21st March, 2015
The Steering Committee of the Movement for National Reformation, (MNR-EUROPE)-Europe branch has urged politicians and political parties to turn their attention to equity and development, adding that, all form of violence be ignored.
At an emergency meeting in London on 18 March, 2015, to discuss various Nigerian national issues relating to the rescheduled March 28 2015 presidential general elections, the meeting examined the scope of the manifestos presented to Nigerians by the parties and expressed its concerns that the restructuring of the country either by the implementation of the National Conference report or by improved alternative programs, has not been a relevant issue in this electoral campaign.
The meeting reasoned that the major parties have neither critically studied the core challenges facing the country nor provided robust solutions. The MNR warned electorates and different power blocks to critically examine the manifestos presented to them to ensure that they address real issues that can improve their lives. The country must not forget that many elections that substituted real issues for the superfluous in the past failed and did not move Nigeria forward.
The meeting observed that to lay citizen, the core problems facing Nigeria can be put into four broad categories, thus: Structural; Security; Economic mismanagement/youth unemployment and Corruption. However, a more critical examination would show that, not only are the problems interrelated, but they can be traced to the core structural problems caused by a lack of nationalism which breeds ethnic mutual mistrust, distrust, economic inefficiency and corruption.
“The nationwide acceptance of the need to restructure the country is a vindication of the reasoning of our visionary founding leader, the late Chief Anthony Enahoro. The movement for National Reformation (MNR) reaffirms its position that in terms of intensity and scope, Nigeria’s balance of power problem is the one single factor that contributes most to the economic and political instability in Nigeria. It is the super-structure engendered by this factor that compounds the normal problems facing Nigeria. It is this problem that renders everything we touch to rot and become poisonous, and is the major reason why Nigeria is not making progress,” a statement signed by Taiwo Akinola, MNR-Europe chairman read.
The meeting concludes that knowing what we know about the country, it’s hardly possible to resolve any of the major problems facing Nigeria- without actively developing a template for equity amongst Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities.
The meeting passes the following resolutions:
• It calls on the interest groups, citizens and parties not to blur the National Question with the issue of corruption. The two are different and the problem of ethnic imbalance is real and cannot be wished away.
• In spite of some reservations that it did not go far enough, the National Conference re-examined the affairs of the country including equitable power sharing and peaceful transfer of power. If implemented, the National Conference reports can provide the enabling environment for further progress to be made.
• It calls on all the parties to publish how they intend to address the structural problems. It seems to us that Nigeria will waste another four years if the structural issues are not address.
• It calls on the power blocks, ethnic nationalities and citizens to get the commitment of the parties to readily agree to restructure the country without pre-conditions before election. These should include regionalism, fiscal federalism, resource control, devolution of power, regional policing and many others as contained in the conclusions of the National Conference.
• It calls on interest groups to focus their attention on both the structural changes required to provide equity in the country and the quality of people who are elected to manage the affairs of the country.