Confab A Waste Of Time, Says Amaechi!

Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State yesterday dismissed the planned national conference as a waste of time.

He wondered what happened to past conferences held in the country.

The governor spoke to reporters in Abuja during a visit to the National Human Rights Commission to brief officials on his petition in which he asked for the redeployment of the state Police Commissioner, Mr.Joseph Mbu.

Amaechi said he would have been hopeful of a positive outcome, if the planned conference were to be a sovereign one whose outcome will not be subject to any manipulation or alteration by any authority.

His view is shared by former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Professor Ango Abdullahi, who, in a separate interview, said the planned dialogue is a sham, coming from President Goodluck Jonathan who, he said, had dithered and prevaricated on national conference in the past.

The Northern Elders’ Forum (NCF) spokesman said that given his antecedent, the President cannot be taken seriously on the issue.

He said while the NCF is yet to take a position on the conference “anybody that understands the constitution would tell you that there cannot be a sovereign conference with the President on his seat or the National Assembly in place.”

He added: “They all have to vacate so that the chairman of the sovereign conference takes over the leadership of the country and whatever the resolution is forms the basis of the new constitution.”

Explaining why he does not believe the planned conference would be different from past talks on the political direction of the country,he said: “This is the ridiculous thing about this country. If we go back to past constitutional conferences, beginning with the Lugard Constitution of 1914; Clifford Constitution (1922); Arthur Richards Constitution (1945); John Macpherson Constitution (1951), Oliver Littleton Constitution (1954), Independence Constitution (1960); Republican Constitution (1963) and 1979 Constitution, and, of course, there was another draft Constitution in 1989 prepared during the regime of former President Ibrahim Babangida which was never tried until General Sanni Abacha’s administration brought about the 1994/95 constitutional conference which laid the foundations for the 1999 Constitution.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, I accept all, except one of them because all the issues raised which are important to our existence as a country were there. To me, there must be some other factor that is driving those who think we should repeat the same activities we had gone through over the years.”

Raising suspicion over what he called President Jonathan’s 360 degree U-turn on national conference,he said: “ Maybe he is under certain political pressure. Really, if President Jonathan is to be taken seriously and if he wants to be different from those who had this kind of conferences before, he should give Nigerians a sovereign national conference. Anything short of a sovereign national is diversionary. A sovereign national conference will create a new level playing field for Nigerians to decide their future.

“In doing so, everyone, including the President, governors, lawmakers at national, state and council levels must vacate their offices and allow for a truly sovereign national conference to take over the running of the country.

“It is left for Nigerians whether or not to take him seriously. But for me, it is a waste of the people’s time, waste of resources to engage in a discussion that is no way different from the ones we have had before, unless the discussion is going to take the form of a sovereign national conference.” The Nation reports.