Govt didn’t sponsor National summit – Tony Uranta

*We got money without govt’s involvement
*Says a national conference is inevitable

BY DAPO AKINREFON

MR Tony Ipriye Uranta is the Executive Secretary of the National Summit Group. In this interview he maintains that a conference is inevitable if the multifarious problems facing the nation must be addressed. He, however, dismissed remarks that the two day national dialogue recently orgnised was sponsored by the Federal government. Excerpts:

What is the essence of the summit and why now?

If you listened carefully to the opening remarks of my co-convener, Prof Pat Utomi, you would know that Nigeria is at a precipice right now. This is whether we like it or not. We have had unrest, both spontaneous and orchestrated since the end of the 2011 elections. Immediately the elections ended, we started having people being killed barbarically enmasse all over the north especially. This was after some people had said that they would make the nation ungovernable. That seemed to have died out but may be the government not too sensitively, proclaimed a deregulation of the downstream sector which I, was one of those that opposed it in the beginning. And these brought about what I had predicted a natural reaction from all Nigerians saying no, you cannot add more weight to our suffering when you have not yet shown us a good will or intention to bring about respite to us.
This blossomed into what became as I saw, a politically motivated opposition and nearly transformed into an unrest that would bring about deaths and calamity. But we thank God Nigerians submitted themselves to the leadership of labour which called off the strike. I supported the strike but I did not support going on the street. We are now in the phase where they are negotiating with government.

But whether these issues are there or not, one phenomenon has been prevalent and that has been the birth of a new radical fundamentalist sect in the north calling itself, Boko Haram or whatever other name they go by. They carry out massacre of innocent Nigerians whether in uniform or not in a bid according to them to islamise at least the northern part of Nigeria and hopefully the whole of Nigeria.

Of course, recently, we have heard reports of a possible resurgence of the Movement For the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) but we will return to that later because that was not what brought about the conference. The National Summit came about mainly because we saw that the Boko Haram-created insecurity could have been avoided if this nation had right from the beginning or recently sat down to work out its modus vivendi.

The terms on which it wants to live together as a nation. I am a nationalist who believes in the unity of Nigeria, who believes there is strength in numbers and who does not want Nigeria to fragmentize in any way. But I believe that we must have equity. Everybody must tell everybody else exactly how he wants to live with everybody else. If some people believe they want Sharia law to guide them, I think it is their right.

But their rights end where my own right begins. There are some states for example in the north that Christians are more predominant than Muslims but if the Muslims say we want Sharia laws to prevail, you now find that there is an imbalance. Nobody can say automatically that the north should become Islamic and the south should become Christians. In Rivers State, there are Muslims and there are Christians in Borno and we cannot run away from it. So, we need to sit down and accept our diversities, recognize them and take them into reckoning and from there, work out positions that would be mutually beneficial and can move this nation forward.

We need a constituent assembly but more than a constituent assembly because a constituent assembly as it has been since 1966 is appointed by the government.

We need the convening of an assembly-call it a conference, a national conference or a sovereign national conference that would emanate from the people. Grassroots up and they must throw up delegates to come up on a national stage and sit on a roundtable and decide what the grund norm of Nigeria should be; fashion out a draft constitution.

Let the people carry out a referendum on that draft. And when the people decide that this and this are acceptable to majority of us because we are in a democracy, then, let that become the basis of a new Nigeria. But it was not enough for any of us to sit down and presume that that is what Nigeria really wants. So, we decided to bring recognized leaders of groups, ethnic bodies, professional bodies, even self governance groups like the OPC, MASSOB, MEND etc and say let us all sit down and start from a blank page; what do you think Nigeria needs to be done now. As you saw, at the end of it, everybody voted for a national conference.