CONFAB CONVENED TO EXTEND JONATHANS TENURE’ The National Conference convened by President Goodluck Jonathan is riddled with hidden agenda among which is tenure elongation for the president, former inspector-general of police Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie has revealed. Speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP Sunday yesterday, Coomassie, who is the chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), said the confab, which will soon be concluded, is a sham and has not provided solutions to the myriad of challenges confronting the nation. The former police boss stressed that the hidden agenda at the confab was to cajole delegates into endorsing a single six-year term for the president beginning from the incumbent. He however added that the elongation plan was rejected by northern delegates. “At one stage, one or two individuals were coming around to ask that we support and approve a six-year tenure with immediate effect for the president, and we asked why? Why not the two four-year tenure?” he said Coomassie, who also doubles as a co-chairman of the Northern Delegates Forum (NDF) at the confab, emphatically said: “We saw there were hidden agenda. Of course there were, and one of them is elongation of tenure for the president.” Speaking on the resolutions of the confab which are slated for adoption on August 4, 2014, when delegates reconvene, Coomassie said the exercise never addressed burning national issues and so had no solutions to the nation’s challenges. Asked if reports of the confab contained things that would reposition Nigeria, the retired police boss and Sardauna of Katsina said: “We just touched them on the surface. We didn’t go deep. We only talked about things that divided us more than things that bind us together.” Continuing, he said: “But what I’m telling you is that the way the whole thing was handled was a sham. It was not based on due process; it was not based on legality. We are not a constitutional conference. This national conference is just a ploy to remove the heat of politics and even insurgency from Jonathan. Why not constitute it properly? Why not call for election and constitute officers, give them powers, call for national conference, and is three months or four months enough to come up with solutions to all our problems? It is not meant to achieve anything.” He stated that the three old regions of the North, South and East went to the confab with different agenda, saying that the agenda of the North was for the peace and stability of Nigeria. In addition, the retired police commissioner said even though the confab was geared toward ensuring more peace within the country, some recommendations went against the interest of the north. “They were against the north because of the method adopted, which of course we contested. The consensus and the voting system were contrary to the rules and regulations. For example, they want to scrap local government from the country. And this is to the disadvantage of northern Nigeria. They want to create 18 more states. What are they going to do with 18 more states in this country? Right-thinking persons know that it is not desirable.” Also speaking on the seemingly endless insurgency in some parts of the north, the former IGP attributed the menace to the laxity on the part of the government and insisted that the government must buckle up to ensure an end to the raging insurgency. He said the war on terror was taking longer than necessary because the security agencies lacked the necessary intelligence to prosecute the war. “A policeman can only succeed if he has authentic intelligence to work on to prepare his operations. If he doesn’t have it, he will not win anything. He will go and fumble and mess up himself. “Why is the intelligence not available? you may ask. Whose fault? But they said they have spent so much money running into trillions of naira on intelligence on insurgency. Where is the money?” he asked. Coomassie insisted that the solution to the raging insurgency lies with the government which he said “must really sit up and get all the facts available to sit down with experts and analyze”. When contacted last night on the allegation, the Confab Assistant Secretary, Media and Communications, James Akpadem, told LEADERSHIP Sunday that he cannot comment on an issue related to the Presidency, saying that he was not aware of any hidden agenda. ‘’Contact the presidential spokesman, because what you are saying did not happen or tabled on the floor of the confab,’’ he said. However, attempt to get the reaction of President Goodluck Jonathan through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati was not successful, as he didn’t respond to a text message sent to him nor answer a call put through to his phone.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 07:44:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015