Day 5 Plenary at the Nigerian National Conference

 

At 10.52

Inside the chamber, nearly all the seats have been filled by delegates and the day’s proceedings started barely 20 minutes ago.

The Conference is adopting the Proceedings of its previous sittings.

Currently, the Conference is about to move a motion for the adoption of its Rules of Procedure.

The Conference is moves to adopt its draft WorkPlan.

After the Chairman has put the question, delegate Aledu Ibrahim moved that the Conference Procedure Rules as amended be adopted and was supported by Ambassador Adamu.

The #NationalConference Secretary announced that the government has agreed to rent ten additional halls outside the Conference venue to accommodate the committee sitting during the three weeks they will be meeting.

NB:  The Conference discussed the draft workplan and observations raised to address some of the issues delegates feel so strongly about.

Obiora Ike having considered the work plan  thanked those who prepared it. He said the Conference was already behind schedule and urged the leadership to ensure that the leadership of the working committees be announced on the next sitting. He also commented that the workplan should make room for the public holidays since some of the days slated for sittings are public holidays. National Chairman of the Labour Party was the first to draw Conference’s attention to the issue of sittings on public holidays.

Delegate ABC Nwosu argued that most of the committees proposed by the leadership are not in alignment with President Goodluck Jonathan's blueprint as embodied in his inaugural address.  He called for the realignment of the committees to reflect the intentions of the President.

Senator Ahmed Mohammed from Kaduna also called for a revisit of the draft workplan in order to come out with a clean and workable document. He also pointed out that the Conference Rules should not have been adopted without clean copies being circulated to members.

Sergeant Awuse suggested that the list of proposed committees and the work plan be handed back to the leadership to fine-tune some of the areas delegates raised complaints and bring back the document during the next sitting.

Femi Falana argued that Conference must move speedily, and suggested that the workplan be taken back while delegates send their observations to the secretariat. He said the Conference should move to discuss the President’s speech.

A member shouted, “You can’t move..”

Tunde Bakare said the Conference is full of mutual suspicion based on regional and religious leanings. Nigerians are expecting something different from this Conference. We are not a parallel government. He said Atiku Abubakar has written on the back page of Thisday Newspaper and the piece should be incorporated in the workplan. 

By Mid-day,

A delegate observed that the problem of the country was more of economic, adding that such items have not be properly handled in the draft workplan.

He also said Nigeria does not have a common national ideology and governance philosophy that would promote the empowerment of the people. He suggested that the committees should be merged and reduced to about 15.

He argued that the issues of illegal mining should not be seen as an environmental issue but as resource theft just like oil theft. He informed the house that a position paper had been submitted to the leadership on the proposed amendments to be made.

Ezenwa Nwogu argued that the Conference should not be seen as a workshop and suggested that delegates who have things to add to the work plan should do so in order to make the  Conference achieve better result.

The Chairman told a delegate who tried to cause an uproar that he has the power to order him out. Kutigi, however, warned him to desist from causing trouble on the floor but noted that he would not use his maximum power on the delegate.

Motions for the adoption of the amended workplan were moved and seconded

Buknor Akerele said the committee on governance has provision on minority rights but argued that the issues of women have not been properly captured. She called for the merger of some of the committees to make them address important issues that would help the country.

Fatima Adamu from Kebi State said education and health should be separated from social welfare and made to belong to human development.

She said Nigeria has no national value and agenda, and argued that the Conference should adopt a national agenda and national value.

Ebelle Okeke referred to committee on agriculture and asked that water resources should a separate platform not together with agriculture.

She explained that water resources should be developed to bring immense benefits to the country. She said that the setting up of a water resources committee be constituted.

Modibo Kawo said the choices the country has made since Independence has ruined the economy. He said the country has wiped off million of textiles jobs. He said since 1999, Nigeria has been selling national assets to government cronies. “We should interrogate the choices we make in this country.”

Aisha Ismail pointed out that most important issues bedeviling the country have not been given due attention. He said corruption has killed everything in the country. according to him, we have a collapsed agriculture, collapsed housing sector, collapsed health sector. "I think that corruption should be made an item and not just dumped into some other issues."

Isaac Olale argued that there was no inter agency collaboration among security agencies in the country and urged that such issues be given serious consideration by the Conference.

Prof Gambo Laraba said that education has not been well covered in the Conference, saying that education will determine the success of the country.

He went further to say that the government should take serious responsibility of the educational sector.

He argued that the privatization of education is not doing the country any good. Arguing that education is the wealth of the 21st century,  a request was made that the education in the country should be demand-driven and not the way it has been .

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THE CONFERENCE DELEGATES UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTS THE 70 PERCENT VOTING SYSTEM FOR ARRIVING AT DECISIONS.

The National Conference sitting moved on to discuss Group Classification.

The Chairman, Kutigi, said the classification is meant to help the leadership have contact with the delegates. He said 97 different groups were handed to the leadership from the Government. 

Remi Kuku moved the motion for the adoption of the Conference Grouping arrangement and was seconded by Kashim Mohammed.

Musa Adede suggested that many youths should be included in most of the committees, since they will benefit from the efforts of the Conference and would also contribute to building a great country.

Olawale Okuniyi called for the management of the Conference information. He argued that the elders’ statesmen and traditional rulers could be merged; the political parties could be merged, as well as Women groups for effective coordination.

Robert Audu thanked God for giving the delegates good conduct and commended the Chairman for the way he is handling debate on the floor of the Conference.

Sheila Abiye contributed by saying that market women should not be included only in the social welfare committee but in every committee set up by the Conference. She argued that market women are affected by everything that goes on in the country and there was need for them to be accommodated.

Otu Orok Duke moved a motion for the adoption of the amended list of committees to address the suggestions of members. The motion was seconded by Asibi Asani.

Atedo Peterside said he humbly submitted that one of the biggest problems of the country is that of indigineship, settlers and landowners. He said that residency; settlers and indegineship should be seriously considered, noting that he is a tax-paying Lagosian with children who belong to bi-tribal lineage having married from Yoruba.

Peter Izon said that part of the crisis of economic management is that Nigeria has no direct economic philosophy.

We must capture the necessary linkages to attain development.

We must not necessarily need to increase the number of committees but we can restructure the committees to address very important economic issues. 

He said that they should be a way of knowing and recognizing people instead of allowing people to raise their hands, in signification to speak, without being acknowledged.

Mike Ozekhome said the media is so critical for national development, and should not be hidden under any committee. He said Section 22 of the Constitution, empowers the media to hold the government accountable to the people of Nigeria. Such a critical sector should not be subsumed in science and technology.

He suggested that the media segment be brought in line with committee 11.

He also argued that Immigrations should be merged with others under the national security.

Iyorcha Ayu argued that there was no need to create a separate committee on immigrations but suggested that it be placed under the National Security Committee.

Ammuna Lawan argued that since all the committees will be meeting simultaneously, it therefore means that each member will be stuck with one committee even when delegates are expected to belong to three committees.

In reaction, the Chairman explained that members should select committees in order of preference and be ready to submit papers to the two committees they may not be able to attend physically.

Joe Okey Odumakin suggested that the plenary hall could be used by three different committees concurrently instead of going outside the venue to hire halls.

Already, 20 standing committees have been approved by the Conference, according to the Chairman, Kutigi.

Information from the floor reveals that each Delegate is expected to belong to three different committees.

The committee membership form was then circulated round the hall. Joe Ejiro asked if the merger of committees would not affect the number of committees each member would belong.. to which the Chairman said the secretariat would work out the modalities of the committees to include all the members.

Jibril Aminu said the level of patriotism in the country was low, adding that patriotism should be given a wider context and treated properly in the Conference. He said if Nigerians were a little more patriotic, corruption would not have been at the level it is.

Charles Edosomwan said the Judiciary is not given adequate attention.

He said it seems that the National Judicial Councils tend to usurp the powers of the Governors in the appointment of state judges. He argued that such issues should be brought into the purview of the Conference and further stated that the NJC is an executive body and should not be found to usurp the powers given to the governors under the Constitution.

A delegate, Ayo Adebanjo took a swipe at the Lamido of Adamawa who said last week that his people will move to Cameroon if the country splits. “The language of the Lamido of Adamawa was very discouraging,” Mr. Adebanjo said.

The session resumed from lunch break and began discussion on the president’s March 17 National Conference inaugural address.

The Deputy Chairman of the Conference, Bolaji Akinyemi moderated the debate on the president’s speech.

Each delegate was allotted only 3 minutes to discuss the president’s speech. 

24 delegates made contributions on the president’s speech in the aspect of unity, true federalism and restructuring of the country.

About six delegates, including the Emir of Yauri, Zayyanu Abdulahi spoke.

Many of them lamented the poor state of the economy and identified the oil discovery,the disregard for agricultural, unemployment and security etc as the problems that brought Nigeria into its current state.

The Emir lamented the non-implementation of the past conferences exports,including the 2005 NPRC, which he also attended.

Debate on the president’s address ended with a total of 39 delegates making contributions.

Gbadegesin Adedeji said Nigeria needs restructuring of its politics, values, thoughts, social life, economy etc.

At the point of session adjournment,

Mr. Kutigi read President Goodluck Jonathan’s condolence letter to the conference over the passing away of a delegate, AIG Mamman Misau who died on March 27.

The letter was signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim.