In whatever way it appears, the national conference is an imperative. Whether it takes on the toga of sovereign or not we need it at this auspicious time in our national life. This topic was chiefly provoked by the utterance of a clergy recently who posited that it is better to live in separation than to die in this unity in diversity. The condition of living and precariousness of our national socio-economy is despicable. The socio-political aspect our national life is nothing to write home about. There is a near-situation of total crash in the security and social order. With the advent of the intractable Boko Haram insurgence Nigeria was already weighed down by out-pouring resentments and agitations against inequity, deprivation despoliation and marginalization. The resources allocation enigma that remains the albatross of development in this country was exacerbated by miss-appropriation, corruption and bad governance occasioned by crass financial profligacy and executive recklessness. The issue of the rule of law and observation of due process in the scheme of things were only paid mere lip service. The introduced modern democracy has suffered violation and remained stunted as to be ever referred to as nascent even after over one decade of its importation. The nation got caught in the webs of painful ethnic poverty ravaging the greater population of the world’s most populous black Nation. The politics and rancour and bitterness took over the entire political landscape as losers refused to accept defeat in good faith compelling winners to take up a vindictive posture as inescapable counter fort to re-assert the philosophy of the winner- takes-all. With these entire satirical qualifications one may shudder at the caption of this text which used the adjectival qualification of jokes to vitiate the sacrosanct essence of a deserving round table talk for Nigerians. It is instructive that Nigeria condescends gradually on daily basis from popularity as well naturally and richly endowed nation to a notorious entity where clandestine-ism has long overtaken decency, honesty and integrity. In 1914, the Nigeria nation-state began its journey with the fraudulent amalgamation of the impecunious Northern protectorate and the flourishing southern protectorate for self-serving reasons. The architects of the copulation of these two incompatible conjugates pretends up till date that chances are for a sustainable harmonious co-existence even after the conviction and admission of fault or responsibility for the detestable aftermath of that perfidy. Essentially, the aspect of tribal cleavages as the major factor may have diminished the worst case of sectarianism where the need for religious tolerance become so obvious that the catalyst of religious crisis resolved to prove the indelibility of religious factors in our national life. The tide of the oil boom ushered in another fortune that spelt.our doom. When the venture was taken, it eventually escorted the coca farms, coal sites, palm oil farms, and groundnut pyramids to near-extinction. The erstwhile mainstay of the Nigerian economy, Agricultural and mineral resources nay black gold suffered great suspicious neglect.
Eventually, the entire nation become afflicted with the hydra-headed epidemics of resource control now dovetailed into the resource allocation aberration. When the Nation should be busy attracting investment and accumulating wealth for a true sustainable development, it is enmeshed in huge capital flights in the forms of importation of goods and services thereby wobbling under the crunch of acute trade imbalance meant for import dependent economies which Nigeria epitomizes. For the fact that Nigeria is busy with the algebra of resource allocation instead of resource contribution, needless we talk of or think about patriotism. Prior to the civil war, it was the other way round; the regions were much stronger contributing to the central government now surnamed Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN). The master- minders of this confusion we got submersed today (the British Overlords) counseled the Khaki Boys to Balkanize the regions to sprout what definitely appears today as the uneconomical fragmentations called states. The latent intention of weakening the regions paid off in a pretensions unity in diversity of the current thirty six (36) states structure plus the Federal Capital territory carved out as the host for the hill of corruption called Aso Rock Village (the centre of attraction). The defunct Union of the Soviets Socialists Republic (USSR) is one reference point worthy of study in the aspect of political dispersion or disintegration as the case may be. The reformist, Gobachev knew little of the implication of his radical reformation that sought to marry the two-pronged instruments of perestroika and Glasnot vis-a-vis the infection of capitalist admixture. In effect, the soviets were repugnant of the capitalists tenets but embedded every traits of capitalism a situation that cajouled the reformist to the erroneous belief that a blend of the duo of capitalism and socialism could produce a super hybrid brand of modified socio-capitalist system that will trail the blaze in escorting the world towards the route of socio-politico-economical renaissance of historical essence. The rest is history as the USSR became peacefully Balkanized under the gambits of gross miss-information and unfounded political calculus. At the moment, several strong nations (about 15) emerged out of that superfluous computation like; Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. Similarly, the former Yugoslavia spitted into seven (7) nations namely: Bosnia/Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. In Africa, a curious example was reputable for delving into national conference which latter culminated into utter Balkanization. The expansive landmass rated largest in Africa formerly hosted one incontrovertible nation-Sudan, which today metamorphosed into two intolerable countries of the southern and Northern Sudan. The Sudan of the old got entangled in a protracted civil war which claimed millions of lives after a discordant outing in what was perceived as a national conference. The main crux of dissention in Sudan is religion. The southern Sudan is Christian dominant whereas the North is pre-dominantly Islam’s. Incidentally after several years of civil war, they parted company. It is curious that the conference where the trouble brewed that divided Sudan did not wait to be christened sovereign, but, obviously co-existence was not harmonious. So, if the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria was responsible for her woes, it implies that probably, she was pre-mature as a Nation to handle such fortune. That means that the unity of this Nation had hardly stood the test of time before nature endowed her with such a copious of natural endowment of resources (human and material).
It was Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe that admonished accordingly, “Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it”. What is being insinuated in the foregoing is that unseen hands of the regulator of the entire armament are playing. Hence we have national conference as an impending joke. It is a joke and quite an expensive one in that even when the reformist of time in this country, President Goodluck Ebelle Jonathan may have altruistic motives to hearken to the yearnings of the citizens, let it not be a surprise that an unexpected outcome could be obtained. It does not matter the limitations and no-go-areas stated, it is a welcome spiritual and political development to hold this round-table-talk as the way forward for this parody of a nation, Nigeria. So, whether the discussants or representatives are subjugated to a leprous National assembly or not, it should not perturb Nigerians who truly realized the pertinent nature of the conference and the human natural instincts against insubordination. In such vital and crucial discussion anything devoid of the destruction of the bulwark of inequity is a big joke. In fact, it is no use to start what cannot be finished. If the gathering is intended in all sincerity to rationalize all grey areas in the system of governance and the political dispensation of this country, there should no go areas. The Boko Haram terrorists from the North declared an intention that could rightly pass for the Northern agenda; they want Islamic Nation of the North. The terms of reference of the conference if includes the review of the amalgamation charter will be baseless without touching on basis of the way forward. But the FGN took a stand that the National Unity in diversity is not party of the discussion is nonsensical, and sheer paradox of reality which goes to imply that the conference with its limitations definitely amounts to an expensive joke that should be welcome. This big joke has the propensity to make or mare the co-existence of the incompatible entities that constitute the unholy alliance known as Nigeria since 1914.
