22052021

More documents

Recommendations

Info

SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22, 2021—9 Our lawmakers cannot initiate change, they’re strangers to us, Nigerians lament •Say they’re inaccessible to their constituents •They’re benefiting from the corrupt govt system •Engage in meaningless discussions, centred on their own needs •They’re rubber stamp NASS, timid, lethargic •Nigeria is bleeding, govt must rise to the occasion •We need the president, not presidency to address us, answer questions •Senate President, Ahmed Lawan By Dayo Johnson; Samuel Oyadongha;Vincent Ujumadu;Wole Mosadomi; Festus Ahon; Umar Yusuf; Tina Akannam; Peter Duru; Marie- Therese Nanlong; Peter Okutu; Rotimi Ojomoyela; Ugochukwu; Alaribe; Charly Agwam; Dennis Agbo; Femi Bolaji; Ozioruva Aliu; James Ogunnaike; Chioma Onuegbu; Shina Abubakar; Ibrahim HassanWuyo; Steve Oko; Ikechukwu Odu &Chinedu Adonu Following unceasing agitations for self determination by some sections of the country, the presidency recently argued that only lawmakers as the representatives of the people have the mandate to effect whatever change they desired in the country. Some people are asking for the restructuring of the country or fiscal federalism with full autonomy for the regions. Others are agitating for self rule, or separate nations out of Nigeria. The presidency therefore tasked the various groups to make all their demands through their representatives at the national assembly. The residents however did not find the presidency’s advice funny. According to them, although the legislators were elected to represent their constituencies, they pursue their personal interests and not those of the electorate who elected them. The respondents lamented that in as much as they would want a change in the structure of the government in the country, the current legislators can’t legislate themselves out of office as they are currently benefiting from the corrupt political system. Their fears were confirmed last week Thursday, about two weeks after they said they had given up hope on their lawmakers when both Senate President, Ahmad Lawan spoke against the restructuring of the country which the agitators have been calling for. The southern governors had , asked the Federal Government to among other things restructure Nigeria. But Lawan faulted the call saying the governors were trying to take the country back to the regional era accusing them of playing to the gallery as they failed to first restructure their own state. It will be recalled that the All Progressives Congress, APC, Committee on Restructuring led by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State submitted its recommendations to the National Assembly but the lawmakers had refused to touch the report. Similarly, the APC as a party had shown no interest in restructuring three years after the El-Rufai Committee endorsed true federalism. The people therefore want the government to dust the report of the 2014 Constitutional Conference and similar reports and effect the desired change that will bring smiles on their faces. Nigeria’s ex envoy to the Philippines, Dr Yemi Faroumbi said, ordinarily in a normal society, the lawmaker has the responsibility of making cases for the desires and working to reduce the pain of members of his constituency. In any other society, given the amount of heat that is being generated in the political atmosphere, the lawmakers would have assembled the wishes of their constituents and would have presented them in the National Assembly. If Nigerians are asking for new constitution, reorganization or restructuring, if they are asking for a new arrangement that will help to protect lives and property of the people, members of the National Assembly need no prompting for them to enact law that will make the situation better for their constituents, but what do we have? Lamentation by the National Assembly, people who ought to aggregate the grief of Nigerians and make laws that will represent that grief and present the new law to the President to accent and now let us see whether the executive will refuse to accept it. “These are people who ought to have •Gbjabiamila •Ndume restructured Nigeria, who ought to have risen in Nigeria beyond the partisan and marginal amendments that they have been making, but they have not done their job. “They have opportunity to be remembered for life for being the legislature that gave answers to Nigerian questions, they ought to have taken that step that will be remembered as the legislature that provided solutions for the problems of the people, that removed the tears from the eyes of people and remove the •Omo-Agege •James Manager fears from the minds of people. So what do we have? Meaningless chat, meaningless discussions that are centred around their own needs, rather than the wishes and the desires of the people”. In his own submission, human Rights Activist, Dr Akpo Mudiaga-Odje, said: “we have always channeled our agitations and apprehensions through our elected Representatives. However, that procedure has largely been unhelpful and ineffective. Our Continues on page 10
10—SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22, 2021 Say they’re inaccessible to their constituents Continues from page 9 lawmakers really do not put our interests first, rather our collective interests are subsumed under their personal interest and as such, we never get any good results back at all. And that is why we are clamouring openly and directly to the presidency about our plight and current state of insecurity in our land. Even though we are still going to channel our demands through our representatives, we shall not stop there, but move on to pressurize the presidency to do the needful. A legal practitioner based in Uyo, Mr Mfon Peters, said “most of our Senators and our House of Representative members are not operating as those sent there to represent their constituents. Most of them are rather promoting their selfish interests. It is so difficult for constituents today to access their representatives. My thinking is that the leadership of this country is not being sincere about solving the problem of the people by pushing people back to their representatives. How many lawmakers visit their constituents with a view to knowing their problems or challenges? Even when your effort to see him or her becomes difficult, and you are asked to drop a letter at the constituency office, you will never get a response because the Senator or House of Representative member never visits that place. It pains that every four years you go to the polls to vote for somebody as your representative, at the end of the day the person is gone, you cannot reach out to him or her again.” Similarly, Comrade Joe Jackson, National President of Niger Delta Youth Movement (NDYM) said, “For me that idea that we should channel our demands through our Representatives is not the best approach. The representatives don’t visit their constituencies. Some stay in Abuja, and even when you drop a letter at their constituency office they won’t look at such letters. When they have few bags of rice and tricycles that they want to give out as empowerment they would claim they are engaging in constituency briefing where constituents would not be able to express their opinions or make demands. The Presidency should not ask us to channel our demands through our lawmakers because we cannot reach out to them and they don’t hold town hall meetings. What we (NDYM) expect is effective representation where lawmakers come down to their constituencies and hold town hall meetings to find out about the needs of the people”. A prominent trader in Minna, Niger state capital, Alhaji Ibrahim Nagogo said Nigerians don’t need to go through anybody including their Representatives before they are governed. The expectation of all Nigerians now is a government that will restore peace in the country, a government that will put food on our tables at minimal cost, a government that will restructure our economy to bring down prices of essential commodities, a government that will stop the incessant strikes in the Education, Health and other sectors among others.” Convener of Youthlead in Nigeria, Comrade Mohammed Saidu Etsu also kicked against channeling their demands through their legislators. He said “We were forcefully brought together by Britain some years back, went through military rule until 1999 when we got full democracy and since then, people have been agitating on how to restructure the country so that every Federating unit will know how to take responsibility of its own state but it is very glaring that the Federal government is not prepared for the restructuring. The Electoral Bill passed by the National Assembly during Dr. Bukola Saraki’s tenure as Senate President was not signed by President Muhammadu Buhari because of their selfish interests whereas the document will be of immense benefit to us and so pushing us back to the legislators again is meaningless because it is recycling the same thing that will not be implemented. If actually we are serious, Nigeria need to be restructured and if we want to do it, there is no better time than now because if we don’t do it now, it is like forcing ourselves on each other and there cannot be peace because nobody is comfortable with each other and if we actually want true Federalism, we need to restructure the country now”, Etsu declared. Speaking in the same vein, former Spokesman of All Progressives Congress,(APC) and former Commissioner of Information in Niger State, Mr.Jonathan Vatsa said instead of calling on agitated Nigerians to go through their Representatives again, the President should dust report of the last Confab submitted and implement. “There is no need going through the Representatives because their election was not through democracy but rigging so, they are going to be manipulated in whatever report they submit. The manifesto of the party,(APC) alone if implemented is enough to transform this country but unfortunately, the manifesto was dumped by powers that be for their selfish interest:” Barrister Iniruo Wills, President Ijaw •Senate President, Ahmed Lawan Professionals Association (Homeland Chapter) submitted that: “We need a democratically constituted sovereign national conference to produce a constitution flowing from “We the People” for the first time in Nigeria’s history, to reform the structure and system of governance in alignment with federalism properly so called, to institute meritocracy, and to make public governance attractive and accessible to serious minded people.” Eric Omare, former President, Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide said: “In any case, how many times has the Presidency even listened to representatives? So from whatever angle you look at it, the statement by the Presidency simply shows that it is not ready to provide leadership by directing Nigerians to direct their grievances to their representatives.” Mr. Joseph Ambakederimo, Convener, South South Reawakening Group in his reaction however believed that: “the system is not the problem, the operators of the system are the problem. The followership too are on one hand the problem. What we are experiencing today does not start today, it is the manifestation of decades of rottenness of wrong doing that we have refused to punish. And until we begin to punish wrong doing in this country nothing will change, even the restructuring people shout about today will not cure anything. Those advocating restructuring have not told us what form would the restructuring take. The President has started the process of restructuring by executive orders he has signed to make the local government tier become independent in order for us to begin to hold that tier of government to account but no one of us Nigerians stood behind him. He did the same for states Houses of Assembly autonomy no one of us stood with him. Same thing he did for the judiciary no one of us stood with him. We all look at Abuja forgetting that we all come from our local community and a local government and a state yet we call Abuja for everything. We have governors who we must hold to account at all times but the citizens are scared to criticise their governors. There is no form of accountability whatsoever at the state level and we think that is normal? The same governors who are calling for state police does not want local government police. Our lawmakers are partly to blame for the situation we find ourselves because many of them at the state level and at the national level hardly understand why they are even called lawmakers. It is a very sorry situation and the Presidency is saying we should engage people The expectation of all Nigerians now is a government that will restore peace in the country, a government that will put food on our tables at minimal cost, a government that will restructure our economy to bring down prices of essential commodities •Gbjabiamila who don’t know their left from their right?.” Former Vice Chancellor of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike MOUAU Professor Hilary Edeoga, advised members of the National Assembly to ensure that true federalism is reflected in the proposed constitutional amendment. Professor Edeoga said that the failure of those in power to allow the practice of true federalism in the country was the reason states run to Abuja every month for allocations. He argued that if the federating states or different regions in the country enjoy a level of independence as they should in ideal federalism, the over dependence on the centre and the excess concentration of power at the centre which is often abused would be avoided. Edeoga blamed youth restiveness, agitations and some deviant activities on the deficiencies of the current flawed constitution which he said could no longer be sustained. “Inequality and injustice are the reasons for all the problems bedeviling Nigeria today, and these must be addressed in the proposed amendment, otherwise it will amount to futile exercise”, he said Similarly, a Professor of Political Science at the Abia State University Uturu, Professor Harts Ofoeze, said the endemic injustices in the country as a result of the current constitution skewed to favour a particular section of the country must be corrected in the proposed amendment if Nigeria must stay united. He said that mere constitutional review would never bring solution to Nigeria’s woes until the fundamental issues of injustice and lopsidedness were genuinely addressed. Ofoeze argued that Nigeria could not be talking of a constitutional amendment without first creating an additional state for the South East to bring the zone at par with other zones. “There should be equal number of states in all the zones for the sake of equity”, he said. He also doubted the ability of the National Assembly as currently constituted to bequeath to the country a workable new constitution. According to him those people going to handle the amendment are part of the problems in the country and will still manipulate it in favour of their region because they are in the majority. “The NASS can’t genuinely give us a type of constitution that will solve the Nigeria equation. The Nigerian people must be part of any genuine efforts to review our constitution. Whatever name they want to give it, the various nationalities in the country must be involved to dialogue and decide how they will be governed”. He however said if they decide to forge ahead, key areas of resource control and fiscal federalism have to be addressed. In his reaction, former Speaker, ECOWAS Parliament, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa advocated for power devolution, saying that the concentration of too much power at the centre was the cause of the friction in the country. Senator Ohuabunwa said certain issues on the exclusive list should be removed and taken to residual list for states to have absolute control over them. The former Leader, House of Representatives also said return to regional structure could help proffer solution to Nigeria’s woes. He advised members of the National Assembly to holistically review the constitution and genuinely address the burning issues, warning that if this last opportunity to avert the looming danger is lost, the country might be headed for implosion. Similarly, the President Coalition of South East Youth Leaders COSEYL, Comrade Goodluck Ibem, demanded devolution of more powers to states. COSEYL also demanded the establishment of state police and increase in revenue sharing formula in favour of states. “We want states to have Anti-Corruption agency Commissions that will ensure that states’ resources are not misappropriated by political office holders. The states should be in charge of security. Our current security challenges would not have been this bad if states were in control of the police and other security agencies. More powers to the states and local governments will bring government and governance nearer to the people. A situation where every thing must come from Abuja is not good for rapid development of the country. The youths and women should be given more opportunity to participate in the government and administration of the country.” Anthony N Z Sani, the immediate past Secretary General of ACF argued that “Nigerians should demand good governance that comes from purposeful leadership in the hope of bringing about a situation whereby politics, economics and morality would intersect for common good. What is more, the term restructuring seems to depend on the agitators. There are those who clamor for true federalism, whatever that means, there are also those who call for fiscal federalism. Yet there are others who agitate for resource control. Still, we have agitators for resource control whereby host communities ask that the 13% derivation be paid to them directly and not to state governments which use it to construct fly overs, five star hotels and airports in the state capitals to the detriment of the host communities of the natural resources. I expect the elected representatives to listen to the demands by their constituents, articulate same and bring to the chambers for effect after deliberations. I understand the concern by some people is in the area of devolution of power through paring down the number of exclusive list in favor of concurrent list,considering some items are better handled by state governments.” Rev John Joseph Hayab, Chairman of CAN,Kaduna state said “the Presidency is simply shying away from engaging citizens on a frank dialogue about Nigeria’s problems and how to find a lasting solution. Telling Nigerians to make demands through their legislators is not appropriate at this time knowing that some of them have cut off with their constituency and what about the constituency where no bye election has been conducted to replace the former who will the people make demands through?There are many previous laws or amendment that this present National Assembly had passed and nothing had been done about them. The Federal Government should instead go back to previous reports of different National Conferences and other Committees set up by Government that contain the larger views of Nigerians with people’s representatives to start the process of restructuring this country. Nigerians have talked, and have documented their views and all we need now is honest action from Government. According to Prima Angyu, “Full autonomy should be granted to the local government system. The same financial independence should also be extended to the judiciary and the legislative arms of government. I also expect the legislators to ensure strict adherence to the federal character principles and putting in place institutions that will truly promote national unity and integration as well as enhancing the secular nature of the nation without promoting one tribe or religion over another. Gabriel Yough on his part said, “I will simply ask for true federalism. The system we are operating at the moment where the cost of governance is the priority of government in power is not sustainable. The constitution should be amended to put more items on the concurrent list for states to produce what will sustain them. The current arrangement where almost all mineral resources are on the exclusive list is inimical to development. The amended constitution should clearly prohibit nepotism which has created suspicion among Nigerians. In fact, nepotism should be criminalised so that Nigerians will be given equal opportunities. Another respondent, Abdulgafar Audu, said “in my humble opinion the real reason behind this uprising isn’t because of distribution of resources or power but lack of law enforcement. The representatives should as a matter of urgency formulate laws that will Continues on www.vanguardngr.com
Page 2 and 3: 2 — SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22, 20
Page 4 and 5: 4 — SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22, 20
Page 6 and 7: SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22, 2021 —
Page 8 and 9: EJIGA FESTUS OKIKI I, formerly addr
Page 12 and 13: SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22, 2021—1
Page 18 and 19: Putting issues at NPA in perspectiv
Page 20 and 21: C M Y K Those who came into this wo
Page 22 and 23: C M Y SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22, 20
Page 28 and 29: Parchive App to eliminate car parki
Page 30 and 31: C M Y K lease allow me to take lite
Page 32 and 33: elieved. I did the victory lap. But

22052021

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?