Godwin Daboh and the Nigerian Constitution
Qansy Salako
[QUOTE] “The North cannot allow Jonathan to complete the term of Yar’Adua. The position here is that there will be an interim government within which somebody from the North will be elected to complete Yar’Adua’s term. We are not giving one day of this administration to the South. We will only allow Jonathan to be there till a replacement is found. It is not a constitutional matter; it is fairness………I am not talking of probability, because such a thing can never happen and I don’t want to even think of it.” [UNQUOTE] Godwin Daboh Adzuana
Daboh’s declaration above is one example of the painful issues that are currently weighing down the Nigeria nation state in a deadlock.
Unconscionable looting, Niger delta, religious intolerance, unquenchable ethnic nationalism, etc, all are such apoplectic national issues that would befuddle and make any human geography nerd wonder why Nigerians have to remain forced in the same country, given all the pain and suffering.
Daboh’s warning above is quintessential of the ethnic nationality issue.
The implication of Daboh’s words is that Nigeria’s constitution is not operable under all national situations. Under certain situations, Nigeria will have to operate outside of its constitution.
Makes me wonder and perplexed why we are forcing ourselves to float and run a country without a constitution that we all can respect and abide by.
In fact, hitherto, it has proved impossible to come up with a constitution that fits the pattern of thinking and behaviors of all ethnic nations within the Nigerian nation.
The warning that the North will not respect whatever the Nigeria constitution says should Yaradua become incapable of completing his presidential term, has both immediate and remote effects on both the Nigerian state and the citizens.
In the immediate, this is one of the challenges facing our unimaginative leadership philosophy of “power rotation.” On one hand, the ethnic nationality problem that breeds mistrust, suspicion and deathly rivalry is the root cause of our dumb power rotation idea. On the other hand, there are so many questions that this philosophy begs that a whole new chapter would have to be written into our constitution to address fully and free us from potential dangerous twelve two thirds future milestones.
For instance:
1. Must each power rotation be for two 4-year terms (i.e. total of 8 years)?
2. What happens if a president fails outright a re-election for the second 4-year term?
3. If power rotates to the North Central (NC), must both president and VP come from the NC just so to avoid not accepting the VP to complete a presidential term for an incapacitated president from NC ( as in the current Yaradua case that Daboh is addressing).
4. Daboh said Yaradua’s VP, Jonathan (from South-South), would be allowed in an interim government for just a few hours until a suitable North candidate is found and poof out the window lucky Jo will go. Must the North candidate come from NC? Suppose an acceptable North candidate could only be sourced from NW, what does that mean to the next round of power rotation? Would such acceptable North candidate be routed through the electoral process? People, with this kind power rotation, why do we even bother having two or more political parties or election at all?
5. So many more questions……reader, be my guest, add yours to the list.
Shoving Nigeria on without a usable constitution doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me.
Let’s be blind if we want to be blind, let’s have a good eyesight if we want to see, half good sight half bad sight always causes more trouble that it resolves. Methinks having a good constitution is a top priority for the whole lot of high maintenance slugabeds that we have for legislators in our so called country of equals.
In the remote, Daboh’s assurance that the North will not follow the constitution under certain circumstance makes a big joke of the Nigerian experiment.
I remember years back when a whole half of the country (the North) suddenly decided to live under the Islamic Shariah legal system despite the constitutional guarantee of Nigeria as a secular nation.
The North pretty much own Nigeria and do just about anything they want with her.
When the states in the North declared Shariah one after the other, there was nothing Nigeria could do even though extending the civil provisions on Shariah from within the constitution to cover penal codes was a classic case of a part of the nation existing outside of the constitution of the federal republic.
All the federal leadership could do was to wish that the Shariah fervor would “fizzle away.”
Well, fizzle or sizzle, I know that today, nine years later, half of the country (South) remains under the Secular law, while the other half (North) remains under the Secular-Shariah law.
I won’t be surprised if the current constitution binding both regional halves is neither. Go figure.
Besides, running a Secular-Shariah legal system in modern times is probably daft, wasteful, impractical or all of the above.
Another pet peeve that I have about Daboh’s declaration is that he is talking for One North, even though he is from the Middle Belt. This one really gets my goat, especially because intellectuals from the Middle Belt are wont to yell marginalization at every green Fulani blood appointment they see but don’t like.
I always scream out of my car window on each occasion, why would Middle Belt of all minority groups in Nigeria whine of marginalization in Nigeria, for crying out loud? What cry babies these Middle Belters are!
Till date, the Middle Belt have supplied the most number of half educated military buffoons who have ruled and ruined Nigeria oftentimes on behalf of One North, sometimes on behalf of themselves.
And now one of their princes, Godwin Daboh, is affirming and guaranteeing Nigeria “The North cannot allow Jonathan to complete the term of Yar’Adua……It is not a constitutional matter……..We are not giving one day of this administration to the South.”
What nerves these Middle Belts have complaining they weren’t given enough chance to wreck Nigeria more than they have?
Of course, this is the time Kjeleve won’t have an opinion.
All is well within the Middle Belt, right now.
One North, One Nigeria!
Qansy Salako
From:
Omo...@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Omo...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mobolaji
ALUKO
Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 12:21 AM
To: NaijaPolitics e-Group; Naija Elections; naijaintellects; ekiti
ekitigroups; Ekiti peoples voice Ekiti peoples voice; OmoOdua
Subject: [OmoOdua] Jonathan can’t take over • The North will
not allow vice president to replace Yar’Adua, constitution or no
constitution — Daboh
THE SUN
Jonathan can’t take over
• The North will not allow vice president to replace Yar’Adua,
constitution or no constitution — Daboh
From LUCKY NWANKWERE, Abuja
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Although the 1999 constitution says that in the event of the
president’s death or he resigns or removed from office the vice president
takes over government, there are indications that the North would not allow
this to happen if President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, at any time within his
tenure, cannot continue in office.
Revealing this to editors and members of the management of The Sun, eminent
politician and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Godwin
Daboh Adzuana, said the North would never allow Vice President Goodluck
Jonathan to replace Yar’Adua if the latter has to quit office halfway in
his government.
He said that if Yar’Adua cannot continue in office, there would be an
interim government pending when a northerner is selected as president.
He said; “The North cannot allow Jonathan to complete the term of
Yar’Adua. The position here is that there will be an interim government
within which somebody from the North will be elected to complete
Yar’Adua’s term. We are not giving one day of this administration
to the South.”
Dr. Daboh spoke on this and other things.
A large number of Nigerians are still angry about Ekiti. What really
happened in Ekiti?
What happened in Ekiti, I will say, is the same thing that happened in 1982.
Umaru Shinkafi, who was the Director General of the State Security Services (SSS),
told me the reason the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was going to win the
election. In an emerging democracy, the party that wins an election is the
party in control of the mechanics of control.
It is not whether you are liked by the electorate or not. The political party
that is in control of the mechanics of control always wins an election in an
emerging democracy like Nigeria.
The Ekiti event was unfortunate because I have seen some of the figures. Like
in a particular ward, where there were about 1,900 voters, 4, 000 voted. I
believe very clearly that there is no way we can sustain democracy if we do not
follow honesty in the discharge of our respective responsibilities. It is very
sad. Even if the PDP had lost Ekiti State, it is still in control of the
country. You will be talking of PDP not controlling about eight states. The
rest are controlled by PDP. I wish the tactics adopted by both parties were
different to what they had adopted to handle the election.
Unfortunately, it happened the way it is. I am scared and getting very scared
because I have heard some people talk. I have heard them make observations. If
we do not stop some of the things we are doing democracy is threatened. We do
not want, after these 10 years of struggling, to lay a strong political
foundation, to go back to square one.
I want to say that what happened in Ekiti must never be allowed to repeat
itself. I’m a foundation member of PDP and I wanted PDP to win elections,
but sometimes when you see that the indexes are clear that you may not win an
election, you have to accept it. You can’t win against all odds. That is
wrong. For me, I am saying that the PDP is in absolute control, even if it
loses 10 states in the next election. As you know very well, the opposition has
collapsed in most states.
In Benue State, there is no opposition. Every body has joined the government
and is supporting the government. You have epileptic occurrences of the
opposition in two local governments, Kwande and Oturpo. The opposition has collapsed
in Benue and so it is in most states.
My appeal to my colleagues is that we must endeavour not to attract any
disruption of the democratic process. What happened in Ekiti must never happen
again. I’m happy that the opposition is going to court to seek redress. I
have somehow found confidence in the judiciary. I have seen, over the last nine
months, positive judicial pronouncements in courts, which have brought
confidence back in the judiciary. I’m urging the judiciary to continue to
discharge its duties in the form and formats it has been going on. Let’s
see what they decide on Ekiti. I am sure justice will be done in the end.
Nigeria will be celebrating 10 years of democracy. Is the assessment
of Ekiti not the assessment of our performance in the last 10 years?
My own assessment is that we have made great efforts. Remember, we were
subjected to military rule for so many decades and then we are back in a
democracy. In a country where you have stable democracy, things are done
properly. Look at what happened in England last week. The speaker of the House
of Commons had to resign because of £2, 000, but are you not surprised that in
Nigeria you have people who are facing charges and are ministers?
We must bring respectability to governance. We must not allow personal interest
to becloud our sense of justice. I am warning that corruption is getting higher
and higher in Nigeria more than ever before. It is extremely disturbing. A
youth corps member was given a contract of N50million. How you do that? She had
no company. She looked for a company and brought somebody from Kano, who was
given that job. This girl made much money. We must begin to do things that are
right and fair and things that posterity can look at and say yes, this
generation tried. But I’m very worried over what is happening now and our
tomorrow.
Your generation is still in power and control.
Honestly, my generation has failed. I have, for instance, been involved in one
way or the other with government since 1966, when we staged the counter-coup,
but I have not seen many changes. The people who come from very poor background
become billionaires immediately they come into government and the society looks
at them and accept as well as admire them.
It shouldn’t be. If a whole speaker of the House of Commons could resign
because he collected £2,000, what is happening here? Everyday you take the
newspapers and you read about a governor getting 100-count charge of fraud
involving billions of naira. When you go to function you see this same person,
who is assumed to have corruptly enriched himself sitting on the stand. What
doe it mean? If you are accused of an offence it presumed that you have an
explanation to make until you are clarified. You may be exonerated at the end.
We must entrench probity. If we want the democracy today to survive, we must
change our methodology of doing things. The political class must change.
I must have to shamefully admit that in 10 years of democracy we have failed.
However, we have succeeded in some cases. I am a foundation member of PDP. The
PDP will be in power for the next 20 years because we are in control of the
mechanics of control. The opposition is not in a position to put its act
together. If the opposition is able to put its act together and forget its differences
and unite, they could snatch power from PDP. It has happened in many countries
of the world.
However, as I said earlier the person who wins an election in Nigeria is the
political party in control of the machines of control and that is what will
continue to happen until we Nigerians decide that enough is enough.
My generation must apologise for entrenching rigging in the Nigerian polity. We
made that mistake. We should allow the will of the people to prevail.
Unfortunately, this generation that is trying to take over from us is more
vicious, more corrupt than ourselves. I can see the indexes. They are a
desperate generation, but we have no choice but to hand over power to them.
Is that why your generation has failed to effect the electoral reform
you promised us?
The electoral reforms are would to be effected. The president has sent the
Uwais report to the National Assembly. You see the reaction of the National
Assembly on the day the report was brought. There is definitely going to be a
change. Nobody can stop electoral reforms. There much be a change. It is when
you are effecting a change that you have equity and fairness. What we need to
carry Nigeria forward is equity and fairness, not might. We the founding
fathers of PDP have been pushed aside. The people in control of PDP today are
not the founding fathers of PDP.
In 1998, when we met and resolved to form PDP, we intended it to become the
political party that will be comparable to the Democratic Party in America or
the conservative party in England. That was the vision we had. The original
founding fathers have all been kicked aside. Joiners are the people in control
of the PDP at all strata. I believe that something is going to happen. One
thing I know is that Nigeria must change, whether we like it or not.
What happened to President Umar Yar’Adua? When he came up,
some of us thought he was going to make a significant change.
I know President Yar’Adua to be a very cautious human being.
Particularly, when you are dealing with an environment, like Nigeria, you have
to adopt caution as a weapon to protect yourself. Quiet honestly, some of the
things the government has done, I wish they were done differently. I know that
he has been putting so many things in place, which he will start implementing
from his third year in office. A lot of committees were set up by the Federal
Government silently, in almost all aspects of our national lives.
From June, the government is going to introduce a lot of dynamic changes that
are really going to positively affect Nigerians. President Yar’Adua has
not been very healthy and this has affected his performance. As you realize
that most of the times he ought to be at a function, he is represented by
somebody. I can assure you that President Yar’Adua is going to surprise
Nigerians, starting from his third year. He will not disappoint Nigerians.
Does it mean he was not prepared if he was just setting up
committees for the past two years, expecting to start performing in the third
year? Does it mean he will be there for eight years?
The position here is that Yar’Adua inherited a disjointed administration
that didn’t have focus and direction. He has to fix these things. It is
taking time to, first of all, remove the rot. You can see that a lot of ways
things are happening differently. Something when you rent a house, when you
move in you discover there no water, toilet and many things are missing. That
is the kind of environment that Yar’Adua found himself. Fundamental
things are going to happen in the next one year and that will have a profound
positive effect on the whole country. I agree with you that he has been slow.
Would you then endorse Yar’Adua for the second term because
you said earlier he is not healthy?
In 1999, we agreed that there would be a rotation of North-South. The South
took eight years and the North is going to take eight years. That is not
negotiable. I want to say that very soon the president is going to tell
Nigerians whether he has the capacity to go on or not. If Yar’Adua
decides to go on, the North will allow him to continue, but if, on the other
hand, he knows that his health would not allow him to go on, the North will
decide and give Nigerians an acceptable candidate.
The only person, who can be sold by the North, both internationally and nationwide,
is Ibrahim Babangida. He will step in if Yar’Adua is not going.
Atiku’s time has expired because he can’t return to the PDP. Only
the PDP can win the presidency. No other political party can win because we are
on the ground and in control of the mechanic of control.
Do you honestly believe IBB will win election in this country?
We have carried out survey in the last two weeks. We have results coming in
from the six political zones. The results show that over 70 per cent of
Nigerians are ready to have IBB back in Aso Rock.
What exactly is happening in Benue State as there seems to be a
realignment of political forces?
We have a political leader of Benue State, in the person of Rt. Hon. Gabriel
Suswan. We had a former leader, George Akume. Obviously, you know when there is
a transfer of power from one group to another group, there is bound to be a
form of reaction and that is what has happened. In Benue State now, we have
absolute political harmony and peace. The whole of Benue State has decided that
the present government must have a second tenure in 2011.
We met and reexamined his activities in the last two years and discovered that
he has affected the lives of everybody. You go to Makurdi today, all the
streets are tarred; the same with Oturkpo that has never had any tarred road.
You go to Gboko, the headquarters of Tiv people; the streets are tarred. There
is rural electrification. They are communities that had never been linked
before, but they are now being linked. There is peace and harmony among the
elders. There is generational change. The people in Suswan administration are
performing wonderfully. We met two weeks ago and all the elders said that the
young man should have a second tenure. Gabriel Suswan is going to have a second
term. This is not negotiable. Nobody is coming to challenge him in the PDP.
Michael Aondoakaa will not contest for the governorship. No PDP person from
zone A, where the governorship is from will come out to contest. The Idomas are
waiting for Apa State. Apa State, hopefully, will be created very soon. The Tiv
people are not prepared to concede the governorship to the Idomas at this
stage, simply because we are 70 per cent of the population and in a democracy
the majority always carry the vote. The Idomas have got the president of the
Senate; they have got the SSG. We the Tiv people will remain in control of the
government house until 2015. Thereafter, we give it to zone C, which is Idoma
speaking area, if Apa State has not been created.
Do you think it is possible to create state under this environment,
even as the South East has a genuine case?
We have enough states for the country. I don’t think we need more states.
Why the South East does not have more states is because of disunity. The Igbo
people are the strongest people in Nigeria. I travelled to Cameroon border. In
one village, there were 58 settlements. Out of these, 41 were Igbo families. If
the Igbo were united, they would be carrying the torch for Nigeria.
Unfortunately, it is not so. Who is the Igbo leader today? Every of them wants
to be a leader instead of them to choose one person and say this is our leader.
In Benue State, we have got a leader in that young man. He has brought vision
and development to the state and we don’t want a change until 2015.
The Igbo, under Ohanaeze, should meet and present a leader, somebody who can
speak for them. We in Tiv land have found out that we have not been able to
make progress because of disunity and we are trying to put our act together,
forgive one another and select a leader, because since the death of J.S. Tarka,
we have never had any leader in Tiv land. You need somebody who will be a
beacon for each of these major ethnic groups. That’s why the minorities
are in a better position than us.
Also, the Hausa Fulani, who is their leader today? Likewise the Yoruba. This is
a national problem.
However, in Orji Kalu we have seen the glimpses of a leader because he has
positively touched the majority of the people. That is what leadership is all
about. He didn’t inherit anything, like some of us. But today, by dint of
handwork, he has achieved so much.
For Benue, we have a leader that has proved he is a leader. We have somebody
who we are working with; we have a young man who is respecting elders and a
young man who is sure of second term. Benue is one of the few states that the
governor is sure of second term. The Senate president and the governor are
working harmoniously.
Agreed that the North will have eight years under normal circumstances.
However, if for any reason, God forbid, that Yar’Adua becomes indisposed,
will the North allow Jonathan to continue?
The North cannot allow Jonathan to complete the term of Yar’Adua. The
position here is that there will be an interim government within which somebody
from the North will be elected to complete Yar’Adua’s term. We are
not giving one day of this administration to the South. We will only allow
Jonathan to be there till a replacement is found. It is not a constitutional
matter; it is fairness.
Is it not inviting anarchy if for any reason Yar’Adua
announces today that in stepping down because of ill-health, and the vice
president does not step in, in line with the constitution?
Jonathan will be there for a short time. The North will only allow Jonathan
pending when a replacement for Yar’Adua is found. I am not talking of
probability, because such a thing can never happen and I don’t want to
even think of it. Yar’Adua has recovered completely. He was sick, quite
all right. Don’t you all get sick?
Are you in support of military option as Niger Delta?
I believe that this government has made a lot of efforts to prevent what is
happening now. For the first time a Ministry of Niger Delta was created to
address the injustice that the people of Niger Delta had suffered. But there
are these young men who don’t want dialogue but confrontation. The people
in Niger Delta are less than five million and they are confronting 140 million
people. Government had to react, but I wish it was not this way because I have
seen pictures and it is horrible. I’m appealing that the government and
the military to find a peaceful way out of this. It is unfortunate.
I cannot condemn it because Nigerians were briefed before the action were
taken. The military said it cannot wait to see its people being kidnapped,
tortured and killed. I’m appealing to the people of the Niger Delta. They
should know that the Niger Delta Ministry is a platform for them to resolve all
their grievances. Let us stop the arms conflict, go into dialogue and find
justice in Niger Delta. There is going to be peace. You can only have peace
where there is equity, justice and fairness for everybody.
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