Confab: Uproar at S-South meeting over Oshiomhole's comment

THE South South pre-hearing meeting of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Conference, held in Benin City on Monday, ended in fiasco after a commotion that ensued in the middle of an address by the host, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State.

The meeting was in continuation of the interaction of the Presidential Committee with stakeholders in the South-South geo-political zone in search of contribution to fashion out modalities for the proposed national conference, held at Imaguero College, Benin City.

All began well at the meeting as leaders of different ethnic nationalities in the South-South zone, members of the civil society, traditional rulers and chiefs and other key stakeholders present at the meeting were taking their turn, presenting their papers until the address by Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

In his short speech before he was shouted down by a section of the crowd, Governor Adams Oshiomhole stated that he had listened to some of the comments made by Nigerians on the conference and that the goals of the conference were not clear cut.

The governor, who took the stage to make his contribution shortly after the Isoko Ethnic group had made their presentation said, 'I have listened to some of the comments made by the people. Anyone convening a meeting must first be clear why he is convening the meeting. I have had the oppourtunity to travel far and wide and I want to say that you don't assemble people and ask them what to talk about. Whoever wishes to convene a meeting must first of all have an idea before asking the people.'

At this point, some sections of the audience started to make noise and shouted but the governor regained control of the hall and continued his speech.

He said, 'You can't shout me down. If anyone has been hired to make noise, this is not the place. We had a political reform conference and we spent much. People from different states and different ethnic groups came and money was spent to pay for their transport and allowances. I cant remember what has come out of that conference.

' It is a valid point to make that we failed before and we can pass the next time.  I have told the committee and I want to repeat it here, not for you to clap. I will be surprised if anything changes. As a leader, I have no business to deceive or mislead anyone. I believe this conference will not be different from any previous conferences we have had in the past…', Oshiomhole opined.

In the middle of the governor's speech, the dissenting voices got infuriated and interrupted the governor in a more forceful way.

They started shouting no, no, no, and their voices drowned that of the governor.

People hurriedly left the venue of the meeting because of fear of attack and the hall was thrown into turmoil with many singing  solidarity songs.

By the time calm was restored, many of the participants had left, just as Governor Oshiomhole walked out of the hall with his security details.

Members of the committee, however, chose to continue the meeting though only a handful of people were left in the hall.

Moments later, a young man walked up to the stage where the committee members were seated and announced that he had just been attacked by some persons, saying that lives were no longer safe in the hall.

Among the ethnic groups who were present at the pre-hearing were the Urhobo Progressive Union (UPU) led by General Patrick Aziza (rtd), the Ijaw National Congress (INC) led by Sen. James Sekibo and the Benin Forum led by Prof Dennis Agbonkahor, Others present were the leaders of thought from the Itsekiri nation, the Gbaramatu kingdom, members of the civil society such as the Coalition to Save Nigeria (CSN) and the Edo Youth Council (EYC).

Turnout impressive, overwhelming -Okurounmu The Chairman, National Conference Advisory Committee, Dr Femi Okunroumu, on Monday, expressed happiness over the impressive turnout by Nigerians at the different venues of its sittings.

Okunroumu, whose committee was in Benin for the South-South Zone, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin.

'Nigerians have accepted the need to have this conference. We have been to four centres  Minna, Akure, Jos and Calabar, and the turnout has been impressive and overwhelming.

'In all the centres, Nigerians came from the rural areas, even from the remotest villages to make presentations to us and there are 'no no-go areas at all.'

'We are to listen to all Nigerians and I am happy that the turnout has been encouraging to the extent that we requested for bigger halls,'' he said.

The chairman noted that 'we have been listening to different groups and views, but no single group who threatens to dismember Nigeria has come before us.'

He said that 'Nigerians all over the world are entitled to submit their views, but they must not be in the committee to air their views. 'They have our e-mail address. Let them submit their memo to us and their views will be acknowledged. This is the essence of the committee.

'That is why we are going round to know what are the things agitating the minds of Nigerians.

'We will include these views in our report and these will definitely set the agenda for government and tell government how they want to be governed,'' he said.

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