Guardian Confab delegates to be inaugurated on Monday Tuesday, 04 March 2014 22:46 Written by Lemmy Ughegbe, Karls Tsokar (Abuja) and Bertram Nwannekanma (Lagos) Category: National Kutigi Idris• Presidency yet to release names of nominees • Lawyer prays court to stop national conference AS the leadership of the National Conference resumes to start preparing to serve the nation, the list of delegates as nominated by the stakeholders is due to be released today, even as the members would be inaugurated on Monday. In a telephone chat with The Guardian, the Special Assistant to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sam Nwaobasi said :“The full list of the delegates would be released on Wednesday or Thursday, without fail because the inauguration is on the 10th of this month”. Although a source said some states in the North Central and North East had not sent a complete list of their delegates because their nominees are mostly political allies, this has generated controversy among the elders who faulted the process of nomination in the first place. Some of the states have made efforts to fill in the space after the closing day, contrary to the directive that nominations were to close on the February 20, 2014. However, Nwaobasi said that every state government has done its bit in line with what was contained in the modalities. According to the modalities released by the SGF in January, President Goodluck Jonathan has the prerogative to fill the vacant positions left by state governments. The President also has the right to choose 37 elder statesmen, one from each of the 36 states and FCT, besides 20 others from the judiciary who must be persons not currently serving from each of the six geo-political zones. As Nigerians wait for the release of the names of the delegates, those that had initially expressed dissatisfaction with the composition after the modalities were released are bracing up to challenge the procedure. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for instance had cried foul and threatened to boycott the conference because the body was allocated “only one slot”. The NBA through its President, Okey Wali wrote in a protest letter that: “This is an area we are supposed to possess enormous expertise and will definitely add a lot of value to the process. “We do not believe that the single slot given to the Nigerian Bar Association will be enough for an effective impact and so, we request that you, please, reconsider the one slot offer to the Nigerian Bar Association, as we regrettably will be unable to accept that offer.” Also, coalition of pro-democracy civil society organizations had insisted that the allocations to the President and state governments far surpass the necessary expectation to produce best results , demanding that for the good of the country, a greater proportion of not less than two-thirds of delegates be allocated to the independent non-state actor representatives. In all of this, the Presidency had insisted that the list from the Federal Government would not be released as it remained sealed until the appropriate time “when it would not generate unnecessary debate,” a source said. Meanwhile, a lawyer, Dr. Tunji Abayomi has prayed the Federal High Court, Abuja Division to restrain the Federal Government from going ahead with the forthcoming national conference. In the suit dated March 3, 2014, Abayomi argued that the President does not have the power to convoke or convene a national conference without a law backing it from the National Assembly. Joined as defendants in the suit are the Attorney-General of the Federation, President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Specifically, the plaintiff wants the court to determine whether a national conference can be convened by the president and/or government of Nigeria without a law made by the National Assembly enabling it to be done. In the affidavit in support of the suit deposed to by Mr. Patrick Bisong, a litigation clerk in the office of the plaintiff, Abayomi said that the Federal Government plans to spend billions of public money to fund the conference despite the absence of any law enabling the President to convoke the conference and notwithstanding the limited power vested in the President to use money to execute law or law authorised national idea. Abayomi prayed the court to restrain the Federal Government from going ahead with the conference, adding if they are not restrained, billions of tax-payers’ money will be spent unconstitutionally. He said that to settle the rights of the parties to the action, urgent attention to the cause of action has become necessary. No date has been fixed for the hearing of the matter.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 08:16:24 +0000
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