Eleven out of the 36 states of the federation have rejected the proposed National Conference announced by President Goodluck Jonathan on Independence Day, saying they would boycott the process and the dialogue itself.
The states are Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Edo, Imo, Nasarawa, Borno, Yobe and Zamfara, all controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC)
Weeks ago, National leader of the APC, Asiwaju Tinubu criticised the president for coming up with the idea at this particular time when the country is preparing for elections, saying the president is only seeking to divert attention of the people. Since the president’s pronouncement, many have expressed different opinions, mostly doubts about his sincerity.
Rising from the meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee in Abuja on Tuesday evening, the party’s Interim National Publicity scribe, Alhaji Lai Mohammed listed a lot of inconsistencies in the proposed dialogue. One of such is that while the Femi Okunrounmu committee says the outcome of the dialogue would be subjected to a referendum, President Jonathan has said that it would be subjected to the National Assembly.
He said judging from a whole number of other things, the Jonathan administration lacked the credibility required for such a process.
“This government has lost focus, it has lost credibility, it has lost control of the economy, security; corruption has attained uncontrollable proportion and at this point in time, this government lacks the credibility to organise a real meaningful national conference,” he said.
“In any event, we see this thing as nothing but a diversion and what are we talking about a national conference for, when even the president himself has said that the outcome of that conference would be subjected to the approval of the National Assembly?”
He said if the National Assembly is to be the body to approve the confab, then it means what the country is trying to do is a constitutional amendment, not a national conference.
Stressing that the party may still reconsider its stand if it discovers that the process has credibility, he said: “I have put it clear to you; this is diversionary. If it is a clear, meaningful national dialogue, we will participate, but this isn’t. The president himself has said whatever is discussed there will be subjected to National Assembly.”
