The Chairman of the
Presidential Advisory
Committee on the National
Dialogue/Conference,
Senator Femi Okurounmu,
in this interview with FEMI
MAKINDE, speaks on the
conference
Many people believe that
the proposed national
conference is ill-timed;
that it should be held after
the 2015 election. Do you
agree with this?
There is nothing wrong with
the timing. This is what many
of us have been asking for,
for about 30 years and it is
now thrown on our laps. Will
you reject it saying it should
be shifted to after election?
Certainly not, this is an
opportunity we have been
asking for and it has come,
we have to grab it.
To what extent does the
President control your
committee?
The President has asked us
to suggest modalities for the
conference. He has not tied
our hands and we are the
ones to recommend. The
president has not indicated
any intention of arm-twisting
us.
Different group have been
agitating that the
conference should be one
with sovereign powers,
how do you react to this?
The President has not said
that. I was also asking for a
sovereign national
conference before but that
word ‘sovereign’ is making
some people afraid, so it was
dropped. But the good thing
is that there is an
opportunity to talk and we
have to talk. People are free
to make any demand.
How about the demand for
regional autonomy?
Those are some of the issues
we can discuss at the
conference. There is nothing
we can’t put on the agenda.
That is why we are asking
Nigerians to come out and
tell us those things they
want to be on the agenda.
Are you saying there won’t
be any no-go-area?
There should be no no-go-
area. People are free to talk
about any issue they want to
be discussed at the
conference. Yes, people are
free to make any
recommendation.
What impact do you think
this conference would have
on the people of Nigeria?
If the President accepts our
recommendations, convokes
such a conference and it is
successfully held, all
Nigerians will be very happy
by its outcome. Even the
sceptics will be happy by the
outcome. We shall have a
country where everybody will
be happy and no one will
feel cheated or marginalised.
As somebody who has been
at the vanguard of the
national conference for more
than two decades, the
positive or negative reactions
did not surprise me. There
have always been positive
and negative reactions to the
idea right from the
beginning. The reason for
calling for the national
conference is because there
are strong forces who are
against it. Even though, they
are minority Nigerians, they
control a lot of political
influence; they have always
been against it but majority
of Nigerians are for it. That
is bound to be reflected in
every reaction you are
getting now. We are asking
Nigerians to tell us what they
want; that is part of the
process of consultation.
What do you think are the
likely fear of those that
are opposing the national
conference?
Their fears have always been
imaginary; simply because
they are not bold enough to
come out with the real fears
or reason for opposing it.
They invent some reasons for
opposing it, and some of
their inventions are that it
will break Nigeria. I think
that does not make sense; to
say that when people sit
down and talk, it will break
up Nigeria. In fact, that can
only be a path to cementing
the unity of Nigeria. I
actually don’t want to go to
their real reason for
opposing it because most
Nigerians know the real
reason why those opposing
it are opposing it.
As I said earlier, majority of
Nigerians are in support of
the conference and majority
of Nigerians have been
asking for this for very
strong reasons. Only the
person that wears the shoe
knows where the shoe
pinches. The ethnic
minorities, and other various
ethnic nationalities in Nigeria
make us believe that there is
no enough equity and
sufficient justice in the
polity, and that to have
justice, to have equity and to
have a Nigeria where all of
us can have a sense of
brotherhood, where every
Nigerian can regard his
fellow as brother and sister,
then we need to sit down
and talk and look at our
term of unity. We must come
together as a country to
operate harmoniously and
have a peaceful national
conference, which will put an
end to Boko Haram today,
kidnapping tomorrow, and
crises here and there. To put
a stop to all these things, we
must sit down and talk.
How sincere is Mr.
President on the national
conference?
I don’t want to go into that.
A politician always goes after
his interest. Even in
international politics, you go
after your nation’s interest.
If you are a president of a
country, you go after your
nation’s interest, not after
the motive of the man who
is offering you your nation’s
interest. Those of us who
have always wanted national
conference; it is not for us to
look at the motive of the
President. All we need to do
is to appreciate the
President who gives us what
we have always wanted. All
we should do is to do what
the people want.
So it is not about 2015
general election?
No, it is not and I don t
want to speculate about it.
Who are the people you are
inviting to the town hall
meetings of your
committee across the six
geopolitical zones in
Nigeria?
We invite all Nigerians who
have something to say about
the national conference,
anything to say along the
line of our term of
reference. At this point, we
are not calling for papers on
the issues themselves. We
are consulting Nigerians on
terms of reference, and we
are consulting widely. If you
look at our terms of
reference, the first one deals
with consulting widely to let
us determine the feasible
agenda for the conference.
We want Nigerians to tell us
what issue should be put in
the agenda, so that we can
take all the issues that
Nigerians want us to table
for discussion, that is very
important. I can tell you
what the issues are but that
is not my assignment. My
assignment is to listen to
Nigerians, let them tell us
the issues, what they want,
what the issues are and how
the conference will be. And
of course, we want to hear
how to choose the delegates
to the national conference.
We want to hear what
should be the duration, what
should be the legal frame
work for the conference and
so on. We want to hear how
our decisions and findings
will be incorporated in the
constitution from Nigerians.
We want to give every
Nigerian an opportunity to
make his views known. You
can come and present a
memo to us as a
representative of an ethnic
group; you can come to
represent yourself, a civil
society group, a professional
body, an association.
Everybody has the chance to
come.
Is the national conference
not a duplication of
function of the National
Assembly?
For instance, you mentioned
the idea of no-go-area; our
own conference has no no-
go-area. The National
Assembly has plenty of no-
go-areas. They take the 1979
constitution which was more
or less transformed to the
1999 constitution; that one is
given. They can only amend
it. Ours is different from just
bickering on a given
constitution. We are not
working with the constitution
that has already been given.
Ours is to collect the views
of Nigerians on our nation.
We want to hear from
Nigerians what the issues
are, what the grievances are.
At the time we come with
our recommendations, if it
tallies with the 1999
constitution so be it. If it
does not, then we will not
hesitate to recommend a
new constitution all together.
At the end of the day, what
will be the role of the
National Assembly?
That is not part of my term
of reference. The National
Assembly members are
Nigerians, we are going to
hear from them too. They
are Nigerians and they will
also have an input.
My committee is just to
recommend to the President
the procedure for setting up
a national conference. It is
the national conference itself
that will come up with
findings and
recommendations on the
real issues in the country.
The findings and
recommendation of the
committee are subject
materials for the
constitution. Whatever the
findings and
recommendations of the
committee would be
subjected to national
referendum by the people.
And what the people have
approved in the national
referendum, no other person
has power above the people;
the people are the ultimate
power.
It is a week now that your
committee was
inaugurated, what are your
findings so far?
As soon as we were
inaugurated, we started
working. We mapped out a
programme of actions
covering the period given to
us. You would have seen our
tour programme. After the
tour, we also have a retreat
where we will invite eminent
Nigerians and scholars-
people who have actually
studied the issues which are
relevant and pertinent to the
national conference to come
and discuss, talk to us,
address us, and address
Nigerians. After that, we
shall go back to look at all
the submissions in form of
memorandum and issues
made at the retreat in line
with our terms of reference
and then make our
recommendations.
What was your reaction
when this assignment came
your way, did you nurse
any fear or restraint?
With all sense of modesty, I
saw it as something I could
handle because it is
something I have been
thinking about for more than
30 years. This is something
that has occupied my mind,
my conscious and sub-
conscious. I have been
talking about national
conference for more than
thirty something years, ever
since I became a politician in
1978 when I was in UPN.
This matter has never left my
conscious and sub-conscious
mind. Therefore it is not a
new area at all. It is a
responsibility that I was glad
to accept, and I was happy
that in my life time, the
thing I spent years agitating
for actually came to me. It is
not a new area to me at all.
I was glad to accept that
responsibility.
Are you comfortable with
the time frame for your
committee?
We are not complaining
about it. The President
himself realised that four
weeks was too short and he
extended it to six weeks. We
have also seen that six weeks
will not be enough. As we
continue with our work, if we
find that we will not be able
to complete our job within
that time, we will not
hesitate to ask for more
time.
What will you say to
Nigerians to make sure
that they have more
confidence in the national
conference?
Already, I know so many of
them have confidence in the
committee and the national
conference. I will only advise
the few sceptics to please
have full confidence in the
committee. If you look at the
members of the committee,
you see that none of them is
likely to be a sell out; none
of them is likely to
compromise basic principles.
These are men of honour,
men of repute, men of
integrity with respectable
antecedent. These are men
and women that can be
trusted.
What is going to be your
stake at the end of the
national conference?
My stake is to do everything
I can see that our committee
comes out successful and
does not disappoint
Nigerians. Nigerians are
putting a lot of hope on us,
a lot of faith and confidence
that we can do this job and
we don’t want to let them
down. We want to
recommend to the president
the conference that will
actually strengthen the unity
of Nigeria, if the president
accepts our
recommendations.


www.punchng.com/news/national-conference-wont-break-up-nigeria-okurounmu/

gud man

good move by the president. i feel it can solve some problems.

good move by the president. I hope it will sikvr some problems?

Sincerely, i still dont kno y some Nigerian leaders are against d NC. is it for d hate dey nurse against GEJ or d fear dat we might eventually disintegrate?
Or is it dat dey truly think d exercise is a "jamboree"?
if d formers, it is quite understandable. but if it's d latter, den such pple are pessimists and fail-minded mediocres, as such not fit to lead any race.
Nigerians must not listen to dem.