How I nominated Jonathan as Yar’Adua’s running mate – E.K Clark.
The National Conference has come and gone. Many say it was five months of robust discussion. Would you say that the conference was a panacea to Nigeria’s major problems?
I think before we talk about that, the first thing we should go about is to congratulate Mr. President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for taking the bold step in convoking that conference which many Heads of State in the past reluctantly refused to convoke for one reason or the other. There were those who were asking for sovereign national conference.
EDWIN CLARK
There were others who were asking for national conference. Remember people like Gani Fawehinmi, even Tinubu: these were people who were talking about national conference and for a very long time, nobody cared about it. But when we formed the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly, we went to Mr. President, appealed to him on several occasions, argued with him. He had his own case.
And he said, yes, there are problems in Nigeria that cannot be solved by amendments to the constitution alone and finally he agreed to convoke a national conference. He did not just only announce it, he set up a committee under Senator Femi Okurounmu who used to shout in the Senate as if that was the only purpose for which he was elected into the Senate. So, the committee went round the country, saw the modalities and everything and how it should be organised.
Then, the doubting Thomases thought it was a very wrong time and that Mr. President wanted to get some benefits from it. All sorts of things were said. Those of them who could not do it now regarded it as a bad thing.
But there were people who were ready at all times to see whether they can scuttle the conference because they never wanted it. There are people who believe that the status quo in this country should remain. The nation should not move forward as long as it benefits them against millions of Nigerians who are suffering and deprived.
For example, the Nigeria that was amalgamated for one hundred years by Lord Lugard had come to an end. Nigerians have been craving for a new place, a forum where they could all meet to debate and discuss the basis for our living together for the next 100 years. So, what the President did was very, very appropriate and timely at the time.
I think at the end of it, we passed about 600 resolutions and decisions which were very, very relevant to developing a new country and I remember one of my colleagues, Professor Jibril Aminu, one of the most intelligent persons in this country came and sat by me and said that we should take a photograph. We took the photograph and at the end, he said a new Nigeria has been born. And I emphasized the same that you are right; a new Nigeria has been born. Why? Because we touched every aspect of living in Nigeria. What aspect did we not touch?
You said that the Nigeria, Lord Lugard amalgamated in 1914 has come to an end. What do you mean by that?
In 1914, Lord Lugard signed an agreement which amalgamated Southern and Northern Nigeria together. I didn’t say it ended as such but at the end of 100 years, there was a need to renew it because when it was made, nobody was consulted. So, it was appropriate that we have lived together for 100 years and therefore there was need to renew our living together for another 100 years.
Now, do you think that the resolutions reached and taken at the conference have brought peace between the north and the south?
I think so. One of the problems we had first was that most of the northerners never wanted the conference. They believe in the status quo. Even when they came in, they wanted to scuttle it. So, we disagreed first of all whether decisions were to be taken by 75% or by two-third majority.
These went on for over ten days. People thought that the conference was going to end abruptly which made Lamido of Adamawa to say that if this country breaks up, some of us have no place to go to, but they will go to Adamawa State in the Cameroons. That’s what he said. He again said that those of you who are close to Mr. President have come here to oppose Mr. President’s decision; that his decision is to go on 75 percent.
We said no. Mr. President is a liberal man. He has set up a body. How we arrive at our decisions is no business of his. So, we knew that some of us were being attacked indirectly by him. But could you believe that at the end of the conference, we embraced ourselves and we said no more going to Cameroon and we took photographs together.
That shows the level of understanding.
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