Yesterday’s announcement by President Goodluck Jonathan of a committee to devise modalities for the convocation of a National Conference is a welcome development.
Issuing a statement on behalf of the upper chamber, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, praised the president for conceptualising a national conference that is limited in scope and does not call to question the country’s sovereignty.
According to the Senate, organising the conference with due regard and respect to the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is the way to go, as there cannot be two sovereign processes at the same time.
“The Senate notes also that the national confab as announced is limited to the scope where the sovereignty of Nigeria is not called to question,” Abaribe wrote.
”It is therefore given that the proposed conference is in tandem with the time-tested stand of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and as enunciated by the president of the Senate, Senator David A. B Mark in his address at the last Nigerian Bar Association Conference in Calabar and to senators penultimate week.”
The Senate recalled has always welcomed a conference where all ethnic nationalities would converge to discuss all critical issues and proffer the very best way that will enhance national unity.
“The Senate red-line and for which was aptly factored in the president’s broadcast is the conferment of a sovereign status to the conference,” the statement went on.
“The Senate is happy that it is a conference that will hold with due respect to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. It has always been Senate’s considered stand that there cannot be two sovereign processes at a time.”
The Senate then expressed happiness with the development, describing it as an opportunity to address all structural problems that have been agitating the mind of the country’s ethnic nationalities, while the final outcome would go a long way to cement unity of the country.
