Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 21, Number 24, June 10, 1994 in New York City. Interview: Dr. Walter Ofonagoro [The five remaining members of t�e Constitutional Com­ mission are: Dr. Tunji Otegbeye; C�ief Ayo Ogbolofami; Amb. Yahaya Kwande; Chief C.A. J\gbogi; and Professor Ijioma.] So, you see the kind of people we have here? Do you think these are the kind of people ybu put together to pull The constitutional road the wool over the Nigerian people's eyes? We are inviting memorandums from the entire nation, the public at large, to genuine democracy interest groups, communities, etc., to tell us exactly what they think is wrong with Nigeria and how we can put it right, Dr. Walter Ofonagoro is chairman of the Publicity and Con­ and to tell us the kind of Nigeria they want, so that we ference Convention Committee of the National Constitution­ can have a constitution emanating d�rectly from the people al Conference Commission in Nigeria. He is a former associ­ themselves. And for the last five m()nths we've been bom­ ate professor of African economic history at Columbia barded with over 1,200 memoranda., Out of these, we have Universityin New York City. Dr. Ofonagoro was interviewed been able to extract an agenda for the conference. We also by phone in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on May 31 by Lydia organized elections. Each ward in the country elects five Cherry. delegates and these five elect their district delegates to the Constitutional Conference. There are 6,927 electoral wards EIR: You are preparing for a Constitutional Conference in in this country, each one electing five delegates. So we will Nigeria. There seems to be a lot of disinformation here on have about 35,000 delegates at the electoral college, and this idea. these will in tum elect 273 people to come to the conference. Ofonagoro: It is what I would call a lot of deliberate and These elections have now been concluded, successfully. mischievous misinformation by a small, disgruntled segment The people who are mounting this negative propaganda of our politicians who believe that unless they are in power, have constructed a false report that the election was not suc­ the governmentshould grind to a halt. And because they play cessful because their call for a boycottwas largely ignored. a role in controlling the print media in our country, they use it to publish false information which has no bearing whatso­ EIR: Yet the international wire services seem only to be ever to the reality on the ground. picking up on the statements emanating from this Campaign Our commission was set up in January. The commission for Democracy, which now is calling itself the National Dem­ is comprised of 19 people, all of them very distinguished. ocratic Coalition. Is this the group which called for the Our chairman is a Supreme Court justice, Sa'idu Kawu. The boycott? secretary is a distinguished lawyer from Lagos who is also a Ofonagoro: By doing this [the media] are doing a great Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Debor Okandy. The other disservice to the international community. Because you can 17 members are all very distinguished people; this includes see the kind of people coming to this conference. For in­ the former secretary to the federal government and a former stance, the former vice president I of Nigeria, Dr. Alex chairman of the Nigerian Population Commission, Alhaji Ekweme. He won the election in �is district. The former Shehu Musa. The former secretary to the government of Senate Majority Leader, Dr. Olusol� Saraki. He was elected. Kano State during the Second Republic, Alhaji Sale Sule Former governors, former ministers, people who have Hamma. The former governor of Anambra State, Chief Jim worked hard to put this country in Oluer. So, are we going to Nwobodo. The former minister of communications in the listen to a bunch of nonentities, who don't even have the Shagari government, Mr. Audu Ogbe. The former minister ability to win a ward election in theirown villages; a bunch of of internal affairs in the Shagari government, Dr. Ibrahim self-appointed "democrats" who haVie never won an election, Tahir. The former federal director general, Dr. Bashir Ikara. and who cannot win an election anywhere in the country, or A distinguished academic political scientist, Mrs. Mariam tested leaders who have won elections before and have now Ikejiahe Clark. The former chairman of Union Bank, Alhaji won again? Shehu Malami (Sarkin Sudan of Wurno). A former minister What you have here is the polit�cal elite that were over­ of information, Maj. Gen. I.B.M. Haruna (ret.). The former thrown in the military coup of 19a3; they have· now gone president of Nigerian Labor Congress, Alhaji Ali Ciroma. back to their base and won election to draft the constitution, The longest serving and former president of the Nigerian along with a large group of new bree� people, new generation Senate, Dr. Joseph Wayas. Myself, I'm the former director politicians who participatedin the brieflyaborted democratic general of Nigerian Television Authority, former chairman experiment of 1990-92. of New Leadership University, and a former Associate Pro­ The coalition was calling for a :boycott, and they claim fessor of African Economic History at Columbia University they were successful. In Lagos, there are 195 electoral wards; EIR June 10, 1994 Economics 11 © 1994 EIR News Service Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. We had to make certain adjustments to the policy qf hook, line, and sinker acceptance qfIMF prescriptions, because no Third World country has suroived their prescriptions to date. We don't want to die! elections were successful in 183 of these wards, and by­ that election results be stopped. elections became necessary only in 12 wards. These are con­ In compliance with this second order, the Election Com­ crete statistics which you can check. So what kind of a batting mission stopped announcing these results. This was June 15 average is that? If you call for a boycott in your headquarters, of last year. Some people were printing their own results but your home base-which is what Lagos is-and there are 195 the official results announced by the Electorial Commission electoral wards and elections are successful in 183, and you were for 12 seats out of 31-state results. No official results succeeded only in 12 in disrupting the elections, and those had been declared by the Electoral Commission. But Abiola 12 have now had by-elections, are you really that successful? began travelling around the world claiming that he had won and was being cheated. But because of the fact that various EIR: The western press, for example Reuters, is systemati­ groups began organizing civil disobedience around Lagos cally playing up people connected to the National Democratic and part of western Nigeria where Abiola comes from, the Coalition. government decided to annul the elections completely. The Ofonagoro: But who are these people? The fact is, you decision was made to start afresh. To win election in Nigeria have a country organized around a constitutional convention you have to win in at least 20 states; Abiola's ethnic group to bring in democracy, and I'm the chairman of the Publicity controls five states. The election was not a tribal affair; it and and Conference Convention Committee charged with cannot be. To fight about a petceived grievance on a tribal the responsibility to convene this conference, and Reuters basis makes no sense as to the pretension to national lead­ has made no effort to talk to me. I challenge them to point ership. out any of these so-called Campaign for Democracy people The Constitutional Converition will look at all griev­ who have contested an election anywhere in this country ances, including whether there Were grievances in last year's before. debacle. There are grievances out of the military coup of You also have a tinge of tribalism in this, ethnic hege­ Dec. 31, 1983. There are grievances about the civil war. monism. The sort of thing you saw with the Inkatha Freedom There are grievances from the oil-producing areas-the mi­ Party in South Africa, over the status of the Zulus. Or the norities feel they are being cheated out of the revenue that kind of thing you see among the Serbs. comes from their territory. There are all kinds of grievances. Most of the people are more rational than that. But in But you cannot run a country; you cannot move forward every situation you find a few diehards. But it is generally unless you are able to sort out these problems and findconsti­ understood that [the way] to tackle any perceived grievance tutional solutions to them. or injury, is through dialogue. [Former ITT chairman and What has to be understood is that Nigeria is no stranger Nigerian billionaire Moshood] Abiola alleges that he won an to democracy. We fought for independence and we've had election and was not sworn in. But the fact is that Abiola was democratic governmentsever since, except for when we ran never declared the winner of any election in this country by into constitutional and ethnic pnbblems and the militaryinter­ any competent body. vened to save the country from/ailing apart. The unfortunate thing now is that some western govern­ EIR: Would you explain the Abiola situation? ments thought that they were financing democratic move­ Ofonagoro: We held elections last year in this country. Two ments but they have now fallenl prey to vicious groups over days before the elections, a court in Abuje directed that the here that are fighting for ethnic power under the guise of elections should be stopped because of allegations that there democratic movements.