'National Confab, Jamboree Of Fraudulent And Selfish Government Agents'

BEVERLY HILLS, March 09, (THEWILL) - The proposed national conference has been described as "a jamboree of fraudulent and selfish government agents without the full representation of the people at the local level.

" A civil society organisation (CSO) in the North-East zone, Coalition of the North East Civil Societies, stated this on Sunday, saying from all indications, the conference is doomed to fail even before it starts.

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Maintaining that the composition of the delegates is not a true representation of the people and can never represent the true aspirations of the Nigerian people, the coalition noted that the delegate list was manipulated especially as it concerns the representation of CSOs in the North East.

Secretary of the coalition, Alhaji Baba Shehu, who spoke at a media briefing in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, said it was a pity that those nominated to represent the CSOs in the region were not reflected in the list of delegates recently released by the Federal Government.

Shehu disclosed that 25 CSOs in the region met and nominated four delegates but the list was "thrown to the dust bin by the Federal Government.

" According to Shehu, 'We the civil society organisations in the North East receive the news of the delegates of the CSOs in our region with a rude shock.

'The list as released by the Federal Government is completely strange from the criteria and procedure of selection of the delegates as earlier directed.

'Apart from our complete ignorance of the names of delegates on the list, we have also noticed that the region has been short-changed by two delegates.

Instead of the four names that we forwarded after our meeting on the 12/02/2014, none of the names came out only for us to see just two strange names on the list.

" 'We make bold to say that the North East more than any other region in this country at the moment needs a more true representation at this conference to discuss its problems.

It is rather unfortunate that some people would sit in Abuja and make a decision on such a sensitive matter of this nature.

" 'We therefore see this conference as a jamboree for fraudulent and selfish agents of government.

We call on the government as a matter of urgency to revert to the true list of the delegates chosen by the people or consider the conference as a failure even before it gets on the way.

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