Falae, Nwabueze, Utomi advocate national conference

Prominent Nigerians under the aegis of National Summit Group on Monday in Lagos called on President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently convene a national conference to address the country’s myriad of problems.
The personalities including the convener of NSG, Prof. Pat Utomi; former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae; former Peoples Democratic Party Chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh; former Kaduna State Governor Balarabe Musa; a lawyer, Prof. Ben Nwabueze; and Secretary of the group, Tony Uranta, said the government could not continue to shy away from the conference.
They urged the government to restructure the country towards true federalism as witnessed in the First Republic.
Speaking on the occasion, Utomi said they were called to rescue the country from the looming danger by charting the way forward.
He said the fragile unity binding the country was under threat, adding that poverty, insecurity, poor management of resources, poor leadership and greed had become the order of the day.
Utomi said, “We need a state constitution where individual will develop at its own pace like what was in operation in the 60s.
“The present Nigerians do no longer trust their leaders because of long abandonment and profligacy of their wealth with impunity. Therefore at a time like this, the country needs to sit down to discuss on how we are going to move forward.”
Falae noted that what the country had in 1960 was a good constitution but for the intervention of the military.
“We had a federal covenant in 1960, which the military took away. We must find the covenant again and the only way to do this is through a national conference because there is only one sovereignty, and it resides with the people. If they don’t want us to have a sovereign conference we will continue to gather in this way as it will serve as our moving train.”
Musa lamented that the country was gradually moving towards a failed state in all its facet of life.
He regretted that during the First Republic, the country was privileged to be governed by responsible leaders accountable to the people and their well-being paramount to them.
He added that the same could not be said of the current leaders.
Musa said, “Though First Republic leaders were conservative, but they were nationalistic, credible and dignified, but today’s leaders, despite the claim of sophistication, have nothing to offer us in terms of credible leadership.
“That is the root of our crises. In spite of our riches, we are one of the poorest on the continent, ravaged by disease, poverty and illiteracy. The only way forward is to go back to the beginning where we have started so that we can start all over again to build a country of our dream.”
On his part, Nwabueze said the country was faced with fundamental challenges which must be tackled to avoid anarchy.
Nwabueze noted that there was no substitute for national conference, adding that the country must be ready to sit down at a roundtable conference and decide the bases of their national unity.
A former Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party Audu Ogbeh regretted that instead of Nigerians to be their brothers’ keepers, they killed themselves.
Ogbeh said, “How do we find ourselves in this mess? How come we suddenly find ourselves importing all manner of foodstuffs to the country including toothpicks to the tune of N20bn?
“How is it that the local government has collapsed because the money that was allocated to them did not get to their hands? How is it that everybody has turned into sycophants and could not tell the government the bitter truth”?
Uranta noted that the initiative came out of genuine concern about the trend of event in the country particularly the issue of insecurity and the need to let eminent Nigerians discuss the way forward.
He said the dialogue would be the seed on which national conference would germinate, noting that anybody who went against such a lofty arrangement was an enemy of the country.
A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, and Clark disagreed on the decision of the government to send troops to Lagos in the wake of subsidy removal protests.
While Clark in his remarks described the idea as welcomed in view of the situation which he claimed was getting out of hand, Fani-Kayode faulted the move saying such could have applied in trouble prone areas of the country, instead of Lagos.
“There is a distinction between putting soldiers on the streets of the Niger Delta cities that are burning, at least in the north where the Boko Haram group is wrecking havoc,” Fani-Kayode said.