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Nigeria, not yet a democracy � Kanu
Dotun Oladipo, Akeem Lasisi, Olayinka Oyebode and Yomi Odunuga
A former Military Governor of Lagos State, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, on Tuesday took a retrospective view of Nigeria�s political sojourn and concluded that the country was yet to democratise.
Kanu, at the 2004 edition of the Wole Soyinka Annual Lecture in Lagos, said the only thing that had changed were rulers who were no longer in military uniforms.
Only recently, Vice-President Atiku Abubakar said that Nigeria was still in transition to democracy.
Shortly before the former Naval chief spoke, President Olusegun Obasanjo set aside his widely reported acrimony with Soyinka to eulogise the Nobel Laureate in Literature.
Kanu said that the way out of Nigeria�s political quagmire was a return to the path of true federalism and the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference.
Pointing out that Nigeria was on the right path before and shortly after independence, he added that there was need for it to go back to the direction it pursued earlier.
Kanu said, �It is necessary to recall that the then regions aggregated the different peoples within their areas�I hold that for Nigeria to remain sustained as a country, and for it to become prosperous, it has to revert to the status of a true federation � an entity composed of federating units.
�This was and remains what NADECO and pro-democracy groups always stood and still stand for.
�The only modification today is that, instead of the federating units being composed of regions or states, they now have to be made up of different peoples and different nationalities that make up the entity known as and called Nigeria, with each composing unit consenting to where it is situated in the scheme of composition.
�That is the way to turn back from the wrong road and begin the valuable journey to moving forward on the right road.�
On the convocation of the SNC, the former NADECO chieftain said that many Nigerians had tended to have a wrong notion of what the protagonists of such a conference wanted the country to achieve.
He said, �The NC is vital and necessary, not to invent or reinvent the wheel, but to return to the only way (federalism) that could allow Nigeria to continue to exist as a country; the only way it can have real peace and make genuine progress; the only way that the peoples will get back a sense of belonging which leads to patriotism; the only way to revive the soul and spirit of Nigeria.�
He said the SNC was a positive-driven exercise meant to unite peoples that have decided to live together.
Kanu stated that the drive by some people, especially the Igbo, to have a shot at the presidency, was because the country was not practicing true federalism, adding, �In point of fact, once the country returns to a federation (this time of peoples and nationalities) it would be inconsequential where the President comes from.
�Those who are accustomed to unitarism, in spite of its stark demerits should, please, give national peace and progress a chance: the peoples of the country have gone irreversibly long enough on the global road of self-determination as to stomach unitarism for much longer.
�For those who live out the complex of being rich (and powerful), while the country is defeated by the mosquito, it is then to be restated that they live out a lie and are really poorer in real terms in spirit and in circumstance than the ordinary poor.�
In his own contribution at the lecture which came on the 70th birthday of Soyinka, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, condemned the notion of rotation of the presidency amongst the ethnic nationalities that make up the country.
Oshiomhole said the arrangement would only continue to produce leaders who will capitalise on ethnic sentiments to attain power.
Rather, the NLC leader canvassed a power shift to the working class.
Oshiomhole, who was a special guest at the lecture, titled Nigeria: The Unfinished Business, pointed out that greed had remained the greatest vice of Nigerian leaders regardless of the ethnic nationalities that they come from.
He argued that putting ethnic consideration as a major determinant was akin to reducing the minimum entry qualification for public office seekers.
According to Oshomhole, none of the ethnic nationalities was better than the other in the area of stealing of public fund.
He said, �I beg to disagree with the guest speaker even though he has my sympathy over his call for power to shift to the South-East.
�You see we have to be careful so that we don�t give politicians easy way of getting to power.
�When we say a section should produce the President then some politicians will capitalise on the idea to whip up sentiment of the people only for them to get there and forget the people.�
Among those that attended the lecture were Professor Emeritus, Ayo Banjo; the Cap�n of the National Association of Seadogs, Dr. Odili Ojukwu; Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi; factional National Chairman of the Alliance for Democracy, chief Bisi Akande; and Professor Adebayo Williams.
Meanwhile, in a seven-paragraph letter on Tuesday, Obasanjo eulogized Soyinka�s achievements in flowery language.
In the letter, which was made available to State House correspondents in Abuja, the President commended Soyinka for his immense contributions in the academic and in the literary world.
He noted that the playwright stood out as a �worthy role model for millions of youth in Nigeria and other parts of the world.�
The letter reads in part, �I write, on behalf of myself, the Federal Government and the people of Nigeria, to convey our best wishes to you on the happy occasion of your 70th birthday celebrations. Your attainment of the grand age of three score years and ten, which the Holy Book tells us is the God-given time in this world that a man may reasonably expect to use, pain and trouble-free, is a most remarkable milestone in your achievement-filled life.
�Having striven over many years of your life, in your own very special and unique ways to contribute to the realisation of your vision of a greater Nigeria, it is fitting, indeed, that Nigerians from all walks of life and all parts of the country should celebrate with you and share the special joy of the occasion with you and your family. For those fortunate to enough to attain it, the age of 70 years is a very good time, indeed, to take stock of what one has done with the time God has granted him or her in this world of ours.�
The Punch, Wednesday July 14, 2004
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