9th October, 2013
The Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, Monday, in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, backed President Goodluck Jonathan’s proposal for convocation of a national conference of ethnic nationalities.
The Foundation, during its Executive Leadership Seminar, which was chaired by former Foreign Affairs Minister, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, deliberated on the issue and made recommendations accordingly.
In a communiqué it issued, the Foundation observed, among other things, that a national conference had become imperative based on Nigeria’s heterogeneity, its perception that the extant 1999 Constitution was devoid of the peoples’ inputs, the mismanagement of the economy by the political elite, dysfunctional federalism and its distributive mode, National Question and the palpable tension among the citizenry.
While commending President Jonathan for initiating the process for convening the conference, the Foundation deplored non-inclusion of “the younger generation who will have to live with the consequences of the decisions to be made.”
As part of its recommendations to the government, the Foundation emphasized that there should be no inhibitions on issues to be canvassed and, that the conference be channeled to achieve a more tolerant, egalitarian and prosperous modern state and protection of individual rights.
It stressed that the conference should address true federalism, devolution of power to the federating units, inclusion of nominees from professional bodies, trade unions, civil society organizations, youths/students, women and pan-Nigerian religious bodies, as well as ensuring that the draft constitution that would be produced be subject to a national referendum no later than three months after the conclusion of the conference.
However, dissensions to the conference have not abated. A Senator representing Ekiti Central, Babafemi Ojodu, has described as “dishonest and deceitful”, the National Conference being put together by the Peoples Democratic Party-led government.
In a statement he issued in Ado-Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State, Ojodu, a former journalist, said though he is an ardent champion of a sovereign national conference, he alleged that “the man (President Jonathan) is just looking for time and space to buy, persuade, blackmail or pummel to submission those in his party (PDP) who are opposed to his continuous rulership of Nigeria.”
Ojudu, a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, faulted the timing of the conference as “a strategy to put a stop to the APC progress of mobilizing Nigerians for the 2015 elections.”
Ojudu added that the President should have made a wider consultation among different groups and professions, representing various shades of opinions before organizing a conference.
He said he would not be surprised if at the end of the conference elections are said to be no longer feasible.
—Folarin Ademosu