[Dr. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund, the University of Cambridge, the Brookings Institution, Swarthmore College and University of Oxford. All Progressives Congress website, http://www.allprogressivescongress.org, while not agreeing with the opinions expressed by Professor Soludo. APC hereby publishes this article to encourage mature debate on the Nigerian situation before the Presidential elections and would happily publish a counterpoint or similarly reasoned presentations of issues facing Nigeria. Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu]
Buhari vs Jonathan: Beyond the Election
by Charles Soludo
I need to preface this article with a few clarifications. I have taken a long sabbatical leave from partisan politics, and it is real fun watching the drama from the balcony. Having had my own share of public service (I do not need a job from government), I now devote my time and energy in pursuit of other passions, especially abroad.
A DUTY TO SHARE CONCERNS
A few days ago, I read an article in This Day entitled “Where is Charles Soludo?”, and my answer is that I am still there, only that I have been too busy with extensive international travels to participate in or comment on our national politics and economy. But I occasionally follow events at home. Since the survival and prosperity of Nigeria are at stake, the least some of us (albeit, non-partisan) must do is to engage in public debate. As the elections approach, I owe a duty to share some of my concerns. In September 2010, I wrote a piece entitled “2011 Elections: Let the Real Debate Begin” and published by This Day. I understand the Federal Executive Council discussed it, and the Minister of Information rained personal attacks on me during the press briefing. I noted more than six newspaper editorials in support of the issues we raised. Beside other issues we raised, our main thesis was that the macro economy was dangerously adrift, with little self-insurance mechanisms (and a prediction that if oil prices fell below $40, many state governments would not be able to pay salaries). I gave a subtle hint at easy money and exchange rate depreciations because I did not want to panic the market with a strong statement. Sadly, on the eve of the next elections, literally everything we hinted at has happened. Part of my motivation for this article is that five years after, the real debate is still not happening.
FOR BUHARI OR JONATHAN: A PYRRHIC VICTORY
The presidential election next month will be won by either Buhari or Jonathan. For either, it is likely to be a pyrrhic victory. None of them will be able to deliver on the fantastic promises being made on the economy, and if oil prices remain below $60, I see very difficult months ahead, with possible heady collisions with labor, civil society, and indeed the citizenry. To be sure, the presidential election will not be decided by the quality of ‘issues’ or promises canvassed by the candidates. The debates won’t also change much (except if there is a major gaffe by either candidate like Tofa did in the debate with Abiola). My take is that more than 95% of the likely voters have pretty much made up their minds based largely on other considerations. A few of us remain undecided.
MAJOR CHALLENGES AHEAD
During my brief visit to Nigeria, I watched some of the campaign rallies on television. The tragedy of the current electioneering campaigns is that both parties are missing the golden opportunity to sensitize the citizenry about the enormous challenges ahead and hence mobilize them for the inevitable sacrifices they would be called upon to make soon. Each is promising an El-Dorado. Let me admit that the two main parties talk around the major development challenges – corruption, insecurity, economy (unemployment/poverty, power, infrastructure, etc.) health, education, etc. However, it is my considered view that none of them has any credible agenda to deal with the issues, especially within the context of the evolving global economy and Nigeria’s broken public finance.
The UK Conservative Party’s manifesto for the last election proudly announced that all its programs were fully costed and were therefore implementable. Neither APC nor PDP can make a similar claim. A plan without the dollar or Naira signs to it is nothing but a wish-list. They are not telling us how much each of their promises will cost and where they will get the money. None talks about the broken or near bankrupt public finance and the strategy to fix it. (more…)
THE FUTURE OF THE NIGERIAN NATION: Structure and Governance System for Nigeria’s Six Zones by Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu
Abstract:
The Igbos of the Lower Niger River, like the Hausas in the Upper Niger stretching to Niger, Chad and Sudan, Fula in Guinea, the Yoruba in the West of the River Niger extending to Benin Republic, like other ethnic nationalities, existed and had a structure and governance system before the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, where Europeans, in a scramble for Africa, partitioned and destroyed African nations’ respective self-governance and autonomy leading in 1914 to the Amalgamation by Britain of the Southern and Northern Protectorates to create an unstable entity that is called today Nigeria.
Independence in 1960 added political instability to the centrifugal forces of geography and ethnicity. Rather than wish away one hundred years of an acrimonious marriage blessed with children, even if they are quarrelsome, Nigeria needs decolonization. To realize this, we start from the known and generally accepted to the unknown – the entrenchment of the Six Zone structure as a basis for a confederation and a transformation and renaming of “Nigeria” to create federating units based on the Zonal structure, with the Southeast Zone for example, transforming itself following a referendum to Ala Igbo (Igbo Nation). Other zones will have the right to exercise similar options. Nigeria, thus decolonized, ceases to exist, becomes transformed into the United Nations of Africa.
This leaves open the possibility of other African nations joining the Union. This paper attempts to provide a structure and governance system for such an Igbo Nation (Ala Igbo) and further postulates that with a similar decolonization of other amalgams created by Europeans as perpetually warring states in Africa and their unending internal squabbles and civil wars, a real United Nations of Africa will be created that respects individual freedom and ethnic sensibilities while laying the groundwork – the vision of Kwame Nkrumah, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Sekou Toure, Patrice Lumumba, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Emperor Haile Selassie, Marcus Garvey, William Du Bois, etc. – for a United Nations of Africa for the glory of Africa at home and the diaspora.– Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu
Speech By General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, Chairman Of The Board Of Trustees Of The Congress For Progressive Change, CPC, At The Party’s National Dissolution Convention In Abuja, May 11, 2013
With your permission, Mr Chairman, I would like to begin by welcoming all the CPC delegates to this historic occasion. And our special welcome goes out to our friends and colleagues from sister-parties, notably Chief Bisi Akande, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Musa Gwadabe, Dr. Yakubu Lame, Governors Raji Fashola and Ibikunle Amosun, former Governors Achike Udenwa, Segun Osoba and Chris Ngige, Alhaji Lai Mohammed of the ACN, Senator Ahmed Sani, Yariman Bakura, of the ANPP, and Owelle Rochas Okorocha of APGA.
2. But before I deliver my speech, I would like all of us here and across the country to reflect on the seriousness of the security situation in the country today. Some areas of the nation are virtual war zones in a country supposedly at peace. Whole local governments in some states in the North East are no-go areas to representatives of constituted authority. Marauders of every description armed to the teeth with all manner of sophisticated armaments roam the national landscape with total and murderous impunity. The patience of this nation and the various communities within it has been severely tried and stretched to its limits. And there is no end in sight.
3. Anarchy is knocking on the door of many sections of this country and the Federal government has not demonstrated that it has the good sense to understand what is going on, or the competence to check it. The nation is hopelessly adrift. But, if we are to survive, this vicious circle of violence that has engulfed this nation must be brought to an end; and we implore the National Assembly to take the lead in this quest for peace. I am sure everybody in this gathering will join me in expressing sympathy for, and solidarity with, the good people of Borno, Yobe, Kano, and now, Nasarawa and Benue states on their suffering and travails.
4. Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests and fellow delegates, we must explore every opportunity to save our country. This is a historic moment when several different political parties have resolved to come together to change Nigeria for the better and stop the mindless drift that has been going on for the last fourteen years. We must understand and accept that we are here gathered to make history or forever stand accused and condemned by it. We must seize this moment that calls for patriotism and sacrifice—it is time to sacrifice everything—time , resources, ambition and ego—for the greater good. We should carry this process through to a successful conclusion, and leave our legacy and foot-prints on the history of Nigeria.
5. Many political analysts have long stated that the only way to stabilize the country is for opposition parties to merge and oust the ruling PDP. In 2010, during the run-up to the elections of 2011, ACN and CPC inaugurated committees to explore ways and means of merging into a single political party.
6. We have gone to the extent of developing a flag, a logo, a name and have even proceeded to discuss with the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, about the modalities of consummating our plans; but time proved too short, and we were not about to give too many hostages to fortune.
7. So the present move is really a continuation of the efforts begun in 2010; and this time we have started early, following the rules step by step. On its part, the CPC has, within the last two months, established the following committees with appropriate terms of reference:
Merger Committee;
Convention Committee;
Membership and Registration Committee;
Contact and Mobilization Committee; and
Publicity Committee;
8. The objective of these committees is to prepare CPC for the proposed merger; and these committees have satisfactorily concluded their assignments and their proposals have been submitted to NEC and to the Board of Trustees, and these are now being presented to you, the National Convention, the highest policy making body of our party. Other parties have fast-tracked their processes and some have even held their conventions. So far, so good. No doubt, all the parties joining to form APC are coming in as equals; but, realistically, we all know that some are more equal than others. Nevertheless, every joining party will bring its peculiar strengths to this union and together we will, in every sense of the word, be too strong for the ruling party to resist. With this, we believe the time for real change has finally come to Nigeria—and it must change now before it become too late. The government has failed in almost everything; it has proved unable to secure the nation’s internal environment: there is insecurity everywhere. There is spiraling lawlessness all over the country. There is widespread and rising poverty and unemployment across the length and breadth of the country. There is a complete and total decline in the quality of social services and an irremediable dilapidation in the nation’s socio-economic infrastructure across board.
9. There is an unprecedented fall in the nation’s standard of living and an astronomical rise in the standard of dying. In short, today, there is nothing going right; and we have become a nation in which nothing works as it should, that is, if it works at all. When they said they have what they call a Transformation Agenda, we didn’t understand, but we now know better; because, within the space of three years, they have transformed the country into a veritable wilderness, where everything that should work, doesn’t; where everything that can get broken, has.
10. They promised to give the nation credible elections; they couldn’t deliver. They promised to fight corruption, they couldn’t deliver. They promised to stop the insurgency, and they couldn’t deliver. This nation is witness to the fact that whenever we promised, we delivered. And today, I promise you most solemnly that we shall confront and eliminate corruption in the electoral process. We shall confront and eliminate corruption in the judicial process; and we shall most assuredly confront and eliminate it in the conduct of government business.
11. All these evils derive and draw inspiration from a government that is itself immersed to its neck in a cesspool of corruption; and is best characterized by its own favourite catchphrases: whether it is ‘Do or die,’ or ‘We will rule forever,’ or ‘No vacancy in Aso Rock,’ or they want to ‘fight to finish,’ it is the same thing—something that could never be uttered by true democrats. Their behaviour, language and body language are in complete and total disregard for democratic norms and the ordinary decencies of civilized conduct.
12. We intend to provide a government of different quality and tone to the people of Nigeria, one that will tackle the problem of insecurity, solve the perennial issue of incessant power failure, arrest the shameful deterioration in the standard of education, confront the decline in agricultural production head-on, and stop the collapse of commerce and industry.
13. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow CPC members on behalf of the Board of Trustees of our party, I commend the proposals shortly to be put before you. The best way to eliminate this government that has not brought anything to Nigerians except thievery of resources and violence is to accept to merge our parties. And we only elect to do this because that is what we believe to be in the best interest of the majority of the people of this country.
14. And I would like to end by once again thanking our steadfast supporters—you, the ordinary folks—who have been the unbreakable backbone of this struggle, from the time we started this journey in APP to ANPP and then to CPC. You did not do it for material gain; otherwise, you will have turned your backs on us. No doubt, you decided to stay the course as a mark of respect for our stand, and possibly knowing that we would never let you down. You relied on our judgment to forge ahead through the thicket of the country’s corruption-lade n politics. This we have tried to do to the best of our ability, and will continue to do so until the masses of this country secure a fair deal from those who lead them. What we desire is democracy and freedom for all our people. And in this struggle, we think we have done our bit.
15. At its formation, the CPC became the greatest crowd-pulling party in the nation’s political history; and within six months of its registration, and in spite of all the rigging of the poll and the snatching of its votes, it was still able to get more than 12 million votes in the 2011 presidential election. After the merger, the sky will be the limit.
16. While thanking you again, I implore you not to relent as we embark on yet another move in the search for a better tomorrow for our country, Nigeria. We are now in the final stages of the move that will culminate in the merger of our party—the CPC—with three other parties. We join this effort compromising none of our principles but yielding to the belief that our diverse efforts, applied in unison, will help arrest the rot that has become our lot.
17. We go into this new arrangement still loyal to you and committed to what you stand for.
From L to R: Chief Tony Momoh, Gen. Buhari & Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu
We go into this arrangement conscious of our responsibilities to you and grateful for all the sacrifices you have been making since the beginning of our journey. We count on you, as we have always done, to guide, support and defend our position. We will strive to work hard to expand and level the democratic playing field in accordance with the dictates of the rule of law. We declare that we are in this together—and together we shall remain to the end.
18. We played by the rules and we accepted to play alongside those who didn’t; because
Brigadier General Buba Marwa and Mallam Nasir El Rufai
we believed our participation was giving millions hope that positive change will come along the way. Now change has finally come; and they cannot stop it. And we are putting the current leadership of this nation on notice that our people will no longer tolerate its corruption or the rigging, vote thievery and general impunity that have become the norm and standard practice during elections in this country.
19. We have resolved that henceforth our votes must all be counted—and they must all go on to count. And we declare that this nation has now resolved, through its united opposition, that it will never again tolerate or allow to pass the mayhem the government deliberately creates in order to cover up its guilt, obscure the issues and then blame the opposition in order to deceive gullible folks. And we will no longer be intimidated by anyone.
Thank you very much for your patience and attention. May God bless us.
General Muhammdu Buhari, GCFR
Delegates at the CPC ConventionConvention crowd at Eagle SquareSalim Farouk and Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu in Abuja- US Delegates to CPC Dissolution ConventionMore Delegates at CPC ConventionMore Delegates at CPC Convention
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