THISDAY is in possession of the minority report prepared by a member of PAC, Solomon Asemota, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
PAC was inaugurated by Jonathan on October 7 last year in Abuja with a mandate to draw up modalities for the convocation of a national conference to address issues threatening to tear the country apart. It had presented its report to the president on December 18 last year, in what the committee’s chairman, Senator Femi Okuroumu, called a unanimous decision of all members of the 13-member committee. But on Wednesday, President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Okey Wali, alleged that there was a minority report on the dialogue by Asemota, which Jonathan had, allegedly, refused to receive. The allegation was vehemently denied by the president’s special adviser on media and publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati. To buttress his point, Abati quoted the fact that Asemota, who was present during the submission of the PAC report to the president when Okuroumu said there was no minority report, did not lift a finger to contradict the chairman.
But at the weekend, THISDAY got a copy of the contentious minority report, with a source close to Asemota insisting that the Presidency was in possession of the document.
Speaking exclusively with THISDAY, the source provided correspondences exchanged between Asemota and the Presidency indicating that the latter knew about the report. The source alleged that the Presidency denied knowledge of the minority report because it was not comfortable with many of the recommendations.
The minority report acknowledges the reality of fears of ethnic domination in Nigeria, which it attributes to the existence of an “invisible and shadowy power structure” that breeds corruption and insecurity. It says this structure “needs to be dismantled in order that we may not unwittingly actualise the prediction that Nigeria may disintegrate in 2015.”
The report recommends that the president should send a bill to the National Assembly to give legal backing to the proposed conference and its outcome. It holds that the outcome of the national dialogue should be subjected to a referendum for endorsement, insisting that a referendum on the conference’s outcome would not require an amendment to the 1999 Constitution. This is contrary to the majority report of PAC that holds that a referendum cannot be used without amendment to the constitution.
The minority report also wants senatorial districts to be the basis of representation at the conference, rather than the zonal procedure prescribed by the majority report. It says representation from the senatorial districts should be on the basis of ethnic nationalities, rather than the universal suffrage suggested by PAC.
The source said, “Nigeria is not about just Ibos, Yorubas and Hausa-Fulani. There are other ethnic groups. This is a unique opportunity to even know ourselves as a people. It is the centenary and this is a chance for us to address our various ethnic nationalities.
The source quoted Asemota as expressing worry about the lack of legal backing for the conference, saying, “We are not in a military regime. And just because President Olusegun Obasanjo got away with his confab, does not mean the executive has the right to just convoke a conference. That is the area of the legislature.
“The truth is that without an enabling law backing it, the conference is dead on arrival. The minority report is urging the president to get legal backing for the conference. There is great danger in not having an enabling legal framework for the conference.
“Someone can just go to court and get an order stopping the conference on the grounds that there is no law backing it."
Refuting the denials by the Presidency about knowledge of the minority report, the source showed THISDAY a letter Asemota had written Jonathan on December 6 last year.
The letter read in part: “Your Excellency, I forward herewith my Minority Report which was rejected by the committee and therefore is not intended to be submitted to you. I am not in any doubt that the committee jurisdiction does not extend to the rejection of a Minority Report and the issue would not have arisen if the chairman was willing to take the opinion of a senior lawyer in the committee into consideration.
“I am also convinced Your Excellency, that you are entitled to the best advice which the committee individually and collectively can offer.”
The source said Asemota personally sent the letter through the UPS office at Gbagada, in Lagos.
A document on the list of signatures on the majority report accepted by Jonathan showed that Asemota did not append his.
Also in another letter to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, Asemota had stated: “I forward herewith my Minority Report which the committee rejected, and insisted it should not be included in committee Report to be submitted to the President.”
Although, Asemota attended the ceremony where the majority report was submitted to the president, he was said to have been warned by the Chief of Staff to the President, Mike Ogiadhome, not to disrupt the event with the issue. Asemota then sat through the occasion without raising the matter.
According to the source, Asemota held his peace, “because he knew with time, the falsehood would be revealed.”
Source: Thisday
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