A delegate to the on-going National Conference in Abuja, Chief Okon Osung, from Akwa Ibom State, has launched a campaigned aimed at getting the confab to extend the tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan beyond 2015. There will be no elections next year if the campaign succeeds.

After failing to get the Committee on Public Finance and Revenue chaired by the former governor of Kebbi State, Adamu Aliero, to buy his idea, Chief Osung, who is a member of the committee, has taken the matter to other conference delegates and to the Nigerian public.

He distributed a document canvassing the position to delegates last week and followed it up with a press conference Friday night in Abuja, during which he spoke at length in defence of the document entitled “Preserve Nigeria’s democracy: Postpone the 2015 election now.”

Reeling out reasons why Jonathan’s four-year tenure should be extended, Chief Osung said: “At this crucial juncture in our national history, a presidential or National Assembly declaration of a politico-administrative moratorium or cooling-off period before the conduct of the third transitional elections scheduled for February 2015 has become an imperative necessity.

“This calls for the postponement or deferment of the scheduled 2015 elections by at least 18 months, while retaining all the democratic institutions at all levels of governance and across the entire spectrum of the country’s political divide, without any bias to the statutory termination dates of such democratic institutions.

“This implies the retention of the presidency, offices of governors in the states, the National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives), state Houses of Assembly, local government chairmen, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the respective State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs). It is imperatively necessary to speedily put the proposed politico-administrative moratorium into effect, and Nigeria would not be lacking in terms of historical precedent of having to rise to a difficult and unforeseen contingency or occasion for which the country’s constitution had not made adequate provision. A ready example is the Doctrine of Necessity under which Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had transformed from Vice President to Acting President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria following the untimely demise of our beloved president, Umaru Yar’Adua. As the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, had declared at the time, ‘the Doctrine of Necessity requires that we do what is necessary when faced with a situation that was not contemplated by the constitution… In doing so, we have as well maintained the sanctity of our constitution as the ultimate law of the land.

“The said presidential/National Assembly declaration (or proclamation) has become an inevitable action Nigeria cannot shy away from in a situation in which governments need to pause, think, re-tool and re-focus (electorally-speaking), in order to avoid an impending catastrophe by way of a constitutional crisis or deadlock of unimaginable proportion. The impending constitutional crisis could be exacerbated as Nigerians prevaricate over whether to submit the national conference report to a referendum or to the National Assembly for ratification!”

Chief Osung painted a scary picture of Nigeria’s future if his recommendation is not accepted and implemented. He sought to support his position with the content of the controversial year 2000 book, This House has Fallen: Nigeria in Crisis, written by American journalist Karl Maier.

According to the conference delegate, “The congruence between Karl Maier’s 2000 prescription on the impending crisis in Nigeria and what the Goodluck Jonathan administration is doing currently is not far to seek. A very strong reason why the national conference report should be put to a referendum!”

He further argued that “while tenure elongation bids by previous administrations aimed at profiting individual incumbents of public office, or their cliques, to the detriment of the general public, including opposition groups, and apolitical Nigerians, the current proposal, which is non-partisan, aims at profiting all Nigerians across the political divide – both protagonists and antagonists of the 2015 elections…

“In fact, at the terminal stage of the moratorium, a government of national unity should be put in place, comprising representatives of major political parties and other important stakeholders in the country.

“Additionally, the proposed temporary postponement of elections is intended to guarantee security and peace throughout the Nigerian federation – a sine qua non for the attainment of any developmental goal in any society – as well as to stabilise the system for the good of all. After all, there is no virtue or valour in dismal failure; neither would any Nigerian stand to profit from orchestrating any deliberately contrived stalemate or constitutional crisis!

“A second plausible argument in support of the proposed postponement of election is the ardent need to stave off the phenomenon of military intervention now that Nigeria seems to be experiencing gradual institutionalisation of democratic processes, given the background that the country has already had two previous successful civilian-to-civilian transitional elections (in 1999 and 2003). Yet, most of the essential ingredients that normally uncork coups d’état in Third World countries appear to be present in Nigeria presently:

“The North-east has been infested with (or virtually taken-over by) Boko Haram terrorists/insurgents, despite the declaration of a state of emergency there; the South-south with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)and other militants, who specialise in the vandalisation of oil installations and in kidnapping; the South-east with the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), who specialise in kidnapping and robbery; while the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) in the South-west is hobbled by lynching cultism, ritual killings and other fetish bestial practices. Fulani herdsmen are ravaging the North-central, killing and maiming innocent civilians.”

•Photo shows National Conference delegates during a break.

Update news