We Don’t Need Sovereign National Confab — Gowon. Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, has challenged northern leaders, who think President Goodluck Jonathan has a personal agenda in convoking the national conference, to tell Nigerians what the agenda is. The apex body for Islamic organisations in the North, the Jama’atul Nasril Islam, and some prominent northern leaders, had accused Jonathan of having a hidden agenda with the convocation of the national conference. Gowon, who spoke to our correspondent in a telephone interview on Friday, said having the political will to ask Nigerians to come together and discuss things bothering them does not mean the President has any agenda. He also said any conference that would insist on discussing Nigeria’s sovereignty was not proper. The former Head of State said he had always supported the idea of a conference discussing issues affecting Nigeria, but that such conference should not be sovereign. Gowon said, “For the President to gather a crop of Nigerians to discuss its future is an indication that he means well. So, those who know what other agenda he has, should tell us. They should go further by telling us what that agenda is, so that we can better appreciate our position.” On the issue of no-go areas, the retired general said, “If I say nobody should question the existence of Nigeria, is that a no-go area? “Those who argued that Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914 against our will should also remember that by 1960, we became a sovereign nation and when attempts were made to break it, we all resisted it. Thank God for that. That was why all of us welcomed the reconciliation that followed that unfortunate incident. “It would be an insult to our forefathers if we should start to discuss about Nigeria staying together as a nation because they laboured and fought hard for it.”
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 13:23:14 +0000
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