One of Nigeria’s foremost writers, Dr Elechi Amadi has advised the Federal Government to ensure that all the ethnic nationalities in the country are represented in the proposed national conference so as to achieve the desired results.
Dr Amadi who was speaking in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt said it would be wrong to plan a national conference  that would be based on three major tribes in the country, at the detriment of over 240 ethnic nationalities.
“And again, when we talk about national conference, some people are only thinking of the three major tribes, Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba and forget about other 247 tribes.
“Each of these tribes of about 250 should be equally represented, but it is not possible for over 250 tribes with diverse interests to come out with unified results to develop the country without one being cheated, he said.
The elder statesman expressed fears that the conference might end up creating more confusion and divisions among the ethnic group as was the case during General Yakubu Gowon’s regime and advised the federal government to apply caution on the proposed conference.
‘I am not very optimistic about the outcome, because many Nigerians thought national conference is an opportunity to favour their ethnic nationalities”, he added.
Meanwhile, Nigerians in the UK have expressed concern over the non-representation  of the Diaspora in the 13-member National Dialogue Committee set up by President Goodluck Jonathan.
They expressed their views yesterday in London at the International Dialogue Forum, where leaders of the various ethnic associations living in the UK voiced their thoughts about the proposed national dialogue.
Jonathan had set up the committee to come up with modalities of convening a national dialogue in order to resolve what he called “issues that currently caused friction in the polity.’’
However, the Nigerian community in the UK wanted a review of the committee membership to include representation from the Diaspora.
They also stressed the need for the national dialogue to be sovereign, noting that its submission should not be sent to the National Assembly, but adopted through a referendum.
The Chairman of Ohaneze Ndigbo, UK chapter, Chief Ejike Uzoalor,  said the national dialogue was long overdue.
He said “given our diversity and interest, it is necessary to have a common position on issues that affect us.’’
In his remarks, Dr Ojibulem Lawrence, the Chairman of the Niger Delta Forum, said: “we want this dialogue to be a sovereign conference  where its outcome will be decided by the people and not the National Assembly.’’
On his part, Mr Alistair Soyode, the organiser of the Forum, said the international dialogue was to enable Nigerians in Diaspora to voice out their opinions on the national conference and identify areas of concern that would  be their contribution to the dialogue.
According to agency report,  reports that issues bordering on  resource control, security, zoning formula, education, diaspora, voting and youth empowerment were on the agenda of the forum.

Enoch Epelle