BREAKING NEWS.! CONFERANCE: APC Insists on Boycott The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) Friday reiterated its resolve to boycott the National Conference scheduled to be inaugurated in Abuja on March 17 by President Goodluck Jonathan, insisting that there is a hidden agenda behind the conference. In a related development, a constitutional lawyer, Tunji Abayomi has approached the Federal High Court, Abuja asking it to stop the Federal Government from going ahead with the Conference for lack of enabling law. Also, the list of the 492 delegates to the National Conference released by the federal government on Thursday has continued to elicit mixed reactions across the country. The APC gave three reasons why it would not be officially represented at the National Conference when the party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Muhammed spoke to THISDAY yesterday in Abuja. He said the decision not to send two names to fill the space allotted to the party was because it believed that there was a s hidden agenda behind the conference and that it was diversionary. Muhammed said apart from not having any genuine intentions, the party feels that the present administration lacked credibility to organise a National Conference whose outcome could be trusted. According to the APC spokesman, the party does not also accept the modalities set out by Federal Government, “especially the fact that the conference is not sovereign and will have its decisions subjected to further debates by the National Assembly.” He continued: “We, APC will never send delegates to the National Conference as it will not meet the expectations of Nigerians. Although, the party is not attending, we have decided not to allow the party’s partisanship affect the states under our control because the governors represent other entities outside of the party. For this reason, our governors were allowed to send delegates to represent state interests at the conference.” The party spokesman insisted that the party had not shifted grounds from its earlier stand not to participate in the conference but only gave its governors the go ahead to protect state interest at the conference. THISDAY gathered that following reports that the Presidency had allegedly perfected plans to use its initiative to appoint surrogates as delegates to replace the slots meant for the APC controlled states, the APC governors rallied to put pressure on the party to shift ground on the matter. A reliable source told THISDAY yesterday that the APC leaders met on the issue and agreed that its state governors could go ahead and nominate delegates to attend the conference. In a related development, constitutional lawyer, Tunji Abayomi has approached the Federal High Court, Abuja asking it to stop the Federal Government from going ahead with the National Conference. In his suit filed on March 3, he contended that Jonathan lacked the power to convoke or convene the Conference without the backing of a law enacted by National Assembly. Abayomi asked the court to determine whether or not a conference could be convened by the president and/or the federal government without an Act of the National Assembly. The plaintiff also asked the court to restrain the government from convening the conference so that billions of tax payers’ money would not be spent unconstitutionally. No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit. Meanwhile, Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo said the list of delegates released “is the clearest indication yet that the purpose of the Confab is very suspect.” Said Keyamo: “It is an eyesore to see that the list is made up of the good, the bad and the ugly. Funny and questionable characters and past failures in public office would sit alongside some very respectable citizens to discuss the future of Nigeria. I shudder at that prospect. “This conference is a waste of time and our scarce resources. It is a journey to nowhere. There is still time for some of those honourable men and women whose names are on that list to get out of this ill-fated bus before it begins its cataclysmic journey.” The Movement For Justice and Fairness, a pro-Christian advocacy group said the list of delegates for the North-east was unfair and biased against Christians from the geo-political zone. In a statement sent to THISDAY, the group noted that out of the fifteen delegates only five were not Muslims. It said that this figure was not a proper reflection of the demographic spread of the faiths in the sub-region. The statement, signed by the coordinator of the group, Musa Ibn-Elijah, reads in part: “We are worried that there was no attempt at balance in a list said to be a fair representation of the peoples of the North-east. This is a very sensitive matter that is capable of jeopardizing the peaceful co-existence of Christians and Muslims in this region.” In the Senate, the reaction was mixed. Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi (Ekiti North), who described the list as “a mixed bag of Nigerians of different qualities, political history and activities,” said his concern was not only about the credibility of the delegates but rather “about issues and content.” Also echoing Adetumbi, Senator Domingo Obende (Edo North), said his concern was not about the list but rather the rationale behind the national conference, admitting that even though there was nothing wrong with talking, “Nigerians have not been educated about the purpose of the conference.” But Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, disagreed with Adetumbi and Obende. He said the list of delegates to the conference as announced by the federal government was promising enough because it comprises mainly people who have been at the forefront of the campaign for the conference. Yusuf Olu Ali, A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, (SAN) said the list was predictable in view of the power of President Goodluck Jonathan to appoint anybody he feels like to represent the country at the conference. “The list contained old and new people; they should be serious and work for the growth of the country,” Ali said. THISDAY
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 15:13:08 +0000
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