Monday 30th June 2014..
Conference resumed sitting at 09:10 am presided over by the chairman.
Votes and proceedings of Tuesday 26th June 2014 were read, amended and adopted.
Modification of conference proceedings;
The chairman of the conference - Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi suggested to delegates that in view of the ongoing Ramadan Fasting, the sitting hours of the conference should be adjusted. He put forward for consideration. One; the conference should commence at 9:00am to 2:00pm, and resume 4:00 to close at 5:30pm. Two, the conference should start at 9am and run through 3:30pm.
The conference adopted the latter recommendation. In addition, the chairman proposed that given consistent complaints by delegates that they have been serially denied the opportunity to contribute to debates on committee reports, conference should allot two days to deliberate on each of the remaining three (3) committee reports. The first day should be devoted to presentation of the report, followed by debates on same. More debate and amendments will be taken the following day.
Conference adopted these modifications as proposed by the chairman.
After that allegations and counter allegation, argument and counter argument began.
Motion of Urgent National Importance;
A delegate drew the attention of the conference to a publication in the Daily Trust newspaper of 30th June 2014, alleging that the deputy chairman of the conference - Professor Bolaji Akinyemi was lobbying delegates from the Northern parts of the country to support a purported new constitution as the outcome of conference deliberation.
Arguments started as delegates were divided on whether the Conference Deputy Chairman - Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, should respond to it or not.
Some delegates were of the view that the publication should be dismissed as it was meant to distract the Conference from its set goals. They argued to the effect that: "those who are disappointed by the progress the conference has made so far are bent on scuttling it, this should be resisted".
Those who shared that position also challenged those behind the publication and requested that those who claimed to have been lobbied by the Deputy Chairman to step forward and justify their claims with evidence; failing, the Daily Trust newspaper that published the stories should be asked to apologise to the Conference.
Some delegates however raised a counter motion demanding that the Deputy Chairman should be allowed to explain himself since he was present at the sitting.
“Morality demands that the Deputy Chairman clears his name, he is a man of integrity and his integrity is on the line with this allegation .”
Well, finally the Deputy Chairman said he will explain to the conference what actually happened. He denied ever lobbying anybody to adopt a new constitution which the publication alleged he was spearheading.
He explained that a few days ago, as was customary when they are contentious issues that have the potential of threatening the smooth progression of the Conference, he had approached political leaders at the Conference from both the north and the south separately, to discuss their differences regarding the issue of whether or not there was need for a new Constitution arising from the proceedings of the Conference.
He said it was normal for him or any member of the leadership to seek such diverse opinions from delegates across geo-political lines towards resolving any contentious issue that usually arise from the Conference before such issues are eventually put up for division at plenary.
He went ahead to mention names of people he met to discuss the issue and stated without any ambiguity that the issue of lobbying for adoption of a new constitution for the Conference was absolutely false as he only set out to ensure harmony between two opposing groups in the spirit of bridge building.
Shortly after, the former Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie, who was also mentioned in the story, confirmed he was invited to the meeting by the Deputy Chairman but could not attend although he delegated a team of northern delegates to meet with the Deputy Chairman to discuss the issues involved. He affirmed to the explanation of the Deputy Chairman.
However "last Tuesday, I was told a new constitution has been written". He went ahead to mention Chief Raymond Dokpesi as the person who had invited him to a meeting and who later gave him a document which allegedly was published on the claims of representing the position of the Conference. And the way some of the content of the document was hidden from the head of the Northern Delegation.
Chief Dokpesi who spoke next absolved the leadership of the Conference from involvement in the meeting he convened and the issuance of what he called a Working Document produced by the group which comprised delegates from the existing geo-political zones.
He said he and Professor Ibrahim Gambari had convened a meeting under the auspices of National Consensus Bridge-Building Group to discuss and close areas of differences regarding some critical areas of agreement and disagreement at the Conference.
Chief Dokpesi mentioned the controversy surrounding the creation of State Police which was resolved last week without any dissenting voice as one of such areas discussed and agreed upon.
The delegate noted that membership of the Group which he said he convened as a lobbying body without the knowledge of the leadership of the Conference cut across all the geo-political zones represented at the Conference.
He said three delegates were nominated by the group from each of the geo-political zones and that part of their agenda was analysis of all the reports submitted by the 20 Committees appointed by the Conference, particularly the recommendations of the committees.
Regarding the publication, Chief Dokpesi said it had nothing to do with the leadership of the Conference and that “there is nothing secret in the document,” declaring that it was a mere working document agreed upon by 15 of the 18 members of the group - See??? 15 out of 18 deciding for 492. There is God o!
He declared: “I want to affirm irrevocably that the leadership (of the National Conference) has nothing absolutely to do with this Committee. This is a working document and not a final document.”
He however noted that Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a delegate, had approached him last week with a letter declaring that all the northern delegates were withdrawing from the group on the grounds that what the group was doing was sponsored.
Dokpesi told the conference, he did his best to convince Professor Yadudu that the activities of the group had nothing to do with the Conference leadership; and that the group was there to discuss and agree on certain contentious issues.
Professor Yadudu however was battling to be recognized to speak but was ignored.
At the end of the explanation, the Conference Chairman - Justice Idris Kutigi, GCON, said from all the explanations offered, it was clear that the leadership of the Conference knew nothing about the document in question.
He said while delegates were free to meet and discuss issues of interest regarding the Conference, “If you want to do anything for yourselves, please do so, but don’t include us.” He told delegates that the leadership of the Conference was seeing the document for the first time when it was presented to him during the plenary session by Alhaji Coomasie and insisted that the leadership had nothing to do with it contrary to what was speculated in the media.
After the fuss,
A Bishop delegate on behalf of team representing Christian Association Of Nigeria (CAN) and the entire Christian community, felicitated with Muslims as they embark on an intense spiritual exercise, the Ramadhan. He urged both Muslims and Christians to embrace the way of peace and harmonious co-existence as people and also urged Muslim to pray so their Muslim brothers will stop killings.
In response, another delegate - Secretary General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs accepted the goodwill of the Christian community on behalf of Muslims across the country. He however urged Nigerians to stop branding Muslims in Nigeria as supporting the acts of terrorism by the Boko Haram. He reiterated that Muslins are generally peace loving and invited Nigerians to treat them as such.
The co-chairmen of Committee on Political parties and electoral matters - Senator Iyorchia Ayu and Sen. Ken Nnamani, GCON, presented the report of the committee to the conference.
Some of the recommendations made by the committee;
- Any person convicted of any electoral offence should be disqualified for a period of ten years from the date of conviction; from contesting any election or holding any elective or appointive position either in government or political party. Such offences include registration offences, campaign finance breaches and breach of political party finance provision.
- Any action challenging the conduct of primaries by a political party shall be filed within fourteen days of the accrual of the cause of action.
- Enforcement of a Code of Conduct for political parties already drawn up by the Inter-Party Advisory Council.
- In the course of screening nominees of the President for any INEC position, the Senate should set aside at least two weeks to allow for public objection, if any.
- For parties to enhance party independence and discipline, all members must submit themselves to the principle of party supremacy and that elected members of the party must respect party decisions at all times.
- Biometric data of the Nigerian electorate should be captured, stored and used for elections in the country. In addition, INEC should ensure that the latest technology is deployed at all times in the conduct of elections as is the case in other jurisdictions.
- Relevant sections of the Constitution and the Electoral Act be amended to provide for independent candidacy during elections.
The conference extended delibration on the report of the committee on Political Parties and Electoral Matters to the next sitting on Tueday, 1st July, 2014 - I will share with you more recommendation made by the committee in my next post...
The conference adjourned at 3:34pm to resume on Tuesday 1st July 2014 at 9:00am.
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