http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-conference-debate-apcs-opposition-amidst-growing-support/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-conference-debate-apcs-opposition-amidst-growing-support/

NATIONAL CONFERENCE DEBATE: APC’s opposition amidst growing support

http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-conference-debate-apcs-opposition-amidst-growing-support/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-conference-debate-apcs-opposition-amidst-growing-support/

The issue of national conference has been in the public domain in recent time with the All Progressive Congress, APC, threatening to boycott the exercise. In this report, SINA FADARE x-rays the contending issues.

The National Executive Committee, NEC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, recently made its stand known on the proposed national conference by President Goodluck Jonathan, saying it was a fluke. The party, shortly after a marathon meeting of its governors, declared through the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that President Jonathan has lost focus and the credibility required to organise such a conference.

Mohammed said: “What we see today is that this government has lost focus, it has lost credibility, it has lost control of the economy, security; corruption has attained uncontrollable proportion and at this point in time, this government lacks the credibility to organise a real meaningful national conference.” “I have put it clear to you, this is diversionary. If it is a clear, meaningful national dialogue, we will participate, but this isn’t.

The President himself has said whatever is discussed there will be subjected to National Assembly. So, what you are having is constitutional amendment.” The party threatened not to participate in the exercise.

The position of the APC on the longawaited conference has raised a lot of posers about what actually was the party looking for. Before the constitution of the Femi Okurounmu-led Presidential Advisory Committee on National Conference by the President, the APC has been in the forefront of agitation in most of their public fora with a forceful argument that before 2015 election, there must be restructuring of the country which would be decided by Nigerians at a round table conference. Before the party made its decision public, APC leader and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, gave an indication on the direction of the party on the national dialogue.

When Tinubu returned from a medical trip abroad, he lamented that the national conference committee set up by the President was a mere diversionary tactics to deceive Nigerians from the reality on ground of a failed system.

According to him, “National conference is by whom, for whom, and at what stage? How many level of deception? These people (Federal Government) are not even smart about the deception. I see a contradiction. I see a diversion. I see deception, lack of honesty and integrity.”

He added: “Nigeria has never been this divisive in its 53 years of existence, yet he (President Jonathan) now considers a national conference because of the apparent division in his party.”

Therefore it was not a surprise when APC eventually took the same position with its leader. Political pundits are of the view that if all along, the APC leaders have been agitating for a national conference and now that their request has been granted by the President, what else are they looking for.

It would be recalled that in a lecture delivered at a town hall meeting on August 24, 2012 in Chicago, USA, Tinubu emphasised that: “We need a national conference of all stakeholders in the country.

This is the only way we can build the proper and needed consensus on the precise nature of the political structure and the objectives of what that structure should be. Only in this way can we have a governmental arrangement that enjoys the support of all because all participated in the planning of it.”

According to him, “Nigeria has waited in the departure lounge to true federalism for too long. The cracks are starting to manifest as agitation grows for a more well-balanced federation. The connective tissues of the Nigerian union are weak in part because the Federal Government has tried to make itself too strong.”

Could it be that the APC is apprehensive that the committee will be like all the previous committees set up by the Federal Government and their reports not seeing the light of the day? Or could it be the party in its characteristic manner, want to put the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on its toe to score cheap political point?

Speaking on the issue, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh said the APC is free to boycott the national dialogue, adding that since majority of Nigerians from all walks of life have agreed to the dialogue, the APC was on its own.

According to him, the leadership of the opposition probably took such a decision because it had nothing to offer at the conference, saying “the national conference is not going to be about political parties. It is about Nigerians and attendance won’t be by political parties.”

Methu regretted that: “This is a party that has penchant for sowing discord and ethnicity among Nigerians. It is a retrogressive party. Since the conference had been accepted by majority of Nigerians, members of the National Assembly and associations, then Nigerians should forget the views of the opposition party.”

If the political and economic crises the country is facing could be linked to lack of national conference all the while, then it is desirable that those opposing such a conference should exercise patience and see what will come out of the dialogue committee set up by President Jonathan, argued political pundits.

In his comment on the issue, Ambassador Ken Ajieh noted that the President was on the right track by listening to the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians on national dialogue, adding that those opposing it are mere hypocrites who are just politicising everything in order to get cheap political point.

According to him, a national dialogue is overdue in as much as everybody is complaining that the country need restructuring, therefore we must start from somewhere.

Corroborating this view, a social commentator Mr. Kelvin Nwosu pointed out that it is too early to pre-empt the outcome of the committee in as much as everybody has been clamouring for a dialogue to address all fundamental problems.

Nwosu said: “In a nation like ours, we should create an opportunity for the people to talk about the basis of their existence. We should not mix our daily problem of governance with the issue of national dialogue; it was a right decision in the right direction.”

Speaking with National Mirror on the desirability of a national dialogue, the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said the exercise is an opportunity for the country to get out of the bondage she was subjected to for many years, adding that the Yoruba will not allow self-serving politicians to use their personal interest “to keep us in bondage.”

“Whatever these people are saying are in their interests and not the interest of Yoruba people. And Yoruba people have shown them that they are not on the same page with them because you needed to be in Lagos and Akure venues of the stakeholders’ meetings where the authentic representatives and leaders showed up to take positions on the national conference,” Odumakin noted. He said that the APC’s threat to boycott the conference is inconsequential.

He said: “It is preposterous and it is sheer arrogance to say that they will boycott a conference to which they have not been invited. If the nations go to the conference and say they don’t want to be in the same country again, what is the fate of the APC?

The nationalities are the hardware of any country and it is when you have the hardware that you put the software. I even think the APC people are overrating themselves.”

In the same vein, the chairman of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, Comrade Debo Adeniran while speaking with National Mirror lamented that those who are opposing the national dialogue are insincere and parochial in their thinking.

According to him, “Those opposing national conference are self-serving. It is like they are living under the illusion that if the status quo remains, their party may actually take over the government and they also want to enjoy the inordinate proceeds of the pseudo-federalism that we are enduring before there is restructuring.”

He challenged Nigerians to make success out of the proposed confab, adding that, “For once the people should be taken serious, and the people should conduct themselves seriously and force their leaders to be accountable and submissive to their authority, which is the main tenet of true democracy. We have discussed it in the past that democracy should be redefined as the authority of the people.”

Political pundits are of the view that if it is agreed that we are all responsible for the woes the country is passing through and that a roundtable conference is needed to sort things out, it is necessary that all hands must be on deck to make sure that the committee did not derail and meet the yearnings of Nigerians on the long run



http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-conference-debate-apcs-opposition-amidst-growing-support/
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/national-conference-debate-apcs-opposition-amidst-growing-support/