Former President of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Dr.Olisa Agbakoba, has explained that the adoption of confederalism is the only solution to the challenges confronting peace and stability in Nigeria.
Speaking during a press conference held in his Lagos office, Agbakoba observed that the current campaigns by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have failed to address the real issues facing the nation.
“Nigeria is a nation with diverse ethnic groups. A national order is urgently needed to manage our diversity.
“It is my view that Nigeria can only resolve the existing conflagration of diversity if we ask and seek answers to the questions posed by the late Bola Ige when he said ’there are two basic questions that must be answered by all Nigerians.
“One, do we want to remain as one country? Two, if the answer is yes, under what conditions? I respectfully suggest that Bola Ige’s questions are well framed as the issues we need to resolve in order to create a national order.
“Confederalism is the only solution we need to progress as a nation.There is a need for devolution of power to make Nigeria work.”
Agbakoba expressed disappointment that recent national conferences in Nigeria have failed to address the unity of the country.
“It is in this light that the late Aka Bashorun, my most illustrious predecessor as president of NBA, articulated the collective disappointment of Nigerians by making the call for a sovereign national conference as far back as the 1980s.
“It is regrettable, however, that all national conferences organised to discuss Nigeria’s national order have been unsuccessful,” he said.
Agbakoba insisted that other than corruption, power generation, developing non-oil revenue sources, job creation and other major issues that have dominated the political discuss, Nigerians ought to be discussing how the country can evolve a national order.
He contended that instead of the seeming personality clash between the leading presidential candidates; President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP and General Muhammadu Buhari of the APC, those aspiring to lead Nigeria must tell Nigerians about how they hoped to address the problems responsible for the fault lines among Nigerians.
These were contained in a letter he addressed to chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Adamu Mua’zu and the All Progressives Congress, John Oyegun.
Drawing inference from the European order attained by the Westphalia treaty, which brought an end to 80 years of debilitating war between Spain and Dutch, Agbakoba said “Order is important and critical to political stability.”
“There will be no way the 2015 will be successful if we do not address the issue of how we live together. There is no way the 2015 elections will be successful if Nigeria is unable to resolve the impending doom that the likes of Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi and Pastor Tunde Bakare have been talking about.”
Describing most of the issues being discussed as “non-issues,” Agbakoba said in 60 years, Nigeria had not progressed because it had not had leaders that were truly committed to the type of social revolution created by Mutsuhito Meiji in Japan between 1866 and 1869.
“Nigeria is a nation with diverse ethnic groups. A national order is urgently needed to manage our diversity. It is my view that Nigeria can only resolve the existing conflagration of diversity if we ask and seek answers to the questions that must be answered by all of us Nigerians,” he said.
According to him, two main questions must be answered by all Nigerians: “One, do we want to remain as one country? Two, if the answer is yes, under what conditions?
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