Editorials - Individuals

• National Conference: Need to make Nigeria a political reality
  Fredrick Fasheun
  February 6, 2002
  [excerpt] IS Nigeria a Nation? To answer this question calls for an understanding of our historical colonial past, the present political mood of the people and what they see as future challenges, in a world characterised by subjugating globalisation on one hand and national individual on the other. ......full story

• The dangers of ethnic nationalism
  Paul Nwabuikwu
  The Guardian
  Wednesday, December 6, 2000
  [excerpt] IDEOLOGIES, like fashion, come and go. They may endure for a few years, decades or even generations, but in the end, they fade into the twilight of human experience. Communism in Russia, for instance, lasted a little longer than the Biblical three score and ten years before collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. In Nigeria today, ethnic nationalism is the ideology of the moment, as "hot" as a new Michael Jackson record when that famous pop legend of indeterminate gender reigned in the 1980s......full story

• What They (The South-South) Want
  Clarice Azuatalam
  Newswatch (Lagos) OPINION
  December 4, 2000
  [excerpt] People of the south-south geo-political zone of Nigeria are resolute in their agitation for the federal government to reduce its grip on their nature-given resources. The group said at the end of a meeting in Port Harcourt, November 4, that the people are prepared more than ever before to take full control of the resources in their areas .......full story

• Ethnicity: Bane of Nigerian Politics
  CHUKWUDI NWEJE
  PostExpress
  November 8, 2000
  [excerpt] THE problem of ethnicity has become one of the greatest problems in Nigerian politics. Infact, the problem has been with us as far back as the time of the amalgamation. Prior to 1899, the territory presently known as Nigeria was made up of diverse ethnic groups with little or nothing in common with one another. The territory then consisted of three zones.........full story

• Radical pressures in Ake's Niger Delta
  G.G. Darah
  The Guardian
  November 6, 2000
  [excerpt] The Ogoni of Rivers State began their passive resistance in 1990 following the issuance of their Ogoni Bill of Rights. Like the Tiv insurrection of the 1960s and the Boro-led Ijaw revolt of 1966, the Ogoni initiative used the ethnic territory as the basis of organisation and mobilisation.......full story

• Executive illegality
  Levi Obijiofor
  The Guardian
  November 3, 2000
  [excerpt] IF ever a sovereign national conference should be held in Nigeria, one of the items on the agenda must be how to educate present and future state governors on the fine art of diplomacy. This might seem like a distraction but it is important. Politicians who aspire for public office at the gubernatorial level must be intellectually sharp and less prone to making stupid and unintelligent comments......full story

• Federalism and the Southern Governors Forum
  Jide Ajani
  Vanguard
  October 13, 2000
  [excerpt] Just as the reminder was made, a small, call-card-sized paper suddenly surfaced. Although Vanguard could not ascertain the originator of that paper, it, nonetheless, made more than half a dozen stopovers in front of those for whom the message on it was meant. And what was the information contained therein?......full story

• Nigeria: From NNDP to PDP
  Yusuph Olaniyonu
  The Comet
  October 1, 2000
  [excerpt] As Nigerians today celebrate the 40th anniversary of their country’s freedom from colonial rule, their hearts will be filled with one sense of fulfillment and that is that the country is today ruled by a government they elected on their own having chosen to give their mandate to one of the three political parties legally recognised to field candidates for elections. That is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).......full story

• Restructuring: Nationality Self Identity Is Primary
  Kolawole Ogundowole
  Vanguard Daily
  September 23, 2000
  [excerpt] Nationality self-determination is primary relative political re-groupings of any sort. Otherwise, one’s nationality self-worth and hence self-respect vanishes in such arrangements that start off by glossing over this crucial issue of nationality self-identity......full story

• Continuing Struggle for Democratic Change
  Stephen Kola-Balogun
  This Day (Lagos) OPINION
  July 22, 2000
  [excerpt] Despite the wave of optimism that heralded our return to democracy last year and our ever burning desire as a nation to enjoy some of the traditional freedoms peculiar to western countries, the ordinary Nigerian still has much less control over his destiny than he has been led to believe, far less than he is entitted to expect or demand and a great deal less than was on offer a generation ago when independence was attained......full story

• The Call for a Sovereign National Conference
  Seth Nwughala
  Post Express (Lagos)
  July 13, 2000
  [excerpt] The call for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference gained primacy because of the desire to restructure the political system of Nigeria soon after the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election......full story

• Sharia: Return to Federalism
  JANE FRANCIS Joseph AIMIENMWONA and BRIGHT EWULU
  Post Express (Lagos)
  June 25, 2000
  [excerpt] Thus, Nigeria got its official name to be the Federal Republic of Nigeria. By Federation is meant a "union of states in which individual states keep control of many internal matters, but in which foreign affairs, defence etc. are the responsibility of the central government."......full story

• Of Royal Fathers, SNC and Confederacy
  Oludamasi Itayemi
  Post Express (Lagos)
  June 13, 2000
  [excerpt] There was the report in some dailies recently that some royal fathers from the South West "distanced themselves from the strident calls for Sovereign National Conference (SNC) and confederation.".....full story

• Nigeria And Violence: SNC Is Best Solution
  Mawo Celestine
  P.M. News (Lagos)
  May 9, 2000
  [excerpt] The Sovereign National Conference is appropriate as it is a battlefield of the oppressed, the dispossessed and the victims of the most blatant exploitation. Until the call for Sovereign National Conference is acceded to, democracy has not surfaced in Nigeria......full story

• The Imperatives of a Sovereign National Conference: The Past as a guide
  Steve U. Nwabuzor
  April 19, 2000
  [excerpt] Political, economic and structural imperfections were smuggled into the constitution by successive military regimes, destroying the trust of the average citizen in the corporate existence of Nigeria. It is with cognizance of the current tenuous situation that a call for the convocation of a national conference has become imperative to salvage the seriously battered psyche of the nation. ......full story

• An Open Letter To President Olusegun Obasanjo
  Samuel Adebayo Arowolaju
  Readers' Forum
  March 29, 2000
  [excerpt] First let me seek your indulgence to be so informal and thus jump all protocols. That way, I think I will be freer and closer to speak my mind with you as a brother and friend, which I am. If it were in those good old school days I will call you Sege......full story

• A recurring echo of confederation
  Mike Ebonugwo
  Vanguard
  Wednesday, 29 March, 2000
  [excerpt] UNKNOWN to many the agitation for confederation is as old as Nigeria’s history which dates back to 1914. The argument of the early proponents of confederacy was anchored on the claim that Nigeria was the creation of British colonial administrator, Lord Frederick Lugard who was accused of forcing the different nationalities in the Southern and Northern protectorates into a marriage of incompatible bed fellows.....full story

• Sharia, Confederation, & National Conference
  Bedford Nwabueze Umez
  March 28, 2000
  [excerpt] Man has experimented (and is still experimenting) with several kinds of governments. First, is a unitary government (with a powerful central government making all the laws that uniformly apply to all states irrespective of the differences among states). This government [e.g., the British system] is the most prevalent today, and it normally works better in homogenous countries.....full story

• Time For Sovereign National Conference
  Akinyemi Onigbinde
  Tempo (Lagos)
  March 22, 2000
  [excerpt] The subject of this discourse is a sore point to those who, like Fredrick Luggard, do not believe that the aggregate opinions of Nigerians are required as inputs in the processes that should lead to their destiny. To them, the corporate existence of Nigeria is non- negotiable. Yet, this claim is debatable as its validity is not a necessary one......full story

• Sovereign National Conference Is The Solution
  Ben Eguzozie
  Tempo (Lagos)
  March 15, 2000
  [excerpt] Before the Kaduna sectarian riots and the attendant reprisal attacks in Aba, Owerri and Umuahia, the issue of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) as the final solution to the nation's nagging political problems had practically slipped out of the front burner of national political leaders......full story

• Sharia: The Road to National Sovereign Conference
  Emmanuel Maduabuchi
  PostExpress 03/08/2000
  [excerpt] But now have all the great expectations we have had for the greatness of this nation turned to this appalling situation that we have today? Or is it not appalling that this country has come to this "weeping and wailing and moaning and gnashing of teeth and has also" come to this monumental shedding of blood as was witnessed in Kaduna State......full story

• Call for Sovereign National Conference: Solution to Nigeria's problems
  Ejiofor Ritchie
  February 17, 2000
  [excerpt] The situation in Nigeria, is the non acceptance by the central government in face of obvious reality our leader in past since independence have pretended not to acknowledge the truism of the situation and this has made all attempts at constitutional making a farce. It reminds us of the case where our leader tells us to listen to" Moses but they go back dancing around the golden calf"........full story

• Restoring legitimacy to the 1999 Constitution by conference
  Akpo Esajere
  The Guardian (NIG), February 10, 2000
  [excerpt] Soon after the new civilian government of President Olusegun Obasanjo took off last May 29, agitation began for a review or replacement of the constitution, which has come to be regarded as the military’s questionable legacy. At the conference in which participants were from the civil society organisations, the academia, political parties and the press, it was noted that although the outgoing military government of Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar prepared a constitution to bring into being the civilian government, acceptance of the document was hinged, not on whether it would work, but on the urgent need to encourage the military to quit governance after 16 years.......full story

• The Most Legitimate Constitution
  Fred Onyeoziri
  PostExpress 1/14/00
  [excerpt] IN this country, we have changed our constitutions rather too often. This in itself suggests that there is something always wrong with out constitutions. Perhaps, it is something to do with the very way we make them, or because our constitutions do not accommodate all the relevant interests in our political system or perhaps, it is because our constitutions are made by the wrong people.......full story

• Who is afraid of a National Conference?
  Rudolf Okonkwo
  January 10, 2000
  [excerpt] There are three groups of people currently associating themselves with that corporate entity called Nigeria: those who believe in the necessity of a National Conference: those who care less about any form of a National Conference, and those who are afraid of a National Conference........full story

• Colonial Mentality and the Sovereign National Conference
  N. H. Ibanga
  January 5, 2000
  [excerpt] For those who are yet to see the need for the Sovereign National Conference, let me point out that one reason is sufficient to warrant such a conference. The entity called Nigeria was conceived of by the British, established by the British, for the good of the British Empire. No African was either consulted or had his wellbeing taken into consideration.........full story

• Before a Sovereign Conference
  Gabriel Akwaeze
  PostExpress 12/14/99
  [excerpt] WHEN our pioneer nationalist crusaders decided that the British must go, they sincerely believed that they were honestly serving the interests of their country. The Nigerian people gave them massive support. Many of these people are now dead......full story

• Not so difficult to talk (The national question)
  By Bolaji Ogunseye
  The Guardian (NIG), December 6, 1999.
  [excerpt] IN relation to the lingering 'national question' there are three types of Nigerians. The first type comprises the 'conservatives' who broadly like Nigeria as it is, albeit admitting that some adjustments may be needed here and there. The second type wants a change. The third type is somewhat undecided, and will broadly accept it any which way.......full story

• A Regiment for Every Commune? Against Regional Armies
  By Chidi Amuta
  PostExpress, September 1, 1998
  [excerpt] EXASPERATION with the Nigerian condition has created two troublesome debates. One has to do with the matter of getting someone from the south to occupy the office of president. The other by far potentially more dangerous debate has to do with the matter of regional armies. The former debate has to do with office shift. The latter questions the source of power in the Nigerian state. The way they have been posed, both are complementary: one could answer both.........full story

• Return to Concurrent Powers
  By Mma Agbagha
  PostExpress, August 10, 1998
  [excerpt] THE rain actually started beating us in Nigeria when unitarism and its arbitrariness took over the polity. In the early sixties, Nigerians were happy to belong to their regions as well as to the nation. The regions had what would seem today as almost a total autonomy........full story

• Restructuring a Battered Federal System
  By Adeniyi Ojebisi
  PostExpress, August 4, 1998
  [excerpt] RISING from a two day conference recently in Enugu, frontline politicians of Igbo origin declared, "The basis on which the Igbos shall partake meaningfully in the present political transition would be the promotion of a true federation with six regions based on the current six geo-political zones in the country.".......full story

• Distribution of Powers and Functions in Federal Systems (Section 1)
  Dwight Herperger
  1991
  This background study, prepared by Dwight Herperger of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen's University, was commissioned in February 1991 by the Federal-Provincial Relations Office of the Government of Canada. The study surveys the great variety of forms and the scope that the distribution of powers may take within various federal systems....... Section 1
  Section 2 | Section 3 | Section 4