Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’aba, renowned public intellectual, Professor Pat Utomi, and other leaders of the National Consultative Front (NCFront) have made frantic efforts which may culminate into the launch of a mega political platform in January 2021 that will rally Nigerians to bring good governance to the people.
Indications to this development emerged during a virtual press conference on Monday, as the joint chairmen of the NCFront, called on all citizens of conscience to join the NCFront in rescuing and saving Nigeria from the present festering anarchy and impending doom by teaming up with the NCFront agenda to create a new Nigeria that works for all.
Speaking during the conference, Na’aba lamented that over the past two decades of Nigeria’s new democratic experience, the citizens have watched with dismay, disappointment and shock, as the country slide into anarchy, collapse, ruin and rot. He said that the promise that democracy held for Nigerians has become elusive to realize as the country has been left to drift.
“Hardly can any sector of the country be said to be working as government seems ineffectual, irresponsive and incompetent. Unemployment, particularly among our youths has reached and passed unprecedented levels, while unnecessary loss of human lives due to insecurity has become a recurring decimal with scores of Nigerians being killed on a daily basis.
“Our indebtedness, both internal and external has reached alarming proportions with the attendant virtual collapse of social and physical infrastructure leading to pervasive and grinding poverty. The way and manner governance is conducted suggests a high degree of irresponsibility at all levels,” he said.
He said further that consequent upon these tales of woes in our country, “we as a group of concerned citizens with great conscience are now compelled by these various threats to come forward and confront this unfortunate agonies, by initiating an urgent ‘National Political Action’ for a new Nigeria, where citizens will be able to meet their basic needs and attain their human fulfillment.
“Hardly can any sector of the country be said to be working as government seems ineffectual, irresponsive and incompetent. Unemployment, particularly among our youths has reached and passed unprecedented levels, while unnecessary loss of human lives due to insecurity has become a recurring decimal with scores of Nigerians being killed on a daily basis.
“To this end, we as Nigerians of conscience, have resolved to take urgent action to neutralize and end our unfortunate narratives by coming together under the umbrella of NCFront to collectively pursue the onerous task of rescuing and saving our country from this ominous slope into total collapse.
To this historical end, we have resolved and elected to undertake massive nationwide consultations and mobilisation with a view to building a formidable political platform in the form of a mass movement. In this endeavor, it is our wish to engage with like- minded groups in order to form a very large, strong and capable force that can challenge the current political parties now in power in the states and the center.
Contributing, Pat Utomi said it has become imperative for the National Consultative Front to take action, mobilize the people and insist on a peaceful path to progress in the face of deteriorating conditions.
He added that a doctrine of necessity is clearly now needed to reverse the slide stressing that this doctrine is about reforming the system and apparatus of government before on-going trends result in a complete loss of legitimacy for our democracy.
He added “ordinarily, in a democracy, when things are going wrong you wait for the next elections to vote out those not performing. But the absence of internal democracy in our leading political parties and the phenomenon of state capture suggest the hope of change from the ballot box in prevailing political culture will be an exercise in futility.
“We have therefore committed ourselves to a movement to reorient the country, reform the economy, and transform the polity, beginning with a review of the constitution and the electoral laws. With such reforms, elections as a way to getting rid of those not performing can then be contemplated. That is why we are a movement and not one more political party. Fortunately, we have several party leaders in the movement.”
