A former Chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), Comrade Mashood Erubami, has said that a move by some political groups to select another set of 120 eminent personalities to restart dialogue on the problems of Nigeria amount to chasing shadows, inappropriate and self-serving.
He said on Tuesday in Abuja that the best way forward will be to rally forces together to call for the implementation of the recommendations of the past National political conferences.
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According to Erubami, who is currently the President and Convener, Nigeria Voters Assembly (VOTAS), the new attempt by the Nigeria Political Summit Group (NPSG) and the National Consultative Front (NCF) to convey an emergency National Dialogue on the constitutional future of Nigeria today, which will not be different from the National Assembly’s recurring attempt to embark on another endless constitutional amendment.
“There is no way the 120 ‘Wise Men and Women’ to be selected will come outside those that have contributed to national issues in the past, except the congregation is for new political purposes, another veiled attempt to derail the current agitations for the implementation of past political conferences.
“The eminence and sterling qualities of those to be included in the list alone cannot guarantee the viability and workability of Nigeria unless and until the birth defects of this country since 1914 are corrected, that is misleading appellation of Nigeria as a Federal state must be removed, to adopt real federalism as the best way to go in a multi ethnic country. Regionalism must be reinstated and scattered states already created should be made to work under those regions,” Erubami said.
The renowned pro-democracy and human rights activists said that Nigerians are tired and cannot afford to continue amending a faulty constitution leaving the defects unaltered, as the 1999 constitution has been found to contain serial defects which can only be removed through effecting fundamental changes in its structure.
He said that these changes are contained in the recommendations of past conferences and that only sincere restructuring of the minds and consciences of Nigerians, political leaders and the country’s governance systems, can bring about the changes that have been debated enough for correction through the past national political conferences.
“The National Assembly, instead of embarking on another Constitutional amendment jamboree, should be courageous to ask the President for the proceedings and recommendations of the past two political conferences, review and align their contents for final implementation.
“The examples of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Jonathan Goodluck conferences provided the best examples of conferences that can heal the known wounds on each ethnic nationality. The conferences were quite representative and addressed the issues then, what remains is the politically willed of implementation,” Erubami said.
