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The national coordinating council of Save Democracy Mega Alliance 2027 (SDMA’27) has rolled out its campaign structure for nationwide mobilization of stakeholders, Nigeria masses and international bodies in pursuit of its avowed constitutional amendment objective.
According to the spokesperson of the movement, Comrade Tony Akeni Le Moin, who is also one of the conveners of the campaign, the structure, which covers federal, state and local government tiers shall oversee all facets of the movement’s activities to engage the National and State Houses of Assembly of the country and the federal and state executive arms of government to actualize its two-face flagship advocacy to deepen the country’s democracy.
It will be recalled that SDMA’s sought amendments, which were unveiled in Abuja last week, called for comprehensive and total independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the judicial arm of government from the president and state governors of the federation by abrogating their powers to appoint the heads and officials of the two institutions.
It will also be recalled that speaking to the subject last week, Prof. Pat Utomi, an eminent scholar of political economy, had asserted that the SDMA’s advocacy was in tandem with late President Umaru Musa Yar’dua’s legacy of electoral reforms and recommendations by the Justice Mohammed Uwais committee.
President Yar’dua had set up the Justice Uwais committee on August 28, 2007, spiritedly fulfilling his promise to do so exactly three months after his swearing-in as president of Nigeria on May 29, 2007.
According to Comrade Akeni, SDMA’s think-thank had consulted widely within and beyond the borders of Nigeria in order to come up with what he described as a “staunch global governing structure that will stand the expected challenges which a struggle of this nature and magnitude will face from the powers that be and the hostile status quo which benefits from and upholds those powers.”
Reeling out the structure, Akeni disclosed that at the apex of the SDMA’27 coalition is its National Council which comprises six National Conveners, six Zonal Co-Conveners representing the six geopolitical zones of the federation and seven Special Diaspora Coordinators who, according to the spokesman, “shall be stomping five continents of the globe mobilizing international support for the INEC and judiciary independence campaign in Nigeria.”
He explained that the Special Diaspora Coordinators who shall also be called “SDMA International Parliamentary Lobby Group (SIPALG), amongst other functions, shall lobby the support of foreign parliaments, governments of Western democracies, international development partners of Nigeria, United Nations, EU and other regional economic blocs to support the electoral amendment and democratic reform campaigns in Nigeria.
On the all-inclusive multi political party composition of the movement, Tony Akeni stated that official slots as special coordinators and advisers shall be reserved for all political parties, including persons of certified democratic credentials and integrity from the ruling APC, as well as others outside government. “This is why SDMA’27 shall not disclose some names of our already active campaign actors till such time as it shall be strategically imperative for full unveiling,” Akeni explained.
SDMA’27 shall also have state and local government grassroots coordinating councils. Each state chapter of SDMA, the spokesman revealed, shall be headed by a State Coordinator.
Comrade Tony disclosed that the state chapter shall have seven principal committees comprising the Committee on Legal Matters and Law Enforcement Agencies Relations, Committee on Traditional Rulers and Faith Bodies and the Committee on Inter-party Relations, Labour, Civil Society and Student Organizations.
According to the spokesman, “Others are the Committee on Women, Youths and Mass Mobilization and the Committee on Media, Publicity and Public Enlightenment.
“A sixth and critical sub-body shall be the Committee of Retired Armed Forces Personnel, which shall be headed by a coordinator titled “Special Envoy on Agitators, Ex-Agitators and Non-state Actors.”
“In addition to other committees that necessity may dictate in future, there shall also be the Funding and Finance Committee in each state arm of SDMA’27.”
The coalition spokesman explained that each State Coordinator shall serve in dual capacity as the state’s Director of Contact and Mobilization and “must therefore be a personality of marked humility with natural ability to relate well, meaningfully and fruitfully with all segments of society.”
At the local government grassroots level, Akeni said, the above committees shall be enacted with each headed by an “LGA Administrator.”
Comrade Tony Akeni continued, “While some of the national and state coordinators shall be disclosed soon, others shall operate anonymously across the country and the Diaspora till such strategic time that they shall go public.”
Concluding, the Save Democracy Mega Alliance 2027 movement admonished through its spokesman: “In appointment to all tiers of the SDMA’27 structure, capacity to deliver on the mandates of each committee, representation and balance must be upheld with respect to appointment of men, women and People With Disability (PWD), and shall not discriminate against religious, gender or ethnic background and affiliations.”
