24th October, 2012
By Babatunde Raji Fashola
How time flies! I received with a sense of pleasant nostalgia, the news of the forthcoming 80th birthday celebrations of Chief Dr. Alex Ekwueme, GCON, and immediately began to reminisce about our recent political history and the positive role that statesmen like him have played in Nigeria. I do not call him a statesman lightly or without thought. Nigeria has known a few good men and without a doubt, Ekwueme is one of them. It is therefore always easy to acknowledge men like him. The silence of their quiet achievements is so deafening that they are impossible to ignore; thus making easy, the task of paying them tribute.
When Ekwueme became the first elected Vice-President of Nigeria in 1979, he came upon us like a bolt out of the blue for many good reasons because not many of us outside his immediate constituency and professional field knew him closely. During the 1979 to 1983 years, I saw him as a quiet backbone; a strong and supportive deputy; never in the limelight b ut always in the background. I admired the calm dignity with which he comported himself. He always cut the figure of a suave, sophisticated and distinguished gentleman. It was this long-held impression that first came to mind when I received the invitation. But even this paled into insignificance when I recollected the events that in my view, catapulted Ekwueme into the realm of statesmanship.
It was Aristotle who said: “What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.” How apt! For how else does a person show commitment and influence change but by personal example? And how else can we describe the example set by Ekwueme as Vice-President when, after all manner of investigation by the panel set up by the military after they took over government in 1983, it was publicly and now famously declared that he had left politics poorer than he was when he entered it and that to ask for more from him was to set a standard which even saints would be unable to meet? I can think of no greater honour than that which acknowledges a man’s high sense of integrity.
In a government that has continued to be defined by the depths of profligacy to which some of its members sank, it is indeed instructive that one good man stood out. A statesman indeed. But there was more. Although Ekwueme was unjustly detained, which was itself enough to turn the largest of hearts bitter, our statesman did not express bitterness even if he felt it. Instead, he accepted to serve as a delegate to the National Constitutional Conference and prescribed for us the legacy of the six geo-political zones that will be part of the collateral issue to which I will return. We may not all agree with his prescription, but you can hardly fault the genuine concern behind it, acknowledging as it did the over-concentration of power and resources at the centre and its debilitating effect on true federalism and national unity. For one who was aspiring to lead the country, he was prepared to limit the authority of the central government he aspired to lead.
How many men would yield power wilfully even if illegally acquired? This, for me, was statesmanship indeed. And there was even more. I believe that one of the marks of a true statesman is the inability to stand by and look. Ekwueme must have agreed with the truism that when good men do nothing, nothing good gets done. So rather than sit by the sidelines, he formed the Group of 34 Eminent Nigerians – the G34 – to persuade the then military leader not to succeed himself. With the passage of time, it is often easy to forget just how much of an act of selflessness and bravery this was, particularly under the dangerous conditions of military rule. But occasions like this present us with the opportunity to reflect, conquer our amnesia and publicly acknowledge a statesman indeed. G34 metamorphosed into the PDP, of which he was the founding Chairman and later Chairman of the Board of Trustees. A lot of water has passed under the bridge and there are those who would argue that Ekwueme has not always been fairly or well treated. However, you are unlikely to hear such arguments from the man himself. Because his brand of politics is the hallmark of the great statesman that he is. It is therefore unsurprising that his Foundation, the Alex Ekwueme Foundation, has the promotion of peace, compromise and respect for democratic principles – ideals for which the founder stands – as some of its core objectives. Against the background of the Civil War, this is worthy indeed of emulation. And this generation has much to emulate from this statesman indeed.
On behalf of my wife, Abimbola, the government and people of Lagos State, it is indeed a privilege to salute one of our own eminent residents on his 80th birthday and join the family, friends and well-wishers to wish Ekwueme many more fruitful years of statesmanship in good health, peace and prosperity.
Having rendered the tribute which our celebrant unreservedly deserves, I must now proceed quickly to speak to the collateral issues.I categorise them into two:- (1) Constitutional amendment; and (2) the smaller issue of the six geo-political zones; and I seek to address them in the reverse order.
Six Geo-Political Zones
As far as the proposal for six geo-political zones is concerned, I regret I am unable to walk in the same company of our eminent celebrant. I must confess that this is not an easy decision to make having regard to many considerations not the least of which are his multi-disciplinary intellectual achievements and his undoubted wisdom that continues to get better like good wine. Let me also say that this is not an attempt to give him a bad birthday present. On the contrary, because of his high intellectual bent and his unquestionable moral authority, I am sure that he will welcome debate and dissent based on some logic that may provoke further scrutiny of the model and of course most importantly, I am certain he will welcome honest speaking rather than patronage.
It might be illuminating to the position that I take, to start by saying that as head of government, I had received proposals from the National Assembly to comment on designated areas of possible constitutional amendments, and the issue of six geo-political zones was one of them. At a public hearing that we convened in our State House of Assembly, we did not support the idea of six geo-political zones. Apart from the inconsistency and double-speak that a contrary position from me today will elicit, I am convinced that the reasons proffered for our disinclination to support the proposal are salutary and forceful.
They can be summarized as follows:
a. The constitution does not create any entity without responsibility, personnel and funding. So, to create six geo-political zones will require personnel to head them, responsibility for them to carry out and funding, ostensibly from the Federation account, when the existing Federal, State and Local Governments are all still asking for more revenue.
b. The logical question that will arise therefore will be :- (i) which level of Government gives up its share of insufficient funds to go to the regional structure; (ii) which of the functions of the Federal; State and Local Government will be ceded to the regional Government; and (iii) Is this not a recipe for a default break up of Nigeria into regions that may clamour for nationhood, contrary to the ideals of one Nigeria that we fought a civil war for?
c. If satisfactory answers can be provided to these concerns, I will be ready to have a second look at the proposal.
Constitutional Amendment
Now I will go to the second issue; which is Constitutional Amendment. It is true that many Nigerians have lent their voices to the clamour for a constitutional amendment. What is unclear is whether a constitutional amendment is what we need. Or put differently, will an amendment of our constitution without more, justify the clamour for it? It seems to me that what lies at the heart of the clamour is the desire for a better union and not one for a better document.Many of the jurists and constitutional experts who are in our midst will agree that we already have an elaborate constitution, starting from 1999.We have put almost anything and everything, in our constitution including the dates for elections, that I re-call that one commentator said that we may inadvertently turn it into the minutes of a village union meeting at the rate we are going.
But the point I seek to make is that the constitution is no more than an agreement. An agreement made between people, like simple contracts either between a landlord and tenant about how their relationship will be regulated.Whether the landlord or tenant becomes a good or bad one will not be decided by the Tenancy Agreement. It will be decided by honour, breeding, character, and commitment. These are all qualities I sum up with one word, values. So our quest for a truer and better union will not be solved by changing a document. It will be solved by changing ourselves.
This is my central message:
• We have not had election malpractice because our constitution is bad
• Our roads did not go bad because our constitution is bad
• People do not drive against traffic because the Constitution is bad
• Our education did not deteriorate because our constitution is bad
• We did not abandon our farmland and resort to food importation because our Constitution is bad
• The crash of our stock market, our inability to eradicate polio, or to bring criminals to justice and many other things that frustrate our people and drive them in pursuit of a truer union cannot be laid solely at the door of a bad constitution.
In my view they lie in a diminishing value system that we must rapidly restore.No platform can be better to make such a call for the restoration of values than at an occasion when we gather to celebrate a man of values.I should not be mistaken for suggesting that we do not need a better constitution. We will always need one as our nation marches on in the comity of nations. Indeed that is why constitutions always permit of amendments. What I am saying and I wish to be clearly understood is that we must not put the cart before the horse. The constitution cannot make itself. It is us who will make it. A better union can only come out of a constitution made by people who are driven by the values, of nationhood and patriotism. If you must cut an onion and an orange with only one knife, you have only two options that will prevent an experience of regret. Cut the orange first and the onion last; or if you choose or make the mistake of cutting the onion first, you must wash the knife thoroughly before cutting the orange otherwise it will leave you with a very unpalatable taste of sucking an onion in an orange. I think this is a fair comparison to make to highlight the choices before us. Our values must change before we can change the things that limit our development.
In my humble opinion, I think that Ekwueme’s birthday must first be used as a platform for national rebirth and a return to the highest values of brotherhood, restraint, compromise and patriotism, before it can serve the true purpose of negotiating the basis of a truer and better union. I will conclude by giving a few inexhaustive examples of some of the values I speak of:-
• First, I think our choice of multi-party democracy is well informed and inspite of its limitations, we must, as a nation, rally against any effort to depart from it;
•Secondly, I am of the very clear view that a Federal arrangement is the most appropriate platform for the expression of our diversity; and our political actors of whatever party must never compromise on this;
•Thirdly, I believe that we must see natural disasters or aggression against our nation from within or outside as a threat to all of us and we must abandon our political colors for the Green White and Green whenever events of this nature occur;
•I think that the mere occurrence of natural disasters or acts of terror must not on their own become soap boxes for scoring cheap political gains; although I concede that the methodology for their resolution can always be a matter for debate, especially if a superior choice or alternative is offered;
•Fourthly, I believe we must be politically and ethnically blind when issues of crime arise. These are the quickest ways to reinforce beliefs in our judicial system. The practice that is evolving where a political party or leaders of an ethnic or religious group begin to garner support for a person accused of a crime diminishes our values; and
•The protection of Lagos as the commercial capital of Nigeria, the first or second home of every Nigerian, the refuge of the oppressed people of Nigeria, the theatre where the Nigerian dream of grass or grace has been repeatedly enacted from generation after generation must be something that must be devoid of partisan politics.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, this is the time when we should turn to each other and not against each other.There is too much at stake, there is too much to do, and we must all play our part to secure the promise of our country.
•Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, Governor of Lagos State, delivered this speech on16 October 2012 in Abuja, during the 80th birthday anniversary of former Vice President, Alex Ekwueme.