National Conference a must, says Soyinka
Prof. Soyinka
By Ozolua Uhakheme and Wale Adepoju
Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka yesterday said Nigeria needs to convoke a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) to resolve its problems .
Soyinka spoke yesterday in Lagos, at the post-humous birthday of Martin Luther King Jr and the American Civil Rights Movement (ACRM), organised by the Public Affairs Section of the United States (U.S.) Consulate-General in Lagos and the Freedom Park.
On Boko Haram, he said, its activities were progressing towards secession because of the way the sect members have been driving people out of some states in the North.
Speaking on the theme: Martin Luther King: The quest for Justice, Tolerance and American Civil Rights Movement, Soyinka said Nigeria was conceived through fiat.
He said the country’s constitution was not established in freedom, hence the need to have a truly Sovereign National Conference that would be comprehensive and all-inclusive.
“There was a fundamental cheat behind the way the constitution was formulated. It should be established in freedom and not something forced down our throat”, he added.
According to the literay giant, the federal system of government in the country was not suitable.
Comparing the civil rights movement of the U.S. and Nigeria, he said, they were not equal but were driving force meant to effect changes in the societies.
Soyinka said the march on the streets of Washington DC by King Jr and other activists was similar to the Ojota protests, saying: “Peace and justice are twins but not identical.”
The professor said peace was never real without justice, saying certain values were seen as the enemies of peace.
He praised King Jr for his non-violence approach to protest, saying it did not mean he was not a combatant but the methodology was different.
Soyinka said King Jr demonstrated the power of the mind and will to resist oppressive government.
Source: The Nation, 25th January 2012.
Nigeria is already disintegrating – Soyinka
By Prisca Sam-Duru
LAGOS — Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, said, yesterday, that despite the fact that there is no formal break up of the country, the nation was already disintegrating due to the refusal of the government to embrace national dialogue.
Soyinka said this while speaking on “The quest for justice, tolerance and non-violent change” at a presentation highlighting Dr Martin Luther King jr and the American civil rights movement, organised by the Public Affairs Section of the US Consulate General in Lagos at the Freedom Park, Lagos.
According to him, “the presidential system of government is totally unfitted to the governance of Nigerians. The legislators have become a bastion of corruption while the system operational in the country encourages corruption.”
Dr.Joe Okei-Odumakin, Prof.Wole Soyinka and Past.Tunde Bakare during A Town Hall
Meeting by the Save Nigeria Group and Allies in Lagos
Soyinka, who maintained his stance on Sovereign National Conference as panacea to salvaging Nigeria from total collapse said: “We can even remove the word sovereign, there is need for national dialogue because if we don’t have a national dialogue, we will have monologues. Public detonators are monologues, Boko Haram is a hyper active secession by their expelling people in some states, purging it of the people who they believe don’t share their ideologies.
“Zamfara State, during the last tenure of government, led in declaring itself a theocratic state and had some other states joining. Those are monologues. Despite loss of lives and traumatisation, the cravings for the emancipation of Blacks were a remarkable struggle on the part of the American civil rights as their struggle for justice, peace and equity paid off.
“What we have now is not a constitution because it was handed over to us by a bunch of neocolonialists in military uniform; they worked out that constitution. So, we need a single constitution binding all major issues in the country.”
Soyinka, who noted that the recent industrial action by civil societies and Labour was a necessary struggle for justice and prosperity, also cited the Nigerian civil war as a clear case of quest for justice and equity on the part of Biafrans, pointing out that although he is not strictly pro-Biafra, he was against the injustice meted on Biafrans since it is morally right to want to secede.
He also recounted the degradation that existed during the segregation of Blacks not only in the Western world but here in Nigeria during British rule which regrettably, he argued, is still existing among Nigerians.
Source: Vanguard, 25th January 2012.
Anyaoku calls for confab over nation’s woes
FROM LAWRENCE NJOKU (ENUGu)
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FORMER Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, yesterday canvassed the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference to discuss Nigeria’s problems even as he reeled out the benefits of a united nation.
Anyaoku spoke as chairman at the 41st Convocation Lecture of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka delivered by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He spoke against the backdrop of bombings in major cities of North by the Boko Haram sect and the “growing fissiparous tendencies”.
According to Anyaoku, “We must never forget the advantages offered by the demography of Nigeria. There are advantages for development of the self and actualisation of the collective.”
Even so, Anyaoku said he must “warn about the seriousness of current developments especially the continuing threat to the security of the citizenry and integrity of the state.”
These developments, Anyaoku stressed, have brought “added urgency to the need for a national conference of the representatives of the people of Nigeria to discuss the root challenges to the cohesion and unity of Nigeria.”
Anyaoku also urged leaders in every capacity in the Northern part of the country “to recognise the agony and anger of relatives of victims of the bombings” by Boko Haram in all parts of the country.
He recommended that Northern leaders should convene a meeting with the Federal Government to address the challenge posed by the Boko Haram to the security and well-being of Nigeria.
The ex-envoy also had words of consolation for Obasanjo whom he referred to as his friend and in-law.
According to him, the controversies around the two-time President of Nigeria are not unusual.
He added: “It is a common phenomenon all over the world that national leaders become subject of controversy in their nations in the first 10 years after leaving office. Obasanjo fits the pattern.”
In the case of Obasanjo, however, Anyaoku said that in time to come, dispassionate chroniclers of the history of Nigeria would “judge as truly outstanding the contributions of Obasanjo to our still faltering steps towards building the Nigeria of our dreams.”
Source: The Guardian, 27th January 2012.
Ismaila Isa: North not afraid of sovereign conference
Written by Abdul-Rahman Abubakar
Political leaders of the Northern part of the country are not afraid to discuss the future of Nigeria at the so-called sovereign national conference, Chairman of Bullet Construction, Malam Samaila Isa, said yesterday.
Speaking at the 9th Annual Daily Trust Dialogue, Isa said some political leaders from other parts of the country have turned the issue of sovereign national conference into a sectional agitation.
“If somebody wants a sovereign national conference in Nigeria, do you think those of us from this part of the country will say no? The person is welcome.
“What is sovereign national conference? People just want to lead some group of people. I am not being parochial and anybody who knows me knows that I have crossed that boundary, but if anybody wants sovereign national conference so be it.”
Isa said the North could survive without oil revenue. “We have land, we can feed ourselves. Is oil not a curse on us?”
He said elder statesmen and political leaders from all sections must refrain from making comments that could aggravate tension in the country.
Reacting to an advertorial by elders from a section of the country claiming blood affinity to President Goodluck Jonathan, he said “many of those that signed their names on that paid advert, some of us who know them closely were not surprised.
“But, there are few of them that we were surprised by virtue of what position they held in this country, they should be the last people to get involved in such a thing, even if it is going to be done.”
Isa said there are however an editorial in a newspaper owned by a South-south indigene and comments by some individuals that proved that such ‘elders’ lacked support of the majority for the position they took.
Source: Daily Trust, 27th January 2012.