National Conference: Matters Arising

The National Conference concluded sit
ting last week and presented its report
to President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday at a ceremony in Abuja. The Chairman of the conference, Idris Kutigi, led 492 delegates to present the 21 volumes document to an elated President.
The delegates had on Wednesday, held a dinner, where the Vice President Namadi Sambo said “The report of the conference will be utilised to settle the nation’s problems.” According to him, President Jonathan believes that there was no alternative to dialogue and that Nigerians are happy with the initiative.
The conference, which was inaugurated by the President on March 7, 2014 concluded its assignment with a motion by Second Republic Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Richard Akinjide, and seconded by Yadoma Mandara, who was the youngest delegate.
The conference recommended among others, the creation of 18 new States, a Technical Committee to determine an appropriate derivation principle, intervention fund to mitigate impact of insurgency and the sharing of the Federation Account among others.
The conference also recommended a modified Presidential System that would effectively combine the Presidential and Parliamentary systems of government, with the President appointing the Vice President from the Legislature. They recommended the appointment of not more than 18 Ministers from the six geo -political zones, a bi-cameral legislature on part-time service, as well as rotational Presidency between the North and South.
Delegates further agreed on the scrapping of local government as a tier of government so that states will be at liberty to create as many LGs as necessary and fund them independently. In addition, it recommended that immunity clause for the President and Governors and their deputies should be removed if the offences attract criminal charges to encourage accountability by public office holders, among others.
The Tide is happy with a lot of the recommendations and would expect that the Presidency will fast-track the presentation of an Executive Bill to the National Assembly to adopt the recommendations of the conference in the on-going amendment of the 1999 Constitution.
Knowing the importance of the recommendations, especially that it represents the true wishes of the soverigns, we expect that it would not be subjected to any form of politics. In fact, the National Assembly should give it the accerlerated consideration it deserves.
We also want to join the cross-section of the population who want the constitution to be amended before the 2015 elections to note that Nigerians should take timely and full advantage of this opportunity as nothing should stand in the way of an idea which time has come.
We are not unaware of the fact that all the decisions may not go down well with all sections, groups and people in the country, but the successful deliberations have proven that Nigerians can actually sit together and dialogue, showing that they can live together as a nation. The Tide also believes that the product of the conference can, indeed, take Nigeria to the next level.
Truly history will be kind to the delegates for the wonderful work. Even the President and his team deserve all the commendation for making Nigerians believe in themselves and to prepare the people for the building a better Nigeria.
Although, many Nigerians had expected to see that the report would be subjected to a referendum, mostly because of the fear of what the politicians would do to the delicate issues canvassed a the conference. But we are persuaded that no Nigerian worth his name would do anything that would waste the time and billions of Naira spent on the programme.