Confusion yesterday trailed the stakeholders meeting organized in Benin City, the Edo state by the Senator Femi Okurunmo-led Presidential Advisory Committee on National dialogue as people walked out on the state governor Adams Oshiomhole for kicking against the proposed conference.
The gathering was organised by the committee to collect memoranda and listen to suggestions of stakeholders in the state.
Oshiomhole, in company with his aides, on entering the hall of Imaguero College in Benin City used for the meeting, said he had expected the area to be filled with a large crowd but was surprised to see empty seats. He went on to state that he had strong believe that the outcome would not be different from that of previous ones.
The governor’s position and his disagreement with the committee members led to serious tension. To bring the situation under control, members of the committee had to stop the governor and others from making further contributions.
A member of the Presidential Advisory Committee, Col Tony Nyiam (rtd) openly challenged Oshiomhole to stop further condemnation of the proposed conference.
Also, some of the stakeholders present openly interrupted the governor as soon as they realised that his contributions would be different from the perceived general opinion.
Soon after Oshiomhole was hurriedly smuggled out of the hall, while suspected thugs loyal to one of the political parties invaded the venue and unleashed terror.
The Governor who took the stage to make his contribution shortly after the Isoko Ethnic group had made their contribution said he objected to spending huge public funds on a ‘wasteful venture’, arguing that during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo, money was spent on similar conference and at the end, nothing came out of that conference.
“I will be surprised if anything changes. Sincerely, I have no business to deceive or mislead anyone. I believe that the outcome of this conference will not be different from that of other conferences we have had in the past.”
He said, “I am not going to make a long speech today as I used to do. Let me leave you with this message as you go back home; go and reassure members of your communities that Nigeria is one and there is no question about our future. It is true that we have to manage our resources well across the country but in different parts of the country you can see different types of progress. Edo state is an example.”
But as soon as Governor Oshiomhole made this statement, a member of the committee, Col Tony Nyiam stood up to ask the governor to stop making further negative comments on the conference but he (Nyiam) was restrained by other members who were taken aback by his action.
The Governor who insisted on concluding his remarks however yielded the floor when the atmosphere got charged prompting the chairman of the committee, Senator femi Okurounmu to intervene and to calm the situation.
Consequently, members of the committee were whisked away from the hall to into their cars by security agents.
Meanwhile, Oshiomhole had during a courtesy visit to him in his office by members of the Committee led by Senator Femi Okurounmu, said he had no faith in the whole process.
Oshiomhole said “all I owe Nigeria now is to speak my mind. It could be error of my head but certainly not of my heart. As much as I wish you well, I just want to say that I have no faith in this process and I do not think it was necessary at all”.
The Governor said “I am unable to find any basis to give me some illusion that this exercise will not be different from the others. And I honestly think that in terms of the private sector, when a country keeps debating how we can live together that cannot be one of the basis on which the outside community will invest in Nigeria. They may well wait until we know how we want to live in Nigeria”.
He lamented that fifty-three years after independence, Nigerians still prefer to look at themselves from their ethnic origin rather than being Nigerians, saying, “for me, I am just a Nigerian”.
“I do not think that more than hundred years when we have set aside billions of naira to celebrate centenary celebrating the fact of our amalgamation of the North and Southern Nigeria, and we have lived together as one country for over a hundred years, and we have gone through independence, we have been free for fifty three years and we are coming back to ask the question, how could we be there.
“I think Nigeria needs to address very serious issues. When I see eminent Nigerians discussing this issue, I am sure they know that Nigeria’s problem is not this politics of sharing which the national dialogue is all about, who is getting what, who has this natural endowment, who should do this or not do this. For me this is the act of perfecting poverty.
“The real challenge is getting Nigeria back to production. The real challenge is creating industrial base and this cannot be resolved through conferences. We have moved from parliamentary system in our own wisdom to the presidential system. We have test-run it and it was aborted by the military and it has re-incarnated in the present form” he said.
“Nigeria does need a serious reflection about how to return to those core values that made Nigeria work before. Those healthy competition between the governments, visit the whole question of attitude and unless that changes, I do not see how any dialogue can work”, he said.
The Governor noted “I was discussing with somebody last week and he noted that this is the eleventh conference and I ask what ten conferences could not do, how would the eleventh one do it? Why do we think we can continue doing the same thing the same old way and think that this time the outcome would be different?”
The Governor said nobody convenes a meeting without stating an agenda and asking others to draw up an agenda for that meeting, adding “from conception we know we want to talk but we do not know what we want to talk about.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue/Conference, Senator Femi Okurounmu said they were in Benin as part of their tour to the six geo-political zones to get their input as regards the content of the agenda, the duration, choice of delegation and legal framework.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the Coalition of Registered Political Parties (CRPP) at the stakeholders meeting on Monday urged member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National dialogue to ensure that the outcome of the conference is subjected to a referendum.
The body also kicked against the proposal by President Goodluck Jonathan that the outcome be sent members of the National Assembly for vetting.
Chairman of CRPP, Dr. Samson Isibor who spoke at the stakeholders meeting, urged President Jonathan to have the political will to implement the outcome of the conference.
CRPP also suggested that the National Conference should be sovereign in outlook as “sovereignty belongs to the Nigerian people”.
Isibor said, “The outcome should not be subjected or sent to the National Assembly for vetting; but be subjected to a National referendum because the National Assembly as presently constituted is part of the Nigeria fraud that is not based on the true representation of our different ethnic nationalities. It’s lopsided to favour a particular segment of the country especially the North”.
According to the political parties, “The National Conference should be made up of ethnic nationalities and must accommodate the civil societies, religious leaders, labour leaders, students and other special interests”.
Besides, the CRPP suggested 700 delegates for the conference with 600 from the existing six political geo-political zones and 100 should represent special interest groups”.
Members of the group also suggested that “The duration of the conference should be for six months.”
The members also restructuring of the country back to the four Regions; Northern Region, Western Region, Eastern Region and Mid-Western region, so that each region could develop at is own pace, with a ceremonial President at the Federal level.
