogue, if any party fails to zone it, one won’t do anything, even in the zoning, if anyone or groups grab another party, the people can decide to vote against the zone, in this case dialogue is needed at the party level and the zonal level and the only power in this regard is Permanent Voters Card (PVC), followed by dialogue. During primaries, the delegates have vital role to play, which means we are at the mercy of the constitution and once the document is set aright by reviewing all the problems, other issues emanating from the area will be solved and the zoning will also be enshrined in the constitution.
What about the issue of direct primaries?
The political parties have so much power because the masses can’t do anything until the primaries are done and members of the public do not have any power to vote beyond what they are given at the primaries. In the Western countries, there is two party system, either one is a democrat or a republican, but in Nigeria, there were over one hundred parties before, now it has been trimmed down to around 18 and in spite of all these, at the end, the people will come out with kangaroo primaries. The choice of candidate is another factor because they will choose he who services the party with his wealth at the expense of a qualified candidate undermining the fact that the primary elections have always been the determinant factor in choosing the leaders, therefore, this is why there is an agitation to look into the party primaries. In overseas, elections are done with electronic, but in Nigeria, we are avoiding it because the people have the means to manipulate their ways, with electronic voting where one can vote at the comfort of his home, corruption will be minimized. That is why I am saying that the solution to our problem is God and constitutional review.
Establishing state police, does it pose any danger?
If there is United States of Nigeria, Ebonyi State can have its police, look after itself and generate allocation, but without being federated, the politicians will take over the police, we are not yet fit to have state police because it will be politicized, whoever that is in power will use the agency against his opponents and the masses. Now, police do listen to Inspector General (IG), but under a federating unit, they will be listening to the governors. In summary, we shall get there, there are still reasons Nigeria is better than most of other Africa nations, at least we are free, but some other countries are not. The Federal Government should improve on infrastructural provisions and provide jobs for the youths. I am charging our religious leaders to always preach hard work, morality, fear of God, security and the politicians to consider constitutional review as primary.
