*Confab Report: Roadmap to national rebirth*

Source: pointblanknews.com

*By Johnson Momodu*
*The submission of the National Conference report to President Goodluck

Jonathan on 21 August, 2014, was as relieving as it was historic.  Going by

the gale of criticisms that accompanied the idea from certain quarters, and

the fears -genuine and imagined - expressed over its deliberations,

many *Nigerians
were right to be apprehensive. Fears were rife that a national conference

at this point in our history would further divide, rather than unite

Nigerians.  However, five months after its inauguration, the conference

wound up on a very successful and heart-warming note.

From its optimistic outcome, it is right to say that it is the most

successful post-independent conference of its kind, and one whose report

has the potential to recreate the nation and put it on the path of real

greatness.  However, for the 494 Nigerians assembled to address the

nation's fears, disappointments, aspirations and hopes which have

accumulated over 100 years, it was not a tea party. The favourable outcome

of their deliberations becomes even more remarkable when viewed against the

arguments that preceded it.
While some people contended that Nigeria's integrity would be compromised

by such a conference, others said it would lead to the nation's

disintegration.  For some unscrupulous politicians, it was an opportunity

like no other to denigrate President Jonathan and play the usual political

subterfuge.  All sorts of weird motives were imputed into that singular

effort to bridge the gap of mistrust among our peoples, their nationalities

and address issues in our nationhood.  Yet, for a third group, it was

simply a design by Jonathan to shore up popularity and increase his support

base against the 2015 election in which he is expected to stand.  To this

third group, the explanation that the conference will further strengthen

our understanding, expand the frontiers of our inclusiveness and deepen our

bond as one people, was simply a smokescreen.
These all made the delegates' mandate of charting a new course for Nigeria

more arduous.  In the end, however, patriotism prevailed: their work did

not end up another exercise in futility as the sceptics had predicted.  The

outcome was resounding in its overall success.  Leading the tirade against

the National Conference was Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu.  For a man who had

severally made a case for the convocation of a national conference, his

*volte-face* was as intriguing as it was hypocritical.  As usual with any

political project that does not feed his warped ego and clannish interests,

Tinubu questioned government's sincerity and dismissed the exercise as

deceptive.
It was most absurd coming from the leader of the opposition All

Progressives Congress (APC).  But then, opposition to the conference was

not limited to the APC as support for the conference was not unanimous even

within the President's Peoples Democratic Party.  For the like of Jigawa

State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, who is becoming notorious for

consistently playing the ethnic card, the dialogue lacks constitutional

backing and is a flagrant abuse of democratic institutions. Even from

Jonathan's backyard in the South-south, the Movement for the Emancipation

of the Niger Delta (MEND) believed the national conference was only for

'the therapeutic benefits of letting off steam…†with nothing else

to offer.
How wrong they have all turned out to be!  Why would President Jonathan

shore up his popularity by promoting a project that is as controversial as

the National Conference?  Truth be told, the President must be commended

for showing courage and for responding in the best possible way to the

reality of emerging challenges in our national life.  Not only did his

decision to set up the confab pander to the yearnings of the people, it

also provided an impartial platform to realistically examine and genuinely

resolve long-standing impediments to our cohesion and harmonious

development as a united nation.  That it received the backing of a broad

spectrum of the nation's political leadership across party and ideological

lines, not least the leadership and members of the National Assembly,

speaks volumes.
Its success has also vindicated him and put a lie to the imputations of

personal interest by those who rejected the idea for their selfish or

partisan reasons.  His sincerity in embarking on that project is further

underscored by the fact that no so-called “no go” areas were established

and the deliberations took place without the government interfering in any

way.  The task has been the more arduous than any of the four earlier

post-independence Conferences in Nigeria: it did not only have the highest

membership, it also sat for the shortest period: four and a half months.  In

addressing and subsequently approving over 600 resolutions, mostly on

fundamental issues of law, public policy and the constitution, it showed

uncommon courage in dealing with all the divergent tendencies that came

into play.
As the conference chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi, surmised at the report

presentation, the fact that all the conference resolutions were adopted by

consensus, and without having to vote or come to a division on any matte,r

however, important, was remarkable.  So too is the fact that the official

Report of the Conference, including annexures of 22 volumes of

approximately 10,335 (ten thousand, three hundred and thirty-five) pages,

was also adopted unanimously. All these send a clear message that Nigerians

are capable of discussing and resolving their differences with minimal

rancour.
Ever since the conference wound up, a preponderance of public opinion has

endorsed the recommendations.  Only the government's worst critics would

not be persuaded that after-all, the merit in the conference as a platform

for a genuine and sincere dialogue among Nigerians, is overwhelming.  It

has further made evident, the fact that Nigerians are not deeply antagonist

against one another, no matter their religious, regional and ethnic

backgrounds.  Previous conferences may have produced a basis for Nigeria's

independence or a system of government that best suits our diversity.  The

last one has a clear direction: it has created a roadmap to the national

rebirth that Nigeria presently craves, if the report is sincerely

implemented.
-
*Momodu contributed this piece from Benin City, Edo State.*

The post *Confab Report: Roadmap to national rebirth* appeared first on Pointblank News .