Since President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the National Conference last month there have been debates on whether the conference will at the end of its deliberations give the country a new constitution or not. But a delegate at the conference and former Minister of Women Affairs, Iyom Josephine Anenih was very emphatic during a chat with Assistant Editor, Nigerian Pilot Sunday, MIKE ODIAKOSE that President Goodluck Jonathan never mandated the conference to write a new constitution. Excerpts:
The National Conference has been on for a month and Nigerians are getting worried that nothing is coming out from there. What is responsible for the slow pace of work at the confab?
How can you say nothing is coming out from here? We have spent one month but we have covered a lot of ground. You know the Chinese take a long time to prepare and plan. When you take a long time to plan well once you start building there is no demolition, there is no going back because you have taken care to plan for the building. So that is the difference between the Chinese and some other people. What we have done is that we have taken time to sort out all the house-keeping matters, we have taken time to arrange for the committees, make sure that everybody is in the committee they want to be in or they are happy in the committee they have been put so that when we not go to the committee stage to work you know there is no distraction, there is nothing to set the work back and everybody is putting in their best. So, I will not agree that we have wasted time or that nothing has come out of it.
Most of the delegates are already complaining that the time they are given to do their job is too short and the fear is that they may not be able to do thorough job. What is your take on this?
Well, the time is not adequate when you consider the grounds that needs to be covered and the enormity of the responsibilities that the committees are imposing on members. The time is not enough but, like I said, because we are not going to be doing any other thing apart from committee work when we get started I know that members will put in their best. It is not going to be like plenary where we spend time on issues. We know that we have to work at very fast pace. I believe that if the need arises maybe some adjustments will be made here and there to give more time for the completion of the work that has to be done.
Questions have been raised about the legitimacy of the national conference and even some delegates like Prof Auwalu Yadudu has come out to say the conference is illegitimate. You are also a lawyer like Yadudu, how do you react to this?
I don’t know what he means by legitimacy. It is legitimate to the extent that we are not breaking any law by meeting together. In fact, it is our constitutional right to assemble and to discuss. We have freedom of speech, we have freedom of assembly and that gives us legitimacy. So I don’t know what he means by not being legitimate.
The issue of what happens to the final recommendations of the conference has also come up, and so far there appears to be lack of consensus on what to do with the conference report. Some are saying it should go for referendum while others are saying it should go to the National Assembly. What is your stance on this?
It has not been a discussion here at the national conference whether it should go to the national assembly or whether it should go for referendum. That is probably your own view because all of us here know that we are not national assembly. We also know that we are not writing a new constitution for Nigerians. We have are mandate, we have our guidelines. President that convoked this conference has given us guidelines and we know what is expected of us. What he (President Jonathan) said in his speech is very clear that we should put our heads together and suggest ways of re-creating a new Nigeria in terms of sorting out the problems that are besieging Nigeria. Everything we are doing here will come as recommendations to the President and as advice to the President and to the legislature. It is not only the executive but also to the legislature. So if we recommend to the legislature it is for them to do with it what they ought to do for the benefit of Nigerians. If we advice the executive or we send recommendations to the executive it is for the executive to do what they ought to with it in terms of policies that will suit Nigerians. We are expected to look at all the problems of Nigeria, why is Nigeria not working as it should and then recommend solutions to it. That is what we have been told to do and that is what we are doing.
A lot of decisions will be taken at the committee stage and the women delegates have complained that despite the caliber of women here only very few were made committee chairmen. What are you doing with the confab secretariat to sort out this matter?
The women have complained to the secretariat where they should complain and it is for the secretariat to do what they have to do.
You sort of kicked the butt of fellow delegates when you chided them during the debate on the Abuja bombing that it is now they realise there is insurgency in the country because it happened here in Abuja. Why did you come down hard on them?
No, I didn’t kick them, it is just stating the obvious. We’ve lived with stories everyday coming from all over the country, especially the North East of killings and abductions and kidnappings and everything. I have never seen Nigerians, not only the people at the conference, everybody in Abuja, I have never seen them react, visiting them, giving them presents, paying their hospital bills as they have done because this one is very immediate and it is within their vicinity. So that is why people realised the enormity, the seriousness of what has been happening. Everyday we wake up 20, slaughtered, 100 slaughtered and it was just like stories, it was as if it was happening in another country. My people say that when you carry a corpse that is not related it looks as if you are carrying a log of wood but if it is a corpse that is related to you, you know how it feels and it becomes very immediate and very harrowing. The expressions or feelings that we saw was because we actually saw it at our backyard and it could have been them. For instance, people living in Asokoro could have been passing that road to go to anywhere around there and they could have been involved. That is what I meant.
Finally, for Nigerians out there who are pessimistic about this national conference what message do you have for them?
I will tell Nigerians to believe in Nigerians, it is only Nigerians that can solve the problems of Nigerians. People are not going to come from Mars to solve our problems. So we should try to trust ourselves and give ourselves some benefits of the doubt that we can do it.
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