Femi Falana, a Lagos-based Human Rights Activist during a world press briefing on the State of the Nation, spoke on various challenges facing the country ranging from relocation threat, agitations for implementation of National Conference recommendations, restructuring and the need for monitoring of State and Local Governments’ budget, among others. KEHINDE AKINTOLA reports:
Northern groups’ call on the Igbos to leave the North
All of us were celebrating emergence of Obama as the President of America. Obama is not just an American-African, Obama is an African, because his father is a migrant from Kenya. So if you can celebrate the emergence of Obama in the US, is it possible to have produced an Obama and I think this is the challenge before us. The recently concluded election in the UK, two weeks ago, seven Nigerians emerged as Legislators, can we repeat that, can we look at the challenges before us and stop following those ones trying to divide us?
This information is very crucial to all of us and I want to say this publicly, the man who is giving quit notice does not live in the North, he lives in Lagos, he is a Lagos man. So to stay in Lagos and be giving quit notices is not the answer.
Anti-Military protest by Nigerian Students
On May 23, 1986, young people, four of them were killed in the Ahmadu Bello University because somebody had said we are against coup… Ango Abdullahi was the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University when these students were killed by the Police, he came out and said only four students were killed. That angered Nigerians particularly the Nigerian students and there were protests. One of the universities where that protest was very successful was the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Please listen to me, the man who led the protest was the late Chima Ubani, what happened? The state did not like the case that it was a national protest against the killing in ABU. What did they do? They didn’t arrest the students who were protesting in the North. They didn’t arrest the students who were protesting in the West, Babangida regime went for Chima Ubani and arraigned him and eight of his colleagues under a military rule that required that they be sentenced to death. I left Lagos to go to Enugu to defend those men. We got them freed when they returned to campus, the Vice Chancellor expelled them. Again, I went to court and got them freed. Please this story is very important. A Hausa Vice Chancellor invited the police and they killed young Hausa students, four of them. Nigerian students protested and an Igbo young man led that protest in the East against injustice and a Yoruba man in the West to free them. So we must look at those things that the elites are using to divide our people. Injustice is injustice, so there is no nation without challenges.
Call for implementation of National Conference recommendations/Restructuring
The other one about the National Conference, please those who are talking of restructuring, many of them are talking in the air. We must concretise this debate now. You can’t have political restructuring without economic restructuring. If you are talking of restructuring you won’t be selling the assets of a country to individuals. How can a serious nation be giving serious items to individuals when states are broke? You are not giving what belong to the states to them, states are not buying the electricity companies! On the National Conference, I beg you, don’t be carried away. Power is not given without a fight. Those who want implementation of the recommendations should be prepared for struggle like the labour and the struggle by the civil society. The most important recommendation is never touched by the ruling class, which is what the President of the NLC has just addressed our minds to.
Unfavourable policies
Please Mr. President, you have just informed us that what is owed to pension those who served our fatherland is N300 billion. Just this week, the Federal Government has just released N700 billion to those who bought our electricity companies, are you not aware? Initially they were given N300 billion, that’s over a trillion naira to manage darkness in our country. So let us begin to ask the relevant questions. It is in Chapter 2 of the Constitution that the fundamental objectives of the state shall be made justiceable in order words, right to education, right to life, right to employment benefits, right to living minimum wage. These are all centre in that chapter. Those who are talking of restructuring and federalism are not interested in these. But please all of us must remind them that the Awolowos, the Ahmadu Bello’s when we have the First Republic addressed social services of our people. That is no longer the case. Please this talk about restructuring, we must concretise it, this talk about federalism, we must concretise it. You can’t be coming to Abuja every month to collect money and you are talking of true federalism. True federalism means you must produce what you need in your area ad they can ask everybody to pay tax.
Education
Let me end by telling you Mr. President, I’m throwing this challenge, there are two laws that have made education free and compulsory from primary to junior secondary school. The Child’s Rights Act and the Universal Basic Education Act. If we make those laws implementable, it will pull out all those children who are hawking goods and many or the young people that are recruited by terrorist groups and the rest of them. The second issue is, we must insist on the National Health Act that provides that one percent of the budget of the Federal Government shall go towards health services.
Debate on State and Local Governments budgets
We only talk about the budget of the Federal Government, we don’t talk about the budget of the States and Local Governments. Whereas, the money that goes out of the federation account, while Federal Government takes 52%, the Local Governments and States take 48%. Just like we are debating the budget of the Federal Government, we must be debating the budget of the State Governments and the Local Government.
