The founder of the pan-Yoruba sociocultural group, Oodua People's Congress, OPC, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, has said that if the Presidential Advisory Committee on the national conference led by Senator Femi Okurounmu must make meaning, it must steer Nigeria into a people- produced Constitution, one in which when the Constitution ascribes its existence and formulation to "we the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. it will not be telling a lie."
Fasehun who was speaking to a cross section of journalists in Lagos, said the conference must also be an all- inclusive one and equitable for the 371 nationality groupings domiciled in the Nigerian space and that the resultant document must be subjected to no endorsement or ratification by the executive, legislative or judicial arms' action or pronouncement. "Its ratification will be by plebiscite or referendum, where a majority of YES votes will ratify or endorse the new people's Constitution", he said.
He said, "This is the time for Nigeria's ethnic nationalities to come together to articulate their disparate aspirations and harmonise their terms for coexistence under the largest black nation, indivisible under God. "Representation must be all-inclusive and equitable for the 371 nationality groupings domiciled in the Nigerian space.
Everyone must synthesise its own views, aspirations and demands on Nigeria as a nation. Not only will the majority tribes of Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo feature in this conference, it must be representative of all Nigeria's minority tribes, the Isoko, the Gwari, the Yagba, the Ogoni, the Birom, the Tiv, the Awori, the Baruba and the rest", he said. He said apart from ethnic representations, specific individuals and interest groups should be drafted into this project.
"In this line, we recommend the like of Wole Soyinka, Olisa Agbakoba, Priscilla Kuye, Pat Utomi, Omoyele Sowore, Dora Akunyili, Julius Ihonvbare, Turai Yar'Adua, Doyin Abiola, Shehu Sani, Tanko Yakassai, Hamza Al-Mustapha, Frank Kokori, Umar Dangiwa, Onyeka Onwenu, Grace Alele-Williams, etc. Also special interest groups should be co-opted, including: Labour, Youth, Women, the Handicapped, the Aged, Traditional Rulers (one per state), the Clergy, NBA, Boko Haram, OPC, Afenifere, Arewa Consultative Forum, Egbesu, MASSOB, NDVF, MEND, Child Rights Advocates and the Press", Fasehun said.
He said the "Sovereign National Conference", as he titled the Jonathan national confab, should be pegged on the past works of PRONACO, the National Dialogue of President Olusegun Obasanjo and Nigeria's past Constitutions. Fasehun also maintained that there must be no 'no-go areas' for the Constitutional Conference.
"Not only shall we recommend the retention of the Directive Principle of State Policy but we will demand that that section of the Constitution be made justifiable. In this political era where governance appears bereft of people-oriented ideas and dividends, that portion of the Constitution must serve as guiding light to our rulers. It will give citizens a veritable instrument to approach the Judiciary to demand good government that will provide citizens access to social service and good living standards, as captured in the Directive Principles", he said. On the duration of the national conference, Fasehun who is also the national chairman of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, recommended that the SNC be convened for six months, from February to July 2014. "Elections will hold thereafter.
The current generation of Presidents, Governors and Legislators will be the last under the 1999 Constitution. And 2015 elected Presidents, Governors and Legislators can begin to serve under the new Constitution. Spill-over tenures of Presidents, Governors and Legislators will expire upon the commencement of the new Constitution in order to prevent the existence of a hybrid Republic, one in which political operatives hold loyalty to two different Constitutions", he said.. He said the SNC is the last chance to save the Nigerian Federation.
"Recently, agitations have been rife that since the 1914 Amalgamation of the Southern and Northern protectorates by Lord Lugard was originally billed to expire in 100 years, therefore the constituent units of the Nigerian entity could validly, legally and statutorily exit from Nigeria in 2014. It would have been a tacit fulfillment of the US prediction that Nigeria would not survive beyond 2015.
Source: National Confab: Outcome must be subjected to referendum –Fasehun (http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-confab-outcome-must-be-subjected-to-referendum-fasehun/)