— South-south, others draw battle line against North
–Northern delegates may reject decisions
Following the disagreement of some of northern delegates with last Thursday’s resolutions at the National Conference and their subsequent letter to the leadership of the conference to rescind its position which placed local governments under the states, proceedings at today’s plenary might be characterised by chaos as disagreeing delegates jostle for the worst.
Trouble at last Monday’s plenary was averted following the exoneration of the leadership which claimed that it knew nothing about the controversial document said to be containing a new Constitution for the country and other issues not discussed at the plenary.
It was alleged that the document was written by Chairman of Daar Communication, owners of African Independent Television (AIT), High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, and other delegates sympathetic to his course.
Deputy Chairman of the conference, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, was accused in
a publication of lobbying northern delegates to support the document.
Angered by the publication, some delegates wanted Akinyemi to clear his involvement in the issue, forcing him to the explain that he was only trying to work out a middle ground between delegates that believed they were in the conference to write a new Constitution and those that believed otherwise.
Dokpesi had explained that he and Prof. Ibrahim Agboola Gambari had formed a “National Consensus and Bridge Building Group” to harmonise some of the contentious areas of the conference and revealed that the North, including Prof. Auwalu Yadudu, were severally in attendance until his letter which purportedly withdrew the northern delegates from the group.
Dokpesi also explained that the leadership of the conference knew nothing about the document which he said was fashioned out by the technical group which had three delegates from each of the geo-political zones.
Yadudu had told Blueprint that the North withdrew because Dokpesi’s document contained extraneous issues such as names and number of states to be created, including the position of the document on local government, which were not discussed on the floor of the conference.
Surprisingly, most of those issues resurfaced at Thursday’s plenary and were passed by delegates as position of the conference.
In an undated letter signed by Yadudu, which said states in the North had withdrawn from the discussions, the author wrote: “Our delegations welcome and remain available to participate in any consensus-building process or effort that is conducted under an environment of mutual respect, which is genuinely inclusive and carried out in good faith.
“It is well known that the document circulated and the agreements reached have been drawn up, vigorously canvassed by some zones in concert to the exclusion of delegates from our states and other vital stakeholders.
“We view them more like ‘terms of surrender’ than proposals for discussions. We observe that the document conspicuously contains many vital issues not at all discussed or even recommended by any committee. It seeks for anticipatory approval for many other recommendations not yet considered, and rather curiously, ignored issues in respect of which the conference has to take a decision on at plenary.”
Other objections raised by Yadudu in his letter were lack of consultation on the part of the authors of the document who went ahead to determine that 18 states were to be created across Nigeria and also allocated names to such states and also wanted to know whether leadership of the conference has sanctioned the agreements and conclusions.
On June 24, Dokpesi replied Yadudu, saying: “There is obvious misunderstanding and miscarriage of facts in arriving at your conclusions. Please, recall that during the inaugural meeting held on Sunday, June 22, 2014 at the DAAR Complex in Asokoro, while discussing the modalities for a consensus on the most sensitive issues that we are yet to discuss at the conference, it was agreed by all members, including your good self, that we review all the report of the conference committees still outstanding, especially for the following: national security, politics and governance, political parties and electoral matters, political restructuring and forms of government and devolution of power.”
The letter pleaded on Yadudu to rescind his decision to ask representatives of the three geopolitical zones in the North to withdraw from the deliberations aimed at building consensus on major national issues at the conference.
Now the bone of contention, according to the Northern delegates, was that the conference never paid heed to protestations by delegates from the area to observe that the conference was proceeding in error against its own procedure.
Another bone of contention was the number of states 18 in all including the compulsory one conceded to the South-east for reasons of parity, equity and justice.
