Daily Independent Online.
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Friday, July 02, 2004.
Pro-democracy groups harmonise views on SNC
By Bolaji Adepegba,
Senior
Correspondent, Lagos
Proponents of a
sovereign national conference (SNC) began harmonising their views on Thursday
to add momentum to their cause to replace an unwieldy, corrupt federal system
with crisp, easy-to-manage regionalism.
Sources said several
modalities for the conference were discussed by the groups at a meeting held in
Kaduna recently under the auspices of the Nigeria United for Democracy (NUD).
It was attended by
pro-democracy arrowhead Anthony Enahoro,
Chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) Balarabe
Musa and others of like minds.
The positions were
generated by a debate on the report presented by the interim committee on the
convocation of the conference, led by Balarabe.
The NUD has said that
it is not possible for the Federal Government to convoke the conference; Abuja
itself insists that such a conference is not feasible with a subsisting
government.
The government, while
agreeing on the need for a discussion of the national problem and the
Constitution, said such a discussion should be held by the National Assembly.
Consequently, Enahoro
said a few weeks ago that the group would hold the conference without recourse
to the Federal Government. Balarabe and other proponents believe that President
Olusegun Obasanjo should resign to facilitate holding the SNC.
After the debate in
Kaduna, the groups appointed a contact committee to harmonise the divergent
views that emerged. University lecturer and President General of the Ijaw
National Conference, Professor Kimse Okoko, chairs the committee. It has two
weeks to gell all the views together.
CNPP Secretary Maxi
Okwu confirmed the development in an interview on Thursday, the same day a
meeting of the steering committee of the SNC was held at the Lagos Airport
Hotel.
However, human rights
lawyer Olisa Agbakoba has said that the need has now arisen for the civil
society groups to be more tolerant of the government and see how they can work
together with it do develop the country.
He said in an
interview in Lagos that the situation that prevailed during the military regime
is no longer there to warrant the use of the old bellicose method in solving
political problems.
To him, holding
rallies to drive home political points is a tool apt for use against military
juntas.
His words: “In
democracy, it is not the same thing. You have to have the numbers. Under the
military, it was a protest. You don’t need numbers but courage. So,
today, I would not be part of any rally until I was absolutely sure that we had
the numbers because not to have the numbers is to show that what you are doing
is not popular. It may not be true but perception will be that it’s
unpopular.
“But under a
military government, the perception will be that you have the courage to say
what we can’t say. People understand that in a military government,
nobody would come out to face the bullet. But in a civil democracy of any type,
people expect that you should say what you are saying on fuel prices or
unemployment.
“And now
let’s say we are going to have a rally at Eagle Square in Abuja and the
ruling party is having a rally down the road. And they show 200,000 people and
you have 5,000 people, you have a lost cause. That’s democracy”.
Agbakoba advocated a
new method to deal with the political and socio- economic situation.
