Nigeria National Conference vs. Nigerian Sovereign National Conference

Fellow Nigerians let's not confuse the mission with the caption. "Dialogue is dialogue" but what is important now is to begin an inclusive, and respectful and bi-partisan conversations that will inject a peaceful sense of healing to our treasured country "Nigeria". Let it not sound like the GOP given Obamacare vs AffordableCare and they couldn't figure out or understand the purpose. The Nigeria National Conference will address the conflicts.

However:
1. The president should be applauded for calling for the national dialogue.

2. Addressing conflict begins not at the end of the dialogue, but begins with the planning of the process of the dialogue (which is primarily where we must focus on now).

3. Therefore we must not prescribe a conflict resolution solution strategy before such a dialogue. It is important to note that prescribing a solution for the challenges and opportunities must be arrived at organically through the process of the national Conference.

4. The conversation has to be structured in a way that gathers the voices of the nation's various constituent groups. It is not enough to merely invite diverse groups, and have a well represented gathering of all the relevant constituencies, but you need to have a framework that is designed to hear their voices. You must have the form as well as the substance. So a national dialogue of this nature must be structured so that it feeds towards the framework of a shared vision of moving forward that gets at the various components including:

a. Youth
b. Religious/Faithbase community
c. Business community
d. Religion issues
e. Tribal and ethnic issues
5. The wellbeing of Nigeria is dependent on the health of its citizenry—economically and socially etc. Also, we need to stop giving our women “backseats”…they must be respectfully involved as well at the “frontseats”

6. Therefore, any conflict resolution must have both community building and community development components. Conflict resolution strategies have to not only result in the cohesion and integration of the community, but it also must have a development outcome that takes the cohesion and integration and build healthy, sustainable societies.

Yours in the National Building
Sylvester Okere
Chairman; Maryland Nigeria Sister State Executive Committee, and Executive Director Continental African Leadership Council(a.k.a. Continental Africans for Obama)

Nigeria National Conference:http://www.voanews.com/media/all/latest.html?z=1434

Dr. Sylvester Okere, Sr. Principal