Day 5 : My National Conference Exploits..

Alright today (Mar 25th 2014), I arrived at the venue on time, no traffic on the way as it were the previous day - seem the agitation of some of the delegates has been considered and effected - I wish some issues bothering this nation are given this maximum assiduity.

That will be a story for another day though.

At the conference, deliberations on the procedures of the conference continued.

Well, what greeted us was a delegates' anger on page six(6) of Leadership Newspaper where it featured some old men and women of social ranks sleeping while discussions were ongoing. The man was really angry that delegates should be entitled to their privacy and the media should be very cautious. Another countered by saying "if they are old and unable to stay up for the duration of the conference, they should either walk out or give up the ship".

So many procedures were discarded, amended and some, left the way they were.

Like Order 9 (7) of the rules which reads “The Conference may grant approval to the representative of any media to attend the sitting of the Conference provided that if the media publishes a report of the proceedings which the Conference considers unfair, offensive and not a true reflection of what transpired, such permission may be revoked.”

It was reached to a conclusion that the media should in no way be gagged, they should be allowed to cover the events as it unfolds hence the clause "provided that if the media publishes a report of the proceedings which the Conference considers unfair, offensive and not a true reflection of what transpired, such permission may be revoked" was supported to be removed by majority of the delegates.

One of the Youths spoke on the need for the older generation to give way to the younger generation as the matter to be discussed here - at the National Conference is for the young and not the elderly. This provoked some of the elders which led to one saying "the youths have to be cautious of their choice of words and stick to the Nigerian culture of respect for elders". [Sic]

This went on and on, some picked up the microphone and talked to be captured on air, making points that are pointless and trying to pull relevance out of irrelevance.

Committees were set up, each delegate is to choose which committee he/she wants to belong.

Well, after concluding the amendment of the procedures, the Chairman demanded a delegate move the motion of adoption and closure of the amendment of procedures and move on to work plan. This didn't go well with those interested in the issue of 3/4 and 2/3 deciding a proposed decision, reminding the chairman that he actually passed yesterday to revisit it, so we can't adopt the amendment of the procedures without that section cleared.

There was serious screams and shouts. Well, I was scared that someone might collapse of High blood pressure by the way and manner, old and responsible men were shouting on top of their voices left me in awe and brings me closer to the rift I used to watch on the floor of NASS.

Some section were in support of three quarter, forming the majority as it is initially on the procedure, while some are of the opinion that it should be cut down to 2/3.

The debate became intense, shouts and screams in the hall. The Chairman had to re-adjourn the deliberation of this particular matter and states that it won't be relevant for now until in the next three weeks- when committees start bringing in their reports, and decided that we should move ahead to deliberating on the conference work plan.

There was tension in the room so the Chairman decided to adjourn the session till the following day for everyone to go and cool their nerves and tempers down.

We closed for the day at about 5:35pm, some 25 minutes to closing time.

If you ask me, that was 25 precious minutes wasted.