Thursday (17th April 2014) I went to the venue of the conference, some minutes to 10am, from the parking lot I noticed the poor turnout of delegates. Prolly because of the Easter I guessed.
On reaching the hall, I met so many empty seats greeting me, well "it's morning, so you wouldn't expect turnout of people Yadoma wait till 10am" I said to myself. But it's normally not like that.
At 10am, opening prayer was said, and deliberation started.
Someone moved a motion that we cannot continue, if we do not form a quorum seeing the number of people absent. "Well someone noticed it too"...
The secretariat counted the number of people present and we are well over (1/3)
For the first time no correction was made nor observation on the votes and proceedings of the previous day - obviously the noise makers were absent.
Well after that, a delegate raised his hands, got noticed, stood and informed the house that the abducted girls in Borno were rescued by the Nigerian army with the support of the civilian JTF and that we should commend them for an effort well done.
I was so delighted to hear the girls were freed, only to come online to find out that the news was false that the army lied about it? This saddened me sincerely, why are we Nigerians like that? Lying at the expense of others sorrow?
A delegate brought the information that Wukari (Taraba) is under siege right now (17th April).. God! It's been from one bad news to another!
A person from that state explained to the house what is happening. "We are not attacked by Fulani or any tribe, we are invaded, they are now under 24 hours curfew, so many people are calling me now they are at home, they expect me as a member of the conference to do something, please and please the government should take up the responsibility and end these massacres. My people said they have never seen people like that or guns like that in their entire life, hunger may kill some of them before the 24 hour curfew elapses. "Please do something"
Isn't Nigeria on so many issues? When will all these end? When will we get stories that will make us happy not sadden us in this country?
After much discussions, deliberations on the work plan of the national conference began.
And here is the work plan.
Committees 1-10 on the list of committee classification will meet at the venue of the conference. Committees 10-20 will meet at Sheraton due to lack of enough committee rooms at the venue of the National conference.
From Tuesday 22nd to Thursday 24th April, committee work will commence .
From Monday 28th - Wednesday 30th April, committee work will be concluded.
Thursday 1st May is of course workers day.
Monday 5th to Tuesday 6th May, conference will receive and deliberate on reports from committees.
Wednesday 7th to Friday 9th May will be break due to world economic forum that will hold In Sheraton hence no rooms for committees 10-20 members.
Some delegates were not so down with that aspect demanding we should not take a break for the Economic Forum, saying we can make judicious use of that time instead of wasting it away for a summit not all of us here will attend. We can't waste much time. - totally agree with that
Monday 12th- Thursday 15th May, conference concludes deliberation on reports from the committees.
Monday 19th to Thursday 22nd May, secretariat drafts report.
Monday 26th to Friday 29th May, secretariat will continue drafting reports.
Some people spoke about the issue of report drafting and said delegates can join in the drafting of these reports.
Monday 2nd to Thursday 5th June, consideration and adoption of the draft report.
Monday 9th to Thursday 12th June still consideration of adoption of draft report.
Monday 16th to Thursday 19th June, production and signing of final report.
Monday 2nd to Thursday 5th June consideration and adoption of draft report.
Monday 9th - Thursday 12th June, still on consideration and adaptation of draft report.
Monday 16th - Thursday 19th June, production and signing of the final report.
Well your delegates spoke about the submission of the report from various committees and time constraints, the time to synergies between some committees with common ideas like that of religion and national security for example.
A delegate said we should not attempt extending the time of this conference, because the general public will assume we are demanding for more money not more time. - I totally agree with this submission.
Well after deliberation on the work plan, general discussions began....
Some women announced that it's another woman's birthday today and guess what? They started singing "happy birthday to you". Dear Good Lord...
A delegate frustrated stood up and said; "the things we are doing here will ridicule us in the eyes of the general public, things like birthdays are personal things that should be done at home not here. To which so many other delegates seconded "yes yes yes..."
These are the same women throwing bants at each other via media that one is not qualified and the banter is saying she is more qualified and reading out her CV to the media. Who does that?
Well conference was adjourned at 11:49 am till Tuesday after Easter break.
Well it's exactly a month now since the conference began and you followed each post from day one till date. If I were a reader of my Blog, I will say progress has not been made yet. Though major issues of national concern were deliberated on.
The whole work starts after Easter. The 20 committees will start meeting on Tuesday 22nd April as you read above. In shaa Allah ( God willing). Here we go..see you after Easter.
Have a wonderful holiday.
See you soon....
On Twitter: @Yadomah
Keep it up!
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDelete