National Confab: If it leads to disintegration, so be it, says Garba, NUJ President

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People have agitated for this; called for this because of some contentious issues raised. Perhaps, based on this, Mr. President decided to conceed and said let us talk. Those talking of a sovereign national conference should know, it is not possible because if you are talking of a sovereign national conference, the whole polity has to be dissolved and that is not acceptable to me as a person because this is a democracy we have fought very hard to achieve. So, it has to be either a national conference or dialogue as the president has called it.
Some have said it is diversionary. I am surprised that even those that have been agitating for this national conference are now against it. Some say it is not timely because it is close to election but whatever it is depends on how you are able to arrange and plan. Nobody is praying that Nigeria should disintegrate but if at the end of it all that was the resolution and it was adopted, we should be able to live in a peaceful atmosphere and as neighbours. We have intermarried and shared lots of things in common. These are some of the critical issues I believe people should understand. If Nigeria must move forward there should not be a ‘no go area’. All issues should be discussed.
With the inauguration of the national dialogue committee, I think the president has finally conceded to the agitation by quite a number of Nigerians on the need for us to have a forum where all contentious issues that are being raised can be discussed. With that, president has demonstrated that he listens to the yearnings and aspirations of quite a number of Nigerians.
We only hope that the outcome of the dialogue would be ratified by members of the National Assembly. Then secondly, the committee members’ roles should not be in conflict with the constitutional responsibility of the members of National Assembly. That is very important.
And I would have suggested that the on-going constitution review be suspended pending the resolution of the national dialogue committee. Everybody that has interests should be given the opportunity to come and make presentations including those in Diaspora.

Already, it is being reported that politicians have started lobbying to be sponsored to the conference. What is your take on this?
Well, that is Nigerians for you. From reports available to us, people have started lobbying to be members of the committee. That shows lack of jobs in the country.
There are quite a number of elites in Nigeria today that are jobless, so earnestly from reports available, they are lobbying and for people to discuss sincerely they must be allowed to participate on their own. If it is going to be on regional basis, let the regions sponsor who they feel are capable. They should shoulder the responsibility of accommodation and participation and if it on state basis, the sates should also be able to do that.  If it is on individual basis it should also be same.. Based on the level of participation by individuals and groups, we would be able to determine the sincerity of Nigerians and the sincerity of this agitation.

Don’t you think that going into dialogue at this time is admittance that we are a failed state?
Sadly, if you look at the political structure, the executive has their own responsibility, the judiciary and legislature according to the constitution. All the issues the national dialogue sets to address like the state police, revenue allocation and others, I believe the political system is arranged in such a way that it can address these issues. So by going to dialogue, you can interpret it to mean that probably the political system in the country had failed. It has completely failed and that is why we are doing this as an option. Therefore we should not allow politicians to hijack this national dialogue. This democracy, politicians are trying to derail us. We are now in 2013; we have virtually two years to 2015. Tension has been very high. Government has eventually has not been moving as fast as it should be. Quite a number of activities are not on ground. So if we are not careful it would be very difficult for us to achieve meaningful programmes and projects of government. And then the level of desperation by politicians is of great concern to us. It is not good for our democracy which we have fought seriously to achieve. We have to check the excesses of the politicians and when it comes to the issue of leadership, Nigerians don’t really care who is the president or governor.
What matters to us ordinary Nigerians is who will give us food to eat, shelter, health and power to do our small job. It does not matter whether you are from the south or you are from the north. If you look at political parties in Nigeria there is none with an ideological inclination. The contents of the political parties’ manifestos are the same. What matters is who will enhance the lives of Nigerians.

You seem to be afraid for our democracy. Are you expressing fears that some actions of political actors could cause military intervention?
I can’t predict military intervention because all over the world, it is old fashioned. If the military should intervene in Nigeria, I want to assure that it would not be accepted. We are going through a very difficult moment. Military intervention is not the solution because the military is part of the problems we have in Nigeria today. If the military had done very well, we would not be talking about decayed infrastructure, power and so on. The military had every opportunity to ensure that we had very good infrastructure, especially critical ones. If you look at the level of development recorded since 1999 when we had this democracy to date it is far better than the number of years that we had military dictatorship.
Besides, look at the aspect of the press in this democracy -press has freedom-whereas it was not so in the military era. I am not thinking the military would come back because of our inability to have good governance in Nigeria.

Do you think President would be sincere in accepting the recommendations of the committee?
It is too early in the day to say whether Mr. President would be sincere in probably adopting the recommendations of this committee. In terms of sincerity of adoption of resolutions, I don’t think Mr President as an individual in this country has the constitutional right. Whatever it is, it has to go to the National Assembly. He has no constitutional power to adopt. Most of the issues have to be ratified and endorsed by the National Assembly.
We have had similar dialogues like this in the past under Babangida and Abacha. Why do you think this one would be different?
Of course my approach to that is that we should always be optimistic. We have had so many conferences that would enhance Nigeria as a nation but in most of the cases, it is the issue of implementation that is the problem. I quite agree with you, but we should remain optimistic. The main problem of Nigeria is implementation. I would not blame those who are pessimistic about this because they believe it is going to be the same. Let us be optimistic and let us come out and work and ensure the success of the dialogue.