As the complexification of the meaning of ‘National Conference’ by the President and his ‘Federal Government’ continue, i wish to remind MR. President and his government, in the words of Jimmy Carter, for a start, that in the race to address the challenges of our country ‘the people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual’ as exemplified by the Guidelines of the Federal Government’s ‘National Conference’! How national is a conference in which the President will nominate directly and/or indirectly over 100 of the 492 members? Can a conference that provides spaces for organized labor, technocrats, traditional and un-traditional rulers but shut door against multitude of poor persons and unorganized millions of unemployed Nigerians, who are often victims of maladministration, be a national conference? Can a conference, whose necessity was derived from humongous power imbalance tilted in favor of the federal government, yet has the President appointing the Conference Chairman, Secretary and Deputy Chairman be said to be a conference of the people positioned to solve the problem of ‘Power – Over that continue to drive impunity and governmental lawlessness?’ Who are the ‘Elder Statesmen’ the President will nominate and who conferred the status on them? Will a conference whose diminished duty, in the end, as in the guideline, is merely to advise the President on the Legal Framework to put in place to actualize its decisions be the type of conference Nigerians have been looking forward to ? In the end, could a conference whose outcome is not subjected to a referendum be said to have represented the desires and aspirations of Nigerians? Who is the conference about? Is it about Nigeria and Nigerians or about Nigeria and the President? What about the ‘decree’ that agreement should be reached through consensus or a valid decision by seventy – five percent (75%)? Is it possible to achieve a seventy-five percent (75%) majority if the President’s ‘stooges’, sorry ‘nominees do not agree to a resolution? Is that not a veto power through the back door? saharareporters/article/jonathan%E2%80%99s-national-conference-and-summer-%E2%80%98patriots%E2%80%99-gbenro-olajuyigbe
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 02:37:21 +0000
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