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Consensus on National Conference (3)
•Continued
from yesterday
By Chukwuemeka
Ezeife
One-term office
bearing
The lobby for
one-term elective-chief-executive-office-holding is not only strong; it is also
reasonable, given our present situation. However, the constitutional provisions
on this should be made transitional, and subject to review after a given number
of years - perhaps the same period of time after which the provision on
rotation of executive leadership (proposed below) should be reviewed. For legislators,
a two- term limit may be reasonable also as a transitional provision. The
proposal (below) on women empowerment for elective (legislative} offices, may
also be transitional.
"Routinising
routinisables"
Nigerians, at the
National Conference, should identify tension-generating matters, from states to
zonal and to national levels. Looking forward, and thinking creatively with
flexibility, they should find ways to diffuse the tension, by
“routinising all routinisables” in the political process.
Let's liberate the
eagle to zoom off This is in the interest of every group in Nigeria. Only
emotion and shortsightedness can be on the way. In devising solutions, we
should have our minds fixed on Nigeria, what can work, even if what we end up
with is innovative, unconventional, rigid, has never been tried any where in
the world etc. Is it suited to our condition? Can it work routinely? Can it be
sustained? These are the relevant questions, not whether an issue is so handled
in Europe or Uruguay.
(a) Rotation of
leadership
One of such
tension-generating matters is the issue of executive headship at the local,
state, zonal and, especially, the national levels. This appears to call for
some transitional provision in the constitution. It appears reasonable to say
that pending the evolvement of national coherence, executive power positions,
especially at the national level, should be packaged into the same number as
there are principal federating units and rotated, in a defined sequence, among
the zones. The zone, which will produce the executive head of the federal
government, may have other executive positions added to it. The other executive
positions should be packaged for the rest of the zones. The sequence of
rotation should be defined in the constitution; the provision should be
reviewed at the completion of each sequence of rotation. Similar provisions may
be made for other tiers of government. Economic growth and development should
be the dominant objectives at this stage of our nation. We should, therefore,
be ready to sacrifice some political niceties as we focus on the more crucial
national economic objective.
(b) Citizenship right
Another
conflict-generating issue is citizenship rights. Persons who were born in a
place or have been resident and meeting their civic duties like paying income
taxes in the place for a given number of years, say 5 years, should
automatically acquire full citizenship and indigene rights in the place,
subject only to such persons not being qualified to represent the zone for
executive headship of Nigerian government during the transitional period.
Myopic thinkers may see this provision as serving the interest of Eastern
peoples who have voted with their feet for one Nigeria and have borne the brunt
of Nigeria being kept as one. They should think again.
Reform of the
electoral system
a) Power back to
the people
Basic to democracy
is the people’s power to choose their representatives, who govern them,
who use their political power, that is, their leaders. Today, most Nigerian
electorate have no say as to who is said to represent them. Whether they vote
or do not vote in elections is largely of no consequence. Their votes do not
count. In many parts of the country, political campaigning has become an
anachronism or just a make-belief. The electoral process should be reformed to
return power to the people.
(b) Deepening
intra-party democracy
Returning power truly
to the people is not a political party affair. The parties should have no
choice on the procedure through which their interested and qualified members
(those who satisfy the conditions of the party as eligible members) should
emerge to contest for office at general elections. That should not be part of
the internal affairs of the political parties. A law should provide the process
for the selection of persons who should participate, as candidates, in general
elections. To return power to the people, that law should make the direct
primary system, the only way aspirants' can emerge, as candidates and it should
empower qualified party members to freely participate in such primary
elections. Those who win automatically become candidates and do not need to
have their candidacy submitted to the electoral authority (which should be part
of the process) by their parties. Everything concerning the emergence of a
person as candidate for general election should be covered by the national law
and made mandatory on the political parties, which may copy such procedures
into their constitutions.
On the internal
party elections, the party constitutions should be clear on the rules, but
whether such rules have been properly followed is not the internal affair of
the parties. The rule of law (of rule), and due process, must apply
universally.
(C) Dealing with
electoral offences
The electoral law
must define clearly the many forms and dimensions of electoral offences. The
responsibilities of the agents and their principals must be stated clearly.
Punishment, which should include exclusion or prohibition from participation in
future political processes, should be tied to the offences.
Political
empowerment of women
Women, especially
women as mothers, bear the brunt of bad government. They absorb the
frustrations of all the members of the family, in addition to their own. Women
should, therefore, have vested interest in good governance. And women, as a
rule and on the average, have greater integrity, and play more by the rules,
than men. These two positive attributes of women justify their increased
involvement in appointive and elective political positions in government for
the good of the society. To empower women for appointive positions poses no
problems. Many are highly educated and experienced. The empowerment of women
for elective office is more difficult but the method for doing so had been
proposed (by me) for some years now. The political parties cannot do it without
doing violence to the democratic principle. Only the constitution, or the
electoral law, can do it. It can work this way: where it is desired to have, at
least, one quarter of the legislators as women, it requires that for every
three free constituencies, i.e., constituencies in which men and women can vie,
a woman-exclusive constituency should be created. For example, there are three
senatorial constituencies in each state; these are free constituencies. The
whole state i.e. the three free constituencies together, shall become one
woman-exclusive senatorial constituency. Where we want to ensure that women
should hold one-third of the legislative positions, the number of
"free" women-exclusive constituencies should be two to one. In this
case, again using the Senate, the state is divided into two free senatorial
constituencies, while the whole state becomes a woman-exclusive senatorial
constituency. It is easy to see how this applies to Council, House of Assembly,
and House of Representative constituencies. With this arrangement, no man can
claim that any woman has unfairly or undemocratically taken his place. And, of
course, those women who need no concessions have the free constituencies to vie
for. A fair system to empower women, democratically, for the office of chief
executive has not been, and may never be, devised.
A chance to
begin again
The National
Conference provides Nigeria a chance to begin again in peace. The lesson of
history is that efforts to perpetuate unfair advantages have laid peoples
waste. If the peace way is not allowed, a non-peace way will force its way. A
time comes when frustrated people shop for death, in just any combat, just or
not. Dying in combat, any combat, is more honourable than committing suicide,
or dying miserably of hunger.
•
Concluded
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