Deputy govs must be given specific constitutional roles —Obada

Chief Olusola Obada is a delegate to the ongoing National Conference on the platform of Elder Statesmen. A lawyer, management consultant and prominent politician, Obada was a former Deputy Governor of Osun State and ex-Minister of State for Defence. She speaks with Taiwo Adisa and Clement Idoko on the need to provide constitutional role for deputy governors as well as strengthen the foundation of Nigeria’s unity.
What is your assessment of the National Conference so far?
This conference is going to lay the foundation for a new Nigeria for the next century. Mr. President, in his speech, laid out the challenges we face, what we would like to see done and that he would like us to have consensus on most issues. I think it is going well so far.
President Jonathan in his inaugural speech spoke on the need for consensus in resolution on major issues at the conference. However, following the disagreement over the 75 per cent voting benchmark, the 50 wise men came up with 70 per cent that was adopted by the delegates. Are you personally satisfied with that?
What the president told us is that we should deliberate with each other; we should try to court each other and that we should bring other to our ways of thinking. It is going to be give and take. Nobody is going to get 100 per cent. At the end of the day, everybody will be on the same page because they would have agreed on what they will take and what they will give up. What Mr. President wants to achieve is consensus. We have challenges facing us and we must talk about them. We must agree on how best to move the country forward, because nobody would want the country to break up in any form or manner. We must reorganise ourselves and find new ways of living together happily for the future and for our constitution to be pleasing to everybody involved, because everybody has a stake in this country. Everybody has something to say; everybody wants something. At the end of the day we are going to do a lot of horse-trading, talking to each other and carrying each other along. You take some and lose some. At the end of the day, I believe that all will be well. If you have noticed, the conference has been proceeding quite smoothly for the past two weeks, which is a far cry from the way we started. Things are definitely better.
What is your comment on President Jonathan’s inaugural speech that was a subject of debate for two weeks?
The president’s speech is very uplifting, very courageous and very inspiring. The president spoke as a statesman should. Statesmanship was in full display in his speech delivery and I believe that it was indeed his very finest hour. As I said in my presentation, the president told us that we have just celebrated our first century and that this National Conference will lay the foundation for the next century. He has told us that we cannot proffer solution of yesterday for today’s challenges. And that is why we have to keep going back to the drawing board to renegotiate and correct all the anomalies and discrepancies that obtained in the present constitution, which is what we are doing now. He laid the template on how we should do it. Jonathan has shown us that his vision for this country is for unity, fairness and equity. So, we have the opportunity now to ensure that all parts of the country are well-taken care of and everybody feels comfortable with whatever arrangement to come up with.
What are the major issues you are canvassing for as a delegate at this conference?
In my contribution at the plenary, I talked about the president’s speech, of course. How uplifting it was and how inspiring it was. And I talked about the fact that there is a lacuna in our grundnorm that is the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, whereby there is no specific role for the deputy governor of a state. Of course, you know that there are usually frictions between a governor and his deputy.
In Section 186 of the constitution, it says ‘there shall for every state of the Federation, be a deputy governor and in Section 193, it says that the governor at his discretion can assign any function to the deputy. Many deputy governors today do not have roles of any sort. They don’t have a portfolio. Although, some do have, like in my time, we were a bit lucky we did, some didn’t and still some don’t have any role today. That is why I believe that this omission should be rectified. Deputy governors must be given specific roles for them to also feel as part of the system.
They both need to work together hand in hand to ensure the development of the various states. We believe that once they have these roles, there will be a better working relationship between the governor and the deputy and the people of the state will be better for it, for progress and development. You know, of course, that the governor controls the state House of Assembly, so, the deputy can be impeached any time. I believe the best thing is for him to be given a role in the constitution so that he will just face his own work from day one and with that he will be in good terms with the governor.
Are you in the same wavelength with those who think that deputy governors are at the whims and caprices of the governors because they handpick or recommend them?
Not in all cases. I, for one, you know I was running for Osun governorship in 2001, 2002 and 2003 and we mobilised people and resources into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at that time. The PDP was relatively new then. The Alliance for Democracy (AD) was on ground. It was in government in Osun but myself along with two or three other aspirants who wanted to be governors also mobilised a lot of people into the party and brought popularity to PDP in Osun State. So, in my case I got it through my contribution towards building the party in the state. But there are some deputy governors whom the governors hand-picked and some others emerged as a result of political zoning arrangement in their various states and I think these are some of the problems.
In your presentation, you spoke strongly on the need for the unity of the country and said Nigerians should emulate the camaraderie in the military. Can you speak on that?
The unity of this country is very important. The corporate existence of Nigeria cannot be compromised. We must find the ways and means of living together amicably.
We all come from different ethnic nationalities but there is strength in diversity. There is what we call in the military, esprit de corps. It’s alive well and kicking in the Nigerian Armed Forces. By this, I mean that they are united. They are united in everything they do. They go on operations together; nobody knows where anybody comes from. Nobody cares which religion you practise; they sacrifice their lives for one another.
They watch each other’s back and that is what I would like Nigerians, all of us, to emulate. We should emulate these gentlemen and women whose task is to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria, land, sea and air and to ensure peace and stability of our country, which is what they are doing. They are worthy of emulation. They are shining example of what unity is all about.