WHEN President Jonathan mooted the idea of convening a National
Conference in a national broadcast late last year, pessimism, optimism,
commendations and criticisms trailed the idea. But barely a month after
the inauguration of the Conference, it seems optimism is giving way to
pessimism as delegates had spent much of their time arguing over mere
frivolities than critical issues affecting the country.
Though some will say it is too early in the day for one to pre-empt or conclude what will be the outcome of the Conference, proceedings at the venue so far indicates there may be no light at the end of tunnel.
With one of the three months slated for the conference already gone, not much has been achieved by the delegates. The development is tilting towards the confirmation of the insinuation in some quarters that delegates may already be planning for the extension of the period so that more money could be made available to them.
The mere frivolities that have dominated proceedings started with allegations and counter-allegation against the conference Chairman, Retired Justice Idris Kutigi over religious bias, favouritism, dictatorial tendencies and others.
When it appeared that the problems have been resolved, and the Conference was about to take off for the major and topical national issues for which it was set up in the first place, another controversy over voting procedures cropped up.
This is despite President Goodluck Jonathan’s position during his inaugural speech that modality for arriving at decisions should be by 75 per cent or at worst by consensus.
But instead of abiding by the modalities as released by the Federal Government, some delegates in a bid to achieve what many may call “pre-determined agenda” decided to oppose the rule.
The voting procedure crisis was later resolved by the 50-member Consensus Group set up by the leadership of the Conference.
Apart from these, delegates in the last one month have engaged one another in name calling, ethnic and religious sentiment. The other day, it was former president-general, Trade Union Congress (TUC) and a delegate to the Conference, Comrade Peter Esele lambasting the former governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu during proceedings for providing bad leadership, while serving as a Minister of Education. A woman delegate once took on Major General Ike Nwachukwu (rtd), accusing him of beating women workers with cane when he was the military administrator of old Imo State. Several hours were also wasted discussing the President’s inaugural speech on the floor, instead of reading and digesting it individually.
Delegates have also complained of poor feeding arrangement, alleging that they were being shortchanged by the contractors handling their feeding, a development that made some of the delegates to call for the monetisation of their feeding, stressing that they can eat a better plate of food worth N4000 outside the venue.
Some of them have turned the venue to a sleeping arena, while others have become perpetual latecomers and absentees, especially as there is no sanction for absenteeism or late coming. The issue of poor medical arrangement, and toiletries at the venue has also been raised by some of the delegates.
Considering the number of days and energy dissipated by delegates on these frivolities so far, many Nigerians have expressed worry that the Conference may end up a mere jamboree as earlier predicted. The argument and question have been when will the delegates discuss topical challenges confronting the country.
But some Nigerians are of the opinion that government, while planning for the Conference would have made adequate provision and preparation to ensure that all these inadequacies should be taken care of before its commencement. Many also believe the inconveniencies observed by delegates at the venue was a true manifestation of the shoddy arrangement that characterised the planning of the Conference, despite the huge budgetary allocation for it.
Speaking on the developments, one of the delegates and National Chairman of Labour Party, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu said some of the delegates had experienced some level of comfort at their homes and should not be subjected to logistic difficulties at the Conference venue.
“Certain things should be made available at the venue of the Conference for the comfort of delegates. There is nothing wrong in delegates making comments on the logistic inadequacies observed at the venue.
“Well, we have not engaged so much in frivolities because every issue raised and discussed are of much important to the success of the Conference. It will be unfair for anyone to say that we have wasted so much energy and time on frivolities in the last one month.
“We have broken into committees now and we will soon settle down for the major business of the conference,” Nwanyanwu said.
But Nwanyanwu’s assurance and optimism for better days ahead seems to have been punctured by the ongoing disagreement among delegates on how members and chairman of each of the committee were selected.
It could be recalled that it has been agreed by the delegates during proceedings that chairmen of each committee will be selected or elected by members of the committee. But all of a sudden, the leadership of the conference is insisting that it is their responsibility to appoint chairman of each committee. The development has split the delegates into those in support of the Conference leadership and those opposed to them.
But despite the hue and cry by some delegates on the leadership’s position on the matter, the leadership on Wednesday released the list of the chairmen and deputies of the 20 delegate committees.
According to the list made available to the delegates, the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Victor Attah and retired Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Coomasie would co-chair the Committee on Devolution of Power.
The Committee on Political Restructuring also has Mohammed Kumalia and General Ike Nwachukwu as co-chairmen, while retired Inspector General of Police, Gambo Jimeta, would chair National Security with Horsfall Albert as his Deputy.
The list also indicated that Senator Florence Ita-Giwa would be the chairman on the Committee on Environment while the 24-year-old delegate from Borno, Bukar Mandara will be the Vice Chairman.
The Committee on Politics and Governance is co-chaired both by former Ministers of Information, Professor Jerry Gana and Chief Olu Falae.
Former Minister of Women Affairs, Josephine Anenih will chair the committee on Social Sector with former Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’I, as deputy.
The Committee on Public Service is to be chaired by Ebele Okeke, former Head of Service of the Federation with Ambassador Aliyu Adamu as Deputy.
Two former Senate Presidents, Senator Ayu Iyorchia and Senator Ken Nnamani are to co-chair Parties and Electoral Committee.
The list also indicated that Dr. Abdulahi Zaiyanu would be chairman of Committee on Immigration while Uwajumogu Chidinma would be Deputy Vice Chairman of the committee.
Former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, will be the chairman of the Committee on Energy with Bello Suleiman as the Deputy.
Also, Senator Aliero Adamu will be the chairman of Committee on Public Finance and Revenue with Senator Azu Agboti as Deputy.
The Committee on Religion is to be co-chaired by the Christian Association of Nigeria delegate, Bishop Felix Ajakaiye and Nurudeen Lemu of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.
The Committee on Foreign Policy and Dispora will be chaired by Prof. Ibrahim Gambari with Ambassador Lawrence Ekpebu as deputy, while Committee on Land Tenure is chaired by Gen. A.B Mamman (rtd) with His Royal Highness Oba Michael Adedeji as Deputy.
Meanwhile, delegates who attended proceedings on Wednesday were thrown into heated debate over the composition of the committee memberships and its leadership.
While the Conference leadership maintained 20 standing committees and distributed the 492 delegates into the various committees, most of the delegates openly criticised the membership composition, insisting that they were not favourably disposed to the committees they were drafted into.
While some delegates insisted that they were all foisted in the committees, others were of the opinion that they were sidelined from being members of certain committees that they have fair knowledge of the issue to be discussed.
Still, others noted that the time wasted so far debating issues without arriving at any reasonable recommendation is enough and “all other issues should be kept aside and the house should move on.”
A delegate from South-South, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian that the Conference leadership appears to be acting a written script. The delegate expressed surprise on why the leadership is insisting on appointing chairmen of committees when the delegates have concluded and agreed on the issue, even before the committees were set up.
“I am highly disappointed on how the whole thing is playing out. It is obvious that there is no unity of purpose among the delegates. Those who were against the leadership position on the matter before now are singing different tune to the disappointment of many of us. They seem to have been overwhelmed by emotional, religious and ethnic sentiment.
“The insistence of the Conference leadership to appoint chairmen of the committees is to ensure that the majority Christian delegates did not chair majority of the committees. What is clearly playing out at the Conference is religious and ethnic sentiment. The ethnic division in the country is already affecting the Conference proceedings and it may affect it more if care is not taken,” the delegate disclosed.
But one of the Northern delegates to the Conference, Dr. Junaid Mohammed told The Guardian that delegates never agreed that chairman of the various committees would be elected by members of the committees.
He said the issue was neither here nor there, because the arguments have been that in a parliamentary system or even presidential system of government, various committee chairmen were appointed by House leadership and not members.
“After all, that a delegate is picked as a chairman of a committee does not mean that such a person is the most influential person in the committee. We are elected delegates, we were handpicked, so there is nothing wrong if the leadership of the Conference picks members and chairmen of committees”
On the allegation that the North feels threatened by the composition of the Conference delegates, which gave the Christians an edge ahead of the Muslims, Mohammed said it very obvious that the North/Muslims were shortchanged in the composition of the delegates.
“That was the reason Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar led some Northern elders to the presidential villa at the beginning of the Conference to protest the lopsided composition of the delegates. President Jonathan promised to address it, but have failed to do so till date.
“There is no way one can say that Nigeria population is made up of 50 per cent Muslims and 50 per cent Christians. It is not true. What we have is 60 per cent Muslims and 40 per cent Christians. President Jonathan did not take this into consideration while picking delegates to the Conference.
With the obvious ill-feelings, distrust and discordant tunes among delegates in the last one month over trivial issues, there is no doubt that the days ahead may be stormy, tension-soaked and divisive over topical issues.