NAN-H-44
Conference
By Lydia Ngwakwe
Lagos, Oct. 10, 2016 (NAN) Lawmakers have been urged to ensure that the resolutions reached at the last National Conference were implemented instead of calling for another conference.
Prof. Oluremi Sonaiya, the 2015 presidential candidate of the KOWA Party, made the call during interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday.
According to her, the resolutions reached at the conclusion of the conference were wishes of Nigerians.
“I think what we need is to consider and take steps to implement the decisions of the last national conference.
“Issues relating to the amendment of the constitution should then be subjected to a referendum’’, Sonaiya said.
Other respondents also condemned fresh requests by some members of House of Representatives for the convocation of a fresh national conference.
The activists told NAN that another national conference was not appropriate at a time where the country was faced with recession
NAN recalls that Reps Kingsley Chinda (PDP-Rivers), and Peter Akpatason (APC-Edo), introduced a Bill on Oct. 5, seeking the convocation of another national conference and a referendum for a new constitution for the country.
The House, however, rejected the bill.
The National Chairman of the defunct People’s Redemption Party, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, supported the House for rejecting the bill.
“The Speaker of the House has done the correct thing. There is no concrete reason for the Federal Government to convoke a national conference.
“We will end up again with a fraud like we had in past administrations.
“The present government is facing serious problem of credibility and incompetence and it is trying to divert attention from the reality’’, Musa said.
A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Kano, Alhaji Musa Umar, who condemned the call, said it was not the priority of the present administration.
“I feel another national conference now will be inappropriate in view of the prevailing economic recession and it is not the priority of this government.
“The government should be allowed to settle down to implement its policies especially the war on insecurity, corruption and the economy’’, Umar said.
However, the President, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, said an all-inclusive national conference was needed at this time.
“I think the best we can do now is for us to have an all-inclusive national conference that must be seen to be different from the previous ones that we had.
“Nigerians need a conference that would come from their various zones, nominated by people from their zones to represent them at the local and state levels.
“After which we go to a referendum and discuss the state of the nation and adopt a particular document as to how we have to exist as a people’’, Shettima said. (NAN)
LED/MNA/IEA
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Edited by Maureen Atuonwu/Idahosa Asowata