The issue of power relationship between the Federal and state governments in a federation etc.
It must be admitted (and creditably to all Nigerians) that our federation remains today one of the few surviving federations in the world. Other federations like the Soviet Union, Checkoslovakia and Yugoslavia have collapsed like a pack of cards. We need a National Conference to help us cement firmly our resolve to continue to live together as members of a united democratic federal state. Federations are governed by compromise, consensus and coalition of interests. A National Conference of the Nigeria people will help us define how these principles will be successfully applied to our federal existence. The conference will also help us exterminate the use of Religion as potent weapon in the hands of dangerous elements to continue to endanger the peace, unity and stability of our country.
Time will not permit me to state here what could be the composition of such a National Conference. I have done such an exercise in a lecture I delivered in July, 2004 at Osogbo. Let me however submit that President Olusegun Obasanjo should use his strong presidency to convene the conference. The convocation of a National Conference is very crucial in our country's march to stability and progress.
In our quest for unity, stability and progress, we must honour the heroes in our society. We must recognise talents and we must never allow the contributions of citizens to our country's political development to peter into oblivion.
Our battles with corruption and political management can be better waged with out iron resolve never to obliterate the positive contributions of our fellow countrymen and women to the nation's progress.
Drawing from the examples of the life and times of Nigeria's nationalist leaders like Sir Ahmadu Bello, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Herbert Macaulay, Alhaji Aminu Kano, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Chief H.O Davies, we must find out how they were able to subject themselves to personal and political lives that did not accommodate a propensity for the acquisition of wealth. We must ask why these leaders were never associated with no criminal looting of our country's resources during their time in power. The Foster Sutton and Coker commissions of enquiry that were established to probe the African Continental Bank and the National Bank respectively in Nigerian's first republic never produced results that showed an unlawful personal enrichment of the Nigerian great leaders (Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo) who were the political leaders tried by those tribunals. We must as a nation use their lives to find out why the political parties established by our founding fathers never permitted the use of money to bar the emergence of Nigerians dedicated to offering genuine leadership to the country.
It is sad that it is simply impossible these days to find Nigeria's finest and the best contesting elections simply because such individuals have no access to money. It is a reality of our national life today that a Nigerian who can not pull together nearly half a million naira should not venture to put himself forward as a candidate of local council councillorship position. It is equally lamentable that our electoral regulations officially ordered by electoral agencies of government even put deposits for elective positions far beyond the capabilities of otherwise good candidates who can not pull together such huge deposits.
In the days of our founding fathers, delegates to National Conventions paid their ways to such conventions. These days (at least since 1991) delegates to National Conventions of their political parties are paid. Even allowances are today being paid to politicians who attend meetings to project the candidature of prospective candidates for elective positions.
A conscious policy of constantly making references to the principled and inspirational life styles of our past leader will help us establish a tradition of selfless service to our country.
Shortly before General Olusegun Obasanjo (as he then was) handed over power to President Aliyu Shehu Shagari in 1979, he established a committee of intellectuals to attempt a rewrite of the history of Nigeria. This was an attempt to immortalise the contributions of our heroes at various stages of the country's historical development. Unfortunately, successive regimes in Nigeria have not continued with the programme. It will be to the best interests of our country if President Obasanjo can revive the committee and give it broader terms of reference that will totally subject our country to critical analysis of the country's history since our colonisation by the British in the 19th century.
We are lucky that we still have some of our county's nationalist who were aides and comrades of our founding fathers still breathing the air of life in our country. We must identify all of them still alive and honour them. We must go to them to give us their life experiences. They must tell their stories and such stories will surely be a source of inspiration and strength for those of our citizens aspiring to govern Nigeria. These surviving leaders include Alhaji Maitama Sule, Alhaji Ali Monguno, Chief Theophilus Sobowale Benson, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Papa Archdeacon Emmanuel Alayande, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Chief C.C. Onoh, Chief Harold Dappa Biriye, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Madam Margaret Ekpo, Chief Sebastian Umoren, Chief M. T. Mbu, Chief Nbazulike Amechi, Chief Michael Imoudu, and Alhaji Tanko Yakassai. Alhaji Yakassai, a tailor by profession, was one of the militant youth activists of the Mallam Aminu Kano's NEPU Talakawa Movement that by dint of hard work and perseverance personally educated himself to the level that he is today. He remains today one of the most credible sources on the growth and development of progressive politics in the Northern states.
There are other second layer leaders of the Nigerian nationalist struggle who are still equally alive to tell their stories particularly those related to the radical participation of the youths of those days in the struggle to free Nigeria from British colonial rule. Such men include Dr. Tunji Otegbeye who led the Nigerian Youth Congress for many years before joining the late Wahab Goodluck, Dr. Lasisi Osunde and others to establish the Nigerian Socialist Workers and Farmers Party (SWAFP), Chief Ayo Adebanjo who was an Action Group Organising Secretary in the colonial era and who with late Comrade S. G. Ikoku fled to Ghana in the wake of the Action Group crisis of 1962, Professor Sam Aluko, Professor Obiechina, Professor Akin Mabogunje, Professor Wole Soyinka (Nigeria's Nobel Laureate), Professor Chinua Achebe who with the late Professor Chimere ikoku, Professor Obiechina and Professor Ikenna Nzimiro had established the FRANTZ FRANON Institute immediately after the end of the Civil War in 1970 at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and several others. We must recognise these men and correctly place their contributions in Nigeria's roll of honour.
We as a nation must equally learn to recognise talents and give honour to Nigerians who have used their skills and God given talents to project the image of Nigeria.
It will be a piece of beauty to find a Nigeria's Sporting body to include the likes of Brigadier-General Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia (rtd) (who when he was Military Governor of Mid West region established an AFUZE Sporting Village and developed sports to a reasonable area in the region. Edo State of today is still profiting from the unique vision) Dejo Fayemi, Segun Odegbami, Adokiye, football loving Emeka Omeruah, Alhaji Abdul Kareem Amu, the famous 400 meter champion of Nigeria, David Ejoke and Amusa Eke of the 60s, Violet Odogwu-Nwajei, Modupe Osikoya, and several others too numerous to mention.
I have implicit faith in the successful completion of the struggle of Nigerians for unity, progress and stability. Our country's future history will by the grace of God be written in gold.
The wordings of our National Anthem which was commissioned and put into operation by General Olusegun Obasanjo's military administration in 1976 are indicative of our total commitment to the unity of Nigeria and a deserving tribute to our fathers who pioneered the political independence of Nigeria.
