'National Confab Unconstitutional'
The Special Adviser on Intra-Party Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Lawal Batagarawa, in this interview with JOSEPHINE LOHOR, says agitators for a Sovereign National Conference are calling for the violation of the country's constitution, just as he wonders where they are deriving their legitimacy from
What is your job schedule? My job schedule is to advise and assist the President in smoothening out his relationship with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
How would you describe the relationship between the PDP and the President?
It is very good. It is a quite cordial relationship.
What is your view on the agitation for the convening of National Sovereign Conference because sometime it mellows down and sometime it increases in tempo?
Let me take the concept of Sovereign National Conference. The moment you say it is sovereign, then it means it has all powers of State. In other words, the conference itself would assume the role of governing the country. So, there cannot be a government and the Sovereign National Conference going on at the same time. It is a contradiction.
When people say we want Sovereign National Conference, in effect what they are saying is that the subsisting government should cease to exist so that you have a Sovereign National Conference. In the first instance, that is totally illegal. The basic law of Nigeria is the constitution that has prescribed how a government can come into existence, the responsibilities and how it should be changed. So, the people calling for such a conference are asking the government to violate the constitution by declaring itself to go into extinction and are calling for an unconstitutional act.
This government, the executive, legislature and judiciary, is made up of people with immense political standing, people of credibility and honour who are not prepared to throw that honour done to them by their constituencies and the oath they have taken to defend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The executive and legislature which have been elected have people who are committed to the national unity of this country. One of the fundamental issues raised by the people calling for the Sovereign National Conference is that there is a basis for the existence of Nigeria. The constitution has provided that basis. The history of the Nigerian nation has shown that the people who are situated in a country called Nigeria are determined to stay together in one country as a single, legal and political entity. So, for any body to question this, is doing a great disservice to this country and is denying the history of the people who are populating Nigeria.
In any case, how did they arrive at the decision that the people of Nigeria do not want to live together? Where do these people derive their legitimacy to question the basis of the existence of the Nigerian nation and State? Anything you are going to do, you must derive your legitimacy from somewhere.
But the agitators are drawing representation from across the country for the conference?
Okay, let us even take the method of representation they are talking about. They said it will be a conference of the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. How are these ethnic nationalities defined? How are you going to determine the parameters on the basis of which they would be represented? At what time were these roles and responsibilities given to these people calling for the Sovereign National Conference?
The Vice President recently announced that there would be a National Conference before the end of the tenure of this administration?
Well, what would be the legitimacy of the National Conference? How is it going to derive its powers? How are the components going to be drawn? Who are they going to represent and how are you going to determine that representation? The constitution has given a detailed manner on how constituencies are to be delineated and how they are going to be represented. If you take the National Assembly, the constitution provides two levels of representation; on the basis of equality of States that is the Senate and on the basis of equality of votes. Meaning that your vote, that of the President, the Vice President and an eighteen-year old are all the same.
So, if you are going to call such a conference, how are you going to determine the legitimacy of the people who are going to come because they are saying that they are sovereign?
By using the word sovereign, they are saying that they have thrown out the constitution, they have thrown out the basic law of the country, so who is giving them their legitimacy? You must make a distinction between a workshop, seminar and a conference. We believe in the national unity of Nigeria and are committed to maintaining this. Anybody who is questioning the legitimacy or the basis of the Nigerian unity should not be taken seriously, because he has no legitimate basis of doing that. Look at the movements that have taken place from the North to the South and vice versa. Nigerians have mingled and intermingled with each other in relation to the commerce and trade that has taken place.
Do you not think that most of these agitations arise because most Nigerians are pessimistic about the country and their leaders?
Then, we should not say that we are questioning the basis of Nigerian unity. The question should be, how do we improve the performance of governance at the local, state and federal level? What do we see as the weaknesses in the governance of Nigeria and how can we improve them? How do we improve the economic circumstances of our people? Those should be the questions. Now, the basis and the foundation have been laid.
The Federal Government has stated in a document called the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy, NEEDS. This is what we see as the way forward in Nigeria. The correct thing would be to say, 'look, we have looked at your document and we have found the following weaknesses or we do not agree with the following assumptions in your document. We believe that in order to improve, these are the areas that need to be looked at again'.
This way, you are having a constructive argument within the framework of the Nigerian constitution. That is a more productive way of doing things because then, you would be saying that we have passed a certain stage, we are one people, we are one country, but we have the following problems, A, B, C. When people are saying let us disintegrate, they are taking us backwards in history and we should have no apologies to stand up and say we are not going backwards.
Even the African leaders are committed towards greater integration within Africa. That is the whole basis of New Economic Partnership for African Development, NEPAD, where the leaders are subjecting themselves on their own to move Africa forward. But to get there, there must be peace in Africa, good governance and we must, on our own be allowed to be cross-examined by any one of us.
The intellectual ability of the people calling for a Sovereign National Conference should be focused towards how we can improve the standard of living of our people and not on what basis a Nigerian lives with another Nigerian from different parts of the country. This takes us again back to NEEDS.
How would you react to the perception that the PDP is too big and therefore, cannot contain itself for long?
This is a wrong perception. If we cannot manage and operate organisations like the PDP, then it questions our ability and capacity to manage other issues. But the thing is that in spite of its size, we have been able to manage ourselves in the last four years. But it is like in Nigeria, you wake up and issues come up and you hear so much noise and over time, everything subsides and we move on. There are times when you have problems and there are times when you have peace. It is the same with PDP where we get into turbulence sometimes but we weather it. We have competent and reliable pilots and will continue to move on.
Any regrets serving in this administration?
The issue of serving in this administration is a matter of honour. First of all, you can only serve in a particular government if you believe in its views, missions and visions. If you do not believe in these you are only wasting your time. Once there is a divergence between your mission and vision and that of the government, then honour demands that you should go. Whenever my vision and mission and that of the government divert,then I will move on .
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