WHY FG SHIFTED CONFAB DATE

The proposed national conference was on Thursday night shifted by a week to allow the federal government to finalise logistic arrangements in order to have a hitch-free conference, Saturday Mirror has learnt.
The conference date was shifted by a week from its earlier advertised Monday, March 10 to Monday, March 17. The shift was necessitated by the need to effectively tidy up the grey areas with regards to logistics before the conference would be declared open.
As at yesterday, journalists had not been accredited to cover the exercise as the executive committee of the conference needed to be put in place first before they will now put other structures in place.
President Goodluck Jonathan had last week announced in a media chat that the conference would begin today with the Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Secretary, who would work for a week after which the dialogue proper would kick off on March 10. He said: ‘’Our thinking is that the national conference will begin on March 3.
You will know the chairman, the deputy chairman and the secretary, but they will start work for at least a week before we invite others to join. “On March 10, I will formally inaugurate the conference.
The plan so far is that the conference will start on March 3.” Special Assistant on Media to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sam Nwaobasi, had recently allayed fears that the conference might not hold as scheduled. He had told our correspondent that the government would not only release the names of delegates but that the conference would go on as earlier promised by the president.
Presidency sources said the time was too short to put the secretariat in place and then formally inaugurate the conference without giving the executive committee more time to set up its secretariat. “Our thinking is that the exco need more time. You know the president added three assistant secretaries on Thursday.
There is no how the whole exco will be able to work within the limited time-frame, so government decided to give them at least 10 days to be able to brainstorm and come up with their own modus operandi”, said the source.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim had stated that the budget of the conference, had already been incorporated into the 2014 budget. However, with the budget yet to be passed, “the government will mop up the necessary funds from other areas”.
Source: National Mirror