Confab Won’t Solve Nigeria’s Problems, ACF, Northern Elders

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A day after the federal government released the modalities for holding the proposed national conference, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), which on Thursday hailed the action, have declared that the “solution to our national malaise does not lie with conference”.
Spokesman of the ACF Mr Anthony Sani and Prof. Ango Abdullahi of the NEF told us that the conference belongs to President Jonathan only and not to Nigerians.
Sani said: “Though ACF does not believe that the solution to our national malaise lies with the national conference, as long as they said it is possible for the national conference to further the cause of a united Nigeria, there should be no qualms.
“Let the deliberations in the conference calm down people’s nerves. But we wonder whether the three months will be enough for thorough and robust deliberations needed for the desired results to come to pass.
“In any case, let the nominees be Nigeria’s first 11 who are endowed with not only public intelligence but also with patriotic courage.”
NEF spokesman Prof. Abdullahi said, “From all indications, this is a conference belonging to the president and not the people of Nigeria.”
According to him, It appears that the Presidency was not happy with recommendations of the earlier committee based on its submission members of the public have received; the government was not happy with it.
“By a directive of the government, they were asked to sit down again to rewrite the recommendations, presumably to write what the government wants out of this conference and that is exactly what happened.
“These recommendations that led to the announcement by the federal government must have been tailored by the president to pursue certain predetermined objectives of his government.
“The recommendations that were in the first draft were that delegates should be elected by Nigerians from their various constituencies as agreed so that people who will participate in it will be representing their constituencies based on election. This was rejected,” he said.
According to the NEF spokesman, the result of the presidency’s directive has given birth to what “we see now as a jamboree of collection of various designations as representing Nigeria”.
“With what we have, according to what we read in the newspapers about the conference, particularly its composition and mode of operations, it is very clear that the conference does not belong to Nigerians. It belongs to the president and his government,” he stressed.
The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) however endorsed the federal government’s modalities. Its secretary-general, Adamu Marshal, in a statement said: “We commend the courage of Mr President to allow Nigerians to come together and talk about the future of the country. As an ethnic association, we are comfortable about this arrangement because it will provide us with the opportunity to say something about our existence.”
Adamawa may not send delegates – Nyako
Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State has declared that the state might not be part of the national conference because the federal government did not consult with it on it.
Nyako said in view of the posture taken by the federal government, the state deemed it fit to bid the organisers a farewell in their undertaking.
“Since they are bent on marginalising us, let them go on. I wish them the best,” Nyako said
The governor spoke with reporters yesterday at Yola International Airport. He noted that the people of Adamawa State were not consulted during the preparations for the conference, adding that they were not regarded as stakeholders in the Nigeria project.
He said: “We were not consulted about the conference; when we made efforts we got wind of a plot to impose delegates on our people without the contribution of the state government. If so, we wish them best of luck; one thing that is clear is that we have no delegates that are participating in the conference to represent our interest.”