•Presidency Has Hidden Agenda — OPC, Islamic Group
•Timetable Skewed To Frustrate Process
AS the process of nominating delegates for the proposed National Conference begins, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory committee (PAC), Senator Femi Okurounmu, yesterday hinted that the Federal Government would reject nominees with criminal records.
Okurounmu disclosed this, just as the Oodua peoples Congress (OPC) and the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) accused the Federal Government of harboring ‘hidden agenda’ evident in its guidelines and timing for the Confab.
Okurounmu said President Goodluck Jonathan has given stakeholders the liberty to nominate all the delegates as stipulated, but the process must be based on integrity. “The stakeholders know what is required of them; no one is going to interfere in the nomination of delegates. The President has given all of them the free hand to choose their representatives; But only those with criminal records would be rejected by the President”, he said.
“All organisations, before choosing who to send as delegate to the Conference, (should know that) credibility and integrity are the criteria.”
The PAC Chairman emphasised that the “President has the prerogative to disqualify a candidate for good reasons, but would not just disqualify anybody nominated by stakeholders, be it Market women, youth group, or the NBA, as long as the person is not a known criminal.”
But for the Confab, the OPC and the Muslim Rights Concern, maintained, yesterday, that the Federal Government is not putting all the cards on the table. Specifically, the two groups expressed dissatisfaction with the timetable for the three-month national dialogue, as released by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), headed by former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim. The modalities for the conference (billed to begin in May), among other things, empower the President to nominate a minimum of 114 (about 25 percent) of the 492 delegates.
The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) also registered displeasure with the process that allows only one of its members to participate in a national confab that would be laced with legal issues.
Chairman of the OPC, Fredrick Fasehun wondered why a national conference should be limited to only three months and urged the Federal Government to rethink its agenda for the dialogue, especially as it relates to “no go areas.”
According to him, the Presidency may have succumbed to the “whims and caprices” of a group of Nigerians who wanted to hijack and scuttle a true national dialogue. “Those, who are hostile to hosting a national conference may have succeeded in convincing the President that there should be ‘no go areas’,” said Fasehun.
“Why should a national conference in a big country like Nigeria be limited to only three months? Those of us, who started agitating for national conference many years ago, have always insisted on a total dialogue without no go areas. Why should the President succumb to the whims and caprices of a group of Nigerians? If we are going to hold a conference, let us have a proper national conference; we don’t need to deceive ourselves,” he insisted.
In a statement by MURIC’s Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, the group condemned the arrangement that allows the President to nominate 114 out of 492 delegates expected to attend the conference.
The group said the government has arrogated too much power to itself. “President Jonathan alone wants to pick almost 25 percent of the total number of delegates. The race is finished before it starts. We call on Nigerians to open their eyes. If it is true that he who pays the piper dictates the tune, delegates picked by the Federal Government will have no other option than to articulate government’s position and seek to retain the status quo. The change for which Nigerians are yearning cannot materialise in that kind of environment,” the group said.
“MURIC puts it to government that it has a hidden agenda. The outcome of a conference heavily tilted in favour of government cannot be the will of the people but an imposition of President Jonathan’s will, contrary to …the will of the Nigerian people.
“We also wish to reiterate our fear of a booby trap in FG’s plan for the National Conference. We speculate that the main preoccupation of FG’s 114 delegates will be to create as much confusion as possible in order to cause delay in taking decisions. This will necessitate request for extension of time and eventually culminate in clamour for postponement of the 2015 general election, which the Presidency will ‘reluctantly’ accede to. It is all an agenda for extension of tenure.”
The group said the time frame is too tight and that the government’s plan lacks forward-looking strategic positioning. “It is too close to the period of next general election. We have to choose one of the two: National Conference or general election? Whereas the 2015 general election is statutory, the proposed National Conference can be rescheduled without infringing upon the constitution. The proposed National Conference should therefore take place after the 2015 general election.”
Efforts at getting the Presidency to respond to the allegations failed as neither Senior Special Adviser to the president on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, nor the office of the SGF, responded to the retinue of SMS sent to their mobile phones. Calls placed to Okupe’s GSM numbers also rang out.
Meanwhile, other Nigerians have continued to comment on the modalities as released by government. Immediate past Secretary of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Felix Atume, welcomed the development but said the process should be effectively managed.
Alhaji Ibrahim Birnin-Tsaba, former Secretary to the Zamfara State Government, said the proposed National Conference would help Nigerians to understand and accommodate their differences. Ibrahim told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Sokoto, yesterday, that it was necessary to discuss with one another so as to appreciate mutual differences and seek out ways to live with them.
“Nigerians come from diverse backgrounds — religion, culture and ethnicity. We should come together, understand these differences and accommodate them’’, he said.
He, however, held that the unity of the nation should never be compromised during and after the conference.
The former SSG described the conference as a welcome development, and stressed that it would make Nigeria stronger and better.
But the first civilian governor of Edo State, Chief John Oyegun, and the Coalition to Save Nigeria (CSN) expressed reservation on the modalities.
When contacted on phone yesterday, Oyegun told The Guardian that there is a problem with the way representation is to be arranged. “I don’t know if that is really what the people of this country had in mind. Secondly, this is a very busy political year and I still doubt if the conditions are right for a serious type of discussion like that. I don’t expect a good, result because everything about it is unnatural.”
Similarly, a statement signed by the National President of CSN, Dr Philip Ugbodaga, expressed reservations on how delegates would be chosen, how valid decisions would be arrived at, as well as eventual validation of the exercise.
Anyim, while answering questions from Journalists at the presentation of the guidelines in Abuja, had said: “We believe that the time we have given will be enough for nominations to be made, but as time goes on, we will be watching and monitoring. But there would be nothing to hold us down, not to kick-start the conference early enough so that it would round up before the political season begins so whatever that would happen, we’ll round up the conference before the general elections.”
Source: Guardian
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