Women, The Nation And Economy: The Way Forward

Being a paper delivered by Yahaya Ezeemoo Ndu the National Chairman of the African Renaissance Party[ARP]at the WOMEN OF FAITH CONFERENCE, holding at the Transcorp Metro Hotel, Calabar, 29th, November, 2012.

INTRODUCTION.
Our nation Nigeria and our continent Africa are certainly on the cross roads and multitudes of questions are being asked. For Nigeria, a nation most abundantly blessed by the almighty. The questions include: How come it that one of the most richly endowed nations on the face of the earth has a greater majority of its population wallowing in abject poverty?

According to UNICEF child mortality rate in the world is highest in India followed by Nigeria.

The report of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation released last month estimates and states that, Nigeria ranks 14 out of 16 countries assessed in West Africa in terms of human rights, transparency and accountability. Nigeria was also ranked 43rd out of 52 countries listed overall. Nigeria was 41st last year and 37th in 2006.

Travelling by road almost throughout the whole of South East, South South , South West and North Central zones of Nigeria have become increasingly a hellish nightmare. Roads are dilapidating at more than ten times the rate at which they are being repaired or reconstructed.

To take some random samplings: A journey from Badagry to Mile 2 in Lagos State which ordinarily use to take an average of one hour now takes between four and six hours because of bad roads. In fact, it is an understatement to say bad roads .A journey from Port Harcourt to Yenagoa is no different. From Uyo to Umuahia is unspeakable and from Benin to Lagos has become a notorious national disaster.

As for security, even without the menace of Boko Haram, which government prefers to tell us is no different from what obtains in other parts of the world, the issue of armed robberies has reached a level where it has transcended armed robberies as ordinarily known in human societies and has become uniquely barbaric and satanic. Female passengers are now gang raped before their co travelers and passengers have sometimes been forced to lie down on the roads to be crushed to gruesome death by oncoming trailers vehicles.

Unemployment and poverty have gone completely out of hand as tertiary institutions are turned to brothels and female students increasingly take to prostitution in order to make ends meet.

WOMEN-THE NATION
Any time people speak about the imperativeness or inevitability of a national conference to discuss the future of Nigeria, even of the need for state police, they are told that those are recipes for national disintegration. These reactions imply that Nigeria is held together by force which had led many to say that Nigeria is a country but not yet a nation. Others describe Nigeria as a mere geographical expression.

It is clear to all that the salvation of Nigeria cannot ordinarily be expected any longer to come by elections and citizens are getting more ostracized and disillusioned by the day.

Despite all the sweet talks at all levels of government about transformation, the overwhelming perception of Nigerians is that the society is divided sharply between those in government together with their collaborators on one hand and the governed and their dependants on the other hand and there appears to be no democratic or intellectual intercourse between the two. Hopelessness has taken over everywhere and something must be done to restore hope to the generality of the people and faith in the body polity of the nation.

The Nigerian women must now truly assist and engage society constructively.

From December 17th to 19th, 1998 at the Century Hotel, Okota, Lagos , the Campaign for Democracy led by Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti organized what was known as the Conference of Nationalities. Dr. Beko read the Welcome Address, the Opening remarks was by Prof. Wole Soyinka , while the Keynote address was by Chief Anthony Enahoro.

Amongst other topics, the conference discussed: Historical background to the present Nigerian Polity; Restructuring, Security Agencies and Institutions among tiers of government; fiscal federalism ; experiences from other lands-South Africa, Ethiopia and Asia and framework of the Nigerian constitutions. There were also presentations of other papers and submissions. Dr.[Mrs.] Joe Okei –Odumakin made the vote of thanks.

I Yahaya Ezeemoo Ndu, was among numerous and enthusiastic other Nigerians that participated in that conference of 1998.

It is an indisputable fact of history and I am one of those who hold that the 1999 document called' constitution' was compiled and imposed by the Military Government of General Abdulsalami Abubakar and which document cannot be truly said to have properly been prepared by the Nigerian People themselves. Under a full blown democracy, the 1999 constitution is fundamentally a fraud and therefore no amount of technical or other committees and amendments can morally and decently make it truly binding on Nigerians and Nigeria.

This fundamentally is why the generality of Nigerians who have been woefully failed by the conception, operation and proceeds of the Obasanjo government's National Political Reform Conference were resolved and prayed that the PRONACO conference resoundingly succeeds and provide a genuine draft of a Nigerian Peoples Constitution.

On 1st of October 2004, the African Renaissance Party [ARP] led by my humble self flagged off a campaign to inundate Nigeria and Nigerians with the idea of holding the long overdue Nigerian Peoples Conference on the internet.

The manifesto of the ARP in pursuit of one of its objectives of contributing its quota to the quest of convening a Nigerian Peoples Conference to amongst other things, fashion out a formula for a lasting and just, peaceful and harmonious co-existence amongst all the peoples of Nigeria, listed this objective expressly on pages 3 and 13.

On the 1st of January 2005, the ARP convened a meeting of Leaders of Political Parties on the imperatives of urgently organizing a Nigerian Peoples Conference on the internet.

When President Obasanjo and his Peoples Democratic Party[PDP] organized their National Political Reform Conference that amongst other grave shortcomings excluded 27 of the then existing 30 registered Political Parties, the ARP had intensified its lobbying of other political parties to come together as it were, and organize the proposed Nigerian Peoples Conference on the internet with its attendant advantages and pressing imperatives.

It was further specifically recommended in the message of the renaissance party that the internet conference be affiliated with PRONACO.

The parties that attended meetings convened for the purpose were full of enthusiasm as a Conference Organizing Committee was formed and sub-committees even subsequently emerged. Unfortunately ,inter/intra party conflicts in conspiration with other factors stalled its programs.

Democracy is not alien to Nigerians and to Africans. Many Nigerian and African communities had full blown democracies long before they came into contact with Europeans, imperialists and colonialists. In fact what is known as Democracy was invented in Africa by Africans and bequeathed to the world.

True National Conferences are supposed to provide fully participatory democratic settings for open introductions, discussions and resolutions of national issues.

NIGERIAN WOMEN IN HISTORY
''the Kingdom is possible, Because of the Queen…The King is the Sign…while the Queen is the Symbol''-Warren Blakely.

''After preliminary investigation into the area of ancient Nubia, a striking contrast emerged. The Nubians has an unusually high number of ruling queens, especially during the golden age of the Meiotic kingdom. Although ruling queens, in themselves, may not be unusual, the portrayal of Nubian queen is exceptional. A panel on display at the exhibit''Nubia: Egypt's Rival in Africa'' showed the queen smiting her enemies. This type of representation has no equivalent in either Egyptian or Western Art. This unusual find has led to research in the role of women in Nubian society, both past and present.

The result has been a surprising contrast between the docile Nubian woman of today and the warrior queen of ancient times'' Tara Kneller.

Upon close examination of the history and culture of Nubian, it becomes apparent that women played an important role. Unlike the rest of the world at the time, women in Nubian exercised significant control. In the Nubian valley, worship of the queen of all goddesses Isis, was paramount. From the capital Meroe, warrior queens fought for the interests of the Nubian/Kushite empire.

Throughout history, women portrayed in Nubian art as the bearers of the offspring of the gods. Today, Nubian women have a much different experience. Nevertheless, Nubian women fulfill a demanding and unique series of roles.

Great women of Nigeria, our mothers, sisters and daughters, recall to mind the myriads of times women had intervened to save the generality of the people and their state when the men proved incapable or unwilling to do the right or necessary thing at the right and appropriate times.

THE ECONOMY
The first thing that we all must realise about ECONOMY is that its well being is dependent overwhelmingly on the politics upon which it is carried out. This is why all programs of government on economic reforms have never and will never yield any positive fruits, untill the foundational political reforms are first put in proper place.

According to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria[ICAN], the underdevelopment saga currently assailing the nation's economy, despite claims of ''impressive economic growth'' may compromise plans of emergence of Nigeria of Nigeria as one of top 20 global economies.

ICAN recommended the enthronement of enduring institutions needed for sustainable national economic growth and development. According to ICAN, it was unacceptable the way Nigerians are suffering in the midst of abundance. ICAN further called for paradigm shift in the style of governance, from mere celebration of transient achievement of individual leaders to the building of enduring institutions for sustainable national development.

As B.J.St Matthew-Daniel says:
''The Challenges confronting the Nigerian economy in the 21st Century are diverse and enormous. The unacceptable state of Nigeria's economy is most galling given Nigeria's enormous endowments of natural and human resources. This is more so given the fact that Asian countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia, with similar natural resource endowments, have recorded significant successes in the development of their economies since 1965 when they were at par or even behind Nigeria.

Singapore, some 30 years later had a per capita income of some US $10,000, whilst that of Nigeria, was US $300. Nigeria's economic decline, especially during the last 20 years is illustrated by the fact that per capita income, which was US $1000 in 1965 had declined to US $300 by 1998.

Within some 18b years, Nigeria had declined from being a low middle income country and amongst the fifty richest countries in the world to one of the 30 poorest.

The major causes of the decline in Nigeria's economic fortune have been political instability and bad governance, most especially in the 1990s. Military rule in Nigeria, as has been the case in most other countries with prolonged military rule, led to economic and social stagnation and decline. Similarly, the advent of an elected government at the dawn of the 21st Century after almost three decades of military rule should afford Nigeria the opportunity to arrest the decline in her socio-economic development and embark on economic revival.

The role of Nigerian women
From pre-colonial times to the early 21st century, the role and status of women in Nigeria have continuously evolved. However, the image of a helpless, oppressed, and marginalized group has undermined their proper study, and little recognition has been granted to the various integral functions that Nigerian women have performed throughout history.

In the pre-colonial period, women played a major role in social and economic activities. Division of labor was along gender lines, and women controlled such occupations as food processing, mat weaving, pottery making, and cooking. Moreover, land was communally owned, and women had access to it through their husbands or parents. Although a man was the head of the household in a patrilineal system, older women had control of the labor of younger family members.

Women were also central to trade. Among the Yoruba, they were the major figures in long-distance trade, with enormous opportunities for accumulating wealth and acquiring titles. The most successful among them rose to the prestigious chieftaincy title of iyalode, a position of great privilege and power.

In politics, women were not as docile or powerless as contemporary literature tends to portray them. The basic unit of political organization was the family, and in the common matrifocal arrangement, which allowed a woman to gain considerable authority over her children, a woman and her offspring could form a major bloc in the household. Power and privileges in a household were also based on age and gender, thereby allowing senior women to have a voice on many issues. Because the private and public arenas were intertwined, a woman's ability to control resources and people in a household was at the same time an exercise in public power. She could use food production to gain respect. She could control her children and influence men through this power. She could evoke the power of the spirit or gods in her favor. Or she could simply withdraw and use the kitchen as her own personal domicile for interaction with her colleagues, friends, and children.

Beyond the household level, power was generally dominated by men, but in many areas specific titles were given to women. The queen mother, a powerful title among the Edo and Yoruba, could be bestowed upon the king's mother or a free woman of considerable stature. In her own palace, the queen mother presided over meetings, with subordinate titleholders in her support. Yoruba and Hausa legends describe periods when women were either the actual kings or heroines. Such women as Moremi of Ile-Ife and Amina of Zaria are notable legendary figures, as are the powerful queens in the Ondo and Daura histories.

The most serious threat to the influence and privileges of women occurred during the 20th century, when patriarchy combined with colonial changes to alter gender relations. As male chiefs collaborated with the British colonial administration in collecting taxes and governing, the position of female chiefs declined in importance. When the economy became increasingly geared toward the production of cash crops for export, Nigerian men and European firms dominated the distribution of rubber, cocoa, groundnuts (peanuts), and palm oil. Women, pushed to the background, were forced to shift to the production of subsistence crops. A previous land-tenure system that had prevented land alienation gave way to land commercialization, favoring those with access to money gained from the sale of cash crops. Western-style education also favored boys over girls and thus largely excluded women from many of the new occupations introduced by colonialism.

The most powerful agency of change for the modern woman has been Nigeria's formal education system, from which a large number of elite women have emerged. Intelligent, educated, and confident, they can be found in all leading occupations; they now challenge many aspects of patriarchy and are gradually organizing to ensure that the political arena expands sufficiently to accommodate them.

Toyin O. Falola
Unbiased research reveals that the reasons for Nigeria's economic backwardness and dysfunction are not far fetched. They include:

1,Pure wickedness, clothed as tribalism.
2,Planlessness.
3,Sort sighted greed.
4,Lack of patriotism
5,Colonial mentality
6,Sacrificing national interests on the alter of partisan politics.

After the second world war, the Allied forces that were victorious against Hitler's Germany, put together the Marshall plan to help Germany get on its feet immediately because they realized that what goes around, comes around, and that id despondency and poverty were allowed to take root in Germany , that in time, it will become contagious and effect all.

In sharp contrast, in Nigeria, after the so-called civil war, the Military Government of General Yakubu Gowon[a Christian, who is now leading the NIGERIA PRAYS syndicate] seized all monies belonging to eastern Nigerians and satanically decided and paid them twenty pounds each, regardless of what ever amounts they had in the banks before the outbreak of hostilities. As if that was not enough, the government immediately started their Indigenization program that ensured that the Igbos and their other eastern brothers and sisters were left out in the cold while the rest of Nigerians bought over everything.

The same government after cynically declaring a NO VICTOR, NO VANQUISHED slogan, then declared the 3Rs-Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation. But that was just in the papers .

It must be remembered that millions of easterners had been massacred in the brutal genocide for no just cause. The evil and wicked policies of general Gowon forced Igbo young me out of school and girls into prostitution. It also forced Igbo intellect6uals into petty trading.

THE WAY FORWARD.
Section A.
Multi-Inter-reactive Website for mass participatory democratic governance for Nigeria.

There ca be no denying the fact that an ever widening gap exists between the

governments and the governed at all levels of the Nigerian polity ,which has inspired various well meaning socio-political analysts and thinkers to conclude that what Nigeria has been running from 1999 to the present has been a civilian dictatorship as opposed to a democracy.

I respectfully submit to the progressive Nigerian women that it is possible to utilize available advanced information technology amongst other initiatives to bridge that gap and to impose a mass participatory system of government.

Concept
The conception is that a multi-inter reactive website be designed for the people of Nigeria, creating windows corresponding with all existing strata, levels, departments, ministries, parastatals, agencies ,commissions e.t.c.of governments whether at Federal, State or Local /Ward levels.

This is to say that all such bodies will have special but interconnecting windows where interested citizens and people can share views ,ask questions, make suggestions, conduct relevant researches e.t.c. as they may deem fit.

Millions of interested Nigerians whether at home or in the Diaspora can browse into any required windows on the website and check out anything that catches their fancy. One may decide to look up how the Chairman of his local government council for instance, has been carrying on the administration of the council .He could ask questions and get answers.

The website will have direct and indirect applications on the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial arms of government.

Executive
Archival proposals and other materials.
Mental and intellectual endeavors are usually ignored and relegated to the background in Nigeria. We easily forget that all human advances , inventions and civilizations started as ideas and intellectual initiatives and proposals.

If a compilation of proposals by various Nigerians to different government ministries is made and one takes a critical look of the ingenuity involved and encapsulated in them, one will be amazed at how our system kills ingenuity

The proposed website will also feature a virtual library that will store all traceable propositions by

1. Nigerians over the ages to different departments and strata of government.

Legislative
Democratic Representation.
---The Electorates in a particular legislative constituency can hold meetings on the website and indulge in other consultative intercourse ,and even commend a particular legislator whether at the federal or state level as may be deemed fit .The electorates may even initiate and process of recall on an erring legislator through this channel.

Judiciary
It is important to compile and make available to the interested public the cases lined up in the numerous courts in Nigeria. Indeed a virtual library of these is imperative if one is to appreciate the ordeals that citizens especially the underprivileged are confronted with in this nation.

Thousands of citizens have been alleged to be languishing in jails ,many on awaiting trials for many years without any tangible hope of change in their situations . Needless to say they must all be adjudged innocent until proven guilty.

Where does one go who is interested in finding out the cost of justice in Nigeria. In the cases that have been adjudicated in courts of law where elections have been upturned and the like, who can say how many millions of Naira had to be expended before such victories were achieved.

No matter how we look at it the Nigerian society must be made more open if any one can seriously do anything about saving Nigeria.

Section B)
CASH AND CARRY DEMOCRACY
On November 12th,2012 the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission[INEC][,Prof. Attahiru Jega revealed openly what many of us have always known that the so called major political parties connive with some of the commission's officials and some security agencies to corrupt the electoral process and rig elections. He revealed further that political parties budget funds for INEC officials and security agencies to tamper with the outcome of elections and that some parties even go to the extent of influencing opposition parties' agents in what could be termed cash and carry democracy.

The implication of Prof. Jega's revelations is that no 'elected' public official from councilor to the president can really prove that he or she is carrying the mandates of those that supposedly elected them. And who can say that Prof. Jega does not know what he was talking about. He is in a position to know.

But that notwithstanding , unelected and cash and carry democracy is still in my opinion still better than anarchy. After all a greater percentage of the period of independence of Nigeria has been spent under military rule. What is most important is not whether the government was truly democratically elected or not, but whether the people are getting good government.

The women of Nigeria are in a position to constructively engage the body polity to create a just, equitable, progressive, responsive and responsible mass participatory system of governance to give the nation good governance.

Nigerian Peoples Government/ Shadow Government.
I was initially very skeptical of the Nigeria's talk of Electoral Reform Intervention partly because I hold the considered view that the people of Nigeria generally place undue importance on so called electoral reforms.

This is because I hold the view [ no matter how unpopular] that first of all the problems of Nigeria go far beyond electoral short comings ; In fact it would have made much more sense if we were talking about POLITICAL REFORMS.

I am convinced that if our electoral process were to be perfect, that would make our polity or governance no better in any meaningful way or considerable aspect.

Secondly, is that since 1999,electoral reforms have become the favorite pastime of the Nigerian elite and we are generally most unserious about any electoral reforms as we have long lost any sense of fairness. Take for instance the gamut that started with the declaration of the late President Umaru Yar'Adua on May 29th 2007 that the elections that brought him to power had short comings . Now, in May 2012 the talk is still on what manner of electoral reforms to expect-----and that is with the 2015 elections around the corner.

In fact , the situation is even worse than the government met it in May 2007 for it is now not even clear how many political parties would be allowed to exist by the National Assembly where an average member collects from the public coffers per month the annual grant of a political party for three years. An all mighty National Assembly that is accountable to absolutely no one.

Lastly ,no matter what manner of electoral reforms may happen, those that will at the end of the day be returned to govern Nigeria ,or miss govern Nigeria will still be fellow Nigerians operating a system that is alien to the culture and people of Nigeria, where the principle of separation of powers of the three arms of government that are hallowed in other climes have become a nauseating joke and we hear of 'constituency projects' of legislators who are supposed to be making laws and where elections are won in Law Courts by political parties and candidates who are rich enough to afford lawyers fees.

Consequently, I have preferred to apply myself to trying to help fashion out initiatives, practical political apparatus to ensure that no matter the outcome of Nigeria's favorite 'mantra' [electoral reforms] that ensuring governments are as mass participatory as possible and that the masses of the nation are not short changed.

Nigerian peoples Shadow Government.
People have tried to argue that the idea of shadow governments is limited to and can only apply to parliamentary systems of governments as obtain in great Britain. To respond modestly, that thinking is simply a product of lack of imagination as there is nothing that makes it a crime otherwise.

The Shadow Government that I propose is one that affords Nigerian polity an articulated and cohesive alternative view point to governmental affairs and issues for the benefit of the nation.

It is directly proposed that shadow officers be selected from interested and capable Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora for all elective positions in the polity. That is as to say that there will be in this proposed arrangement , a shadow President/Vice President ;shadow Governors/ Deputy Governors for all the States ; shadow Senators ,Federal Representatives and Members of the States Houses of Assembly corresponding to all legislative constituencies in Nigeria.

The whole gamut of the shadow government is proposed to be operated from the multi- inter reactive website proposed in Section A.

Beyond the shadow team articulated for all elective positions in the national polity, it is further proposed that a second level of shadow officers be assembled and organized for all appointed positions in the polity such as of Ministers, Ambassadors, Commissioners ,Chairmen and members of Boards of parastatals and commissions as well as agencies to articulate and espouse mass oriented alternative view points and action plans for governance.

The Women of Nigeria can indeed decide to save Nigeria by moving beyond rhetoric which can be indeed compared to the manifestos of Nigerian political parties to indeed positioning themselves to save Nigeria by embarking on and coordinating the Multi-Inter reactive Website and Nigerian Peoples Shadow Government proposed in this write up.

AFRICAN CULTURAL RENAISSANCE
Today Honorable Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is the Chair of the African Union [AU] Commission. This means amongst other things that one of our women is occupying the highest position in the entire African continent. Perhaps this is the right time for our women to step in and take charge to return Africa to the path of rectitude, good governance, peaceful coexistence, and all the good objectives that we all aspire to.

Our women have a responsibility to eliminate all forms of alienation , exclusion and cultural oppression in Africa. That is part of the AU Charter for an African Cultural Renaissance. The Charter also tasks us with asserting the dignity of all the peoples of Africa, preserving African cultural heritage and integrating cultural objectives in our development strategies.

GENDER HARMONY IN AFRICAN GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS:YESTERDAY,TODAY AND TOMORROW.

The issue of gender equality has generated a lot of discussions in the contemporary world and even conflict and tension especially in many African countries. It is now in vogue to assert that African societies are unfair to women and that one of the greatest challenges towards the development of Africa is the issue of gender equality.

Though no one can deny that some African societies can be said to be manifested unfair to women, there can be no denying that the4 history of Africa is replete with experiences of perfect gender harmony institutions superior in every sense to any thing that can or has been found in western societies.

According to Cheikh Anta Diop:
''A study of our past can give us a lesson in government. Thanks to the matriarchal system, our ancestors prior to any foreign influence had given women a choice of place. They saw her not as a sex object but as mother. This has been true from the Egypt of the Pharaohs until our time. Women participated in running public affairs within the framework of a feminine assembly sitting separately but having the same prerogatives as the male assembly.

These facts remained unchanged until colonial conquest, especially in such non Islamized states as the Yoruba and Dahomean Behanzins military resistance to the French Army under Colonel Dodds is said to have resulted from a decision of the Women's Assembly of the Kingdom, meeting at night after the men had met during the day and reversing them by ordering mobilization and war, after which, the men ratified the decision.

Black Africa had its specific bicameralism, determined by sex. Far from interfering with national life by pitting men against women, it guaranteed the free flowing of both. It is to the honor of our ancestors that they by were able to develop such a type of democracy. Wherever we find this as late as the Aegean period, the Southern Black influence is undeniable. In reestablishing it in modern form, we remain faithful to the democratic and profoundly human past of our forbearers. Once and for all , we relax the society of mankind by freeing it from a latent millennial contradiction. We might without any doubt inspire other countries in ordering their affairs''.

The phenomenon of gender harmony in the experience of Nigerian and African traditional governance systems is generally such that when things get out of hand and creative as well as radical changes are necessitated to put the society back on track and to arrest any overbearing situation, women intervene.

The case of the Aba women's Riot of 1929 is a typical case in point. The crisis in the governance of Nigeria today no doubt calls for the intervention of our organized Nigerian women.

AFRICAN RENAISSANCE PARTY [ARP], AND THE PLACE OF WOMEN IN POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE POLITCAL PROCESS.

Let me use this opportunity to place on record that the African Renaissance Party[ARP] under my leadership blazed the trail that led to the little gains that women of Nigeria have made in electoral politics so far. It was first of all the African Renaissance Party, that made a women the Presidential running mate in the history of Nigeria and insisted as a matter of policy that in any election where a man was running, that a woman must be running mate and vice versa! It was after the convention that threw up Hajia Asmau Aliyu Mohammed as the vice presidential candidate of the party in 2002 that the adviser to the President on Ethics Dr. Sarah Jibril emerged as the presidential flag bearer of the Progressive Action Congress[PAC]. And the Fresh Democratic Party of Pastor Chris Okotie also followed and made a woman its vice presidential candidate.

''Only through the direct and continuous participation of all citizens in political life can the state be bound to the common good or general will''- Jean Jacques Rousseau.

A truly Nigerian peoples democratic government can only be run when a system is evolved and operated that involves relevant stakeholders in all strata of governance both vertically and horizontally. Such a system if properly instituted will assure the citizens of a truly participatory democracy that all will have full confidence in the fact that the current world has advanced information technology systems available to be used in actualizing this perspective.

The proposal recommends that all government ministries, parastatals and other establishments be collectively administered by stakeholders. For instance, the Ministry of Health, right from budgetary stage will ensure that the Nigerian Medical Association, proprietors of hospitals, maternities and medical centers , as well as communities are involved in budgeting for health.

At a certain stage in the life of the PDP administration since the time of Olusegun Obasanjo to that of the present Good luck Jonathan, the government at the federal level has often toyed with the idea of an E-Governance. Of course, e-governance simply implies that the internet is applied to simplify governance and reduce bureaucracy and unnecessary bottlenecks in governance administration and government information and responses are available via the internet. It is a system that accelerates government service delivery and reduces corruption to the barest minimum. It is a system that Nigeria needs.

E-Governance does not mean that physical, human and establishment contacts bare completely negated. No!, it means that they are grossly and drastically reduced in the same way that availability of telephones reduces transportation necessities.

THE LEGISLATURE.
The most significant structural difference between military and civilian governments in Nigeria at least, is the absence of the legislature as a separate arm of government under the military regimes. In Nigeria, currently however, the legislature though existing, is instituted in an odd and strange manner in the sense that the legislators are separated and quartered away from their constituencies. The Senators and Members of the House of Representatives are completely isolated from their constituencies and there is no organized and structural intercourse between them

It is recommended that the members of the legislative arm of the government be stationed in and operate from their constituencies. Information technology and motor/Air transportation can ensure that their views are channeled to the capital cities as the need arises. But basically, the legislators must steadily consult extensively with their constituencies before taking stands. Fundamentally, the legislators are not elected to express their own views but those of their constituencies.

The National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is presently acting in total disregard of the 1999 Constitution that the members swore to uphold and upon whose purported authority they claim to be carrying out the strange,anti-people, unresponsive and irresponsible actions. The National Assembly is presently engaged in an exercise to review the 1999 Constitution, whereas Section 9 of that constitution gives them powers of amendment, but clearly not of review.

To amend a constitution means to amend certain sections of it which may even mean to correct spellings-in such a manner that it does not affect the general character; whereas to review a constitution implies a comprehensive overhaul which may produce a document totally of a different character and nature and ordering of affairs.

The African Renaissance Party[ARP], represented by myself, respectfully submitted to the members of the Senate Committee [South West zone] on the review of the 1999 constitution ,, led by Senator Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon on Thursday, 15th November, 2012 at the Oranmiyan Hall, of the Lagos Airport Hotel, that the National assembly at best should in the circumstances make an Act for the people of Nigeria to hold their National Conference and maybe state certain modalities to guide the conference which may include the provision for a referendum to bring to life and ratify the constitution so produced .

I imploy the women of Nigeria to realize that the process of the making of a totally new constitution for the people of Nigeria is by all means infinitely offers the very best opportunity for a structural and fundamental reordering of the polity to give the women of Nigeria a fair, equitable and harmonious place in the affairs of the nation and to even set a stirring example for the rest of black Africa, including its Diaspora to follow.

I make bold to state in unequivocal terms that the African Renaissance Party[ARP] have for long been campaigning for a return to the cultural essences of our people in our governance and administrative mechanisms. Our position includes that we should operate a bicameral parliament structured in such a way that the men compose entirely one legislative house , while the women compose entirely of the other, and that similar arrangements should obtain in the states and the local governments. This proposal, I dare say, is in total tandem with our culture and should be part of our contribution to modern human governance in the world.

Western imperialism, colonialism and cultural insidiousness have so destroyed black African cultural heritages and civilization to such an extent that an average black African today believes that black Africa has nothing positive to offer humanity. Nothing can be further from the truth.

The truth is that the traditional roles assigned to the sexes in African traditional societies should be extended logically in modern paradigms and applications. Amongst other responsibilities, traditional African mothers and sisters were in charge of culinary matters, which are today being derided by western customs. What stops us from following our traditional understandings to such applications that our women apart from doing the actual cooking, also technologically manufacture all necessary modern kitchen appliances?

Western civilization frowns upon and roundly condemns polygamy, in some cases even making it a criminal offense, but the same Western civilization completely accommodates prostitution and legalizes lesbianism and homosexuality, even sodomy. Indeed, among American soldiers, bestiality is accepted and given legal state protection.

When shall we black Africans open our eyes to see that our culture are by far superior to those of the western world and while they have little or nothing to teach us in terms of ordering of society, we on the other hand have everything to teach them?

Western countries have perfected social institution known variously as Old Peoples Homes where they assign their elderly for care, away from their loved ones and families until death claims them, which under normal circumstances is a taboo quite unthinkable in traditional black African societies. The elderly members of African societies are given the greatest of respect, honor, affection , loyalty , even royalty. In fact, they are the very apex of authority and every one prays to one day enjoy such status, whereas in western societies and today in much of China, Japan and other Asiatic countries it is increasingly becoming almost a crime to grow old.

Truly, we should be teaching western and Asiatic communities how to take care of the elderly and what it means to be truly human!

CONCLUSION.
The ball is in my view squarely in the court of the women of Nigeria either to join the rot in the polity and demand for their fair share in the plundering of the nation, or to take over the reins of governance directly and indirectly and steer the ship of state towards the path of sanity, peace, progress and national renaissance.

It should be clear to all that no economy can develop in the absence of peace. Even an economy that is based on the production of armaments and other war materials must have peace in at least its factories to develop. That being so the weak kneed attitude of the current Nigerian government towards tackling the problem of insecurity in the nation portends grave danger to all and I must plead on my knees to the women of Nigeria to find ways to intervene or all is lost.

A top Ghanaian economist, Professor George Ayittey, stated that decades of misrule and total government dysfunction have combined to transform Nigerians from resilient and dynamic people into vulnerable people. In the past, according to him, Nigerians were bustling with energy, dynamism and entrepreneurship, but that perpetual leadership crisis had transformed them into broken spirits and battered souls trapped in cocoons of fear, mistrust and despair.

I see a way out and that is for the women of Nigeria to step in and lead the nation back to the path of rectitude, justice , peace and progress.

We must never lose sight of the fact that our problems as Africans emanated directly from the machinations of the West.

As Amos Wilson explains:
The European inhabit only a small part of this globe. The parts of the globe that the European occupies are relatively resourceless when compared to those occupied by non-European people. And yet, the European is saddled with great wealth, economic and political power. He controls the globe and maintains the world in a state of terror , and has the earth now on the brink of suicide. We must question how is it that a minority people, a very percentage of mankind, a people, who are essentially resourceless in terms of their natural resources, maintain the power they have. Why is it that the people whose lands contain the wealth of the earth are the poorest people? Why is it that Africa with some twenty[20] or thirty [30] strategic metals that make the space age possible- why is it that the image of Africa is projected at us time and time again as that of starving children, as societies in disorder, as societies on the verge of disaster?

This implies, to my mind, that there must exist, a political and social situation wherein the mental orientation of our people must be so structured, that the power and ability of the Europeans to rule this earth are continually maintained. The imperialistic European must essentially function in a very devilish fashion-That is, in a fashion that uses deception as its major characteristic. Consequently, fundamental values and ways of seeing reality must be reversed. The good must appear to be the bad, the light dark. Truth must be taken for the lie; the lie for the truth. Otherwise a small group, such as European people could not continue to keep the rest of the world out of its mind. The European hegemonic establishment must project false and injurious ideologies that are accepted by its victims.

Thank You all!