The Patriots, Yoruba group, Gov Aliyu ready to participate activelyLeader of the frontline intellectual group in the country, The Patriots, Prof. Ben Nwabueze (SAN), has explained that his health condition was responsible for his recent decline to serve in President Goodluck Jonathan’s committee on National Conference.
In a statement yesterday, however, Nwabueze said that members of The Patriots were ready to be part of the conference to make robust contributions in finding lasting solution to the problems afflicting the nation when the national dialogue begins.
Stating that for some years he has been fighting prostrate cancer, Nwabueze explained: “I cut short my stay in London for medicals and returned to Nigeria on October 12, 2013, to keep a long-standing commitment to chair the Anambra Literary Creativity Festival at Awka on October 15.
“It may be necessary for me, after my Awka engagement, to go back to London to continue my medicals.”
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of a Yoruba group, the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa, yesterday backed the planned national conference, describing it as the first step to addressing the myriad of problems confronting the nation.
Akinfenwa, who spoke in Ibadan on national issues, also faulted the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, for opposing the conference. He wondered why the All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, who was an advocate of national conference, suddenly and unexpectedly made a U-turn on the matter.
According to him, Tinubu should realise that what the nation needs now is “jaw jawing” and not “war warring,” because we need dialogue to move the nation forward. · “On a lighter note, I think why Tinubu did not support it is because Alhaji Lai Mohammed or Justice Ayo Salami was not made the chairman of the confab. With that he would have given it his 100 per cent support,” he said.
He called on all political leaders to throw personal sentiments away on issues of national interest and display high patriotism to make the nation move forward.
Also, Senator Gyang Pwajok from Plateau State has said that the proposed national conference is desirable because Nigerians need a national conversation. However, he told The Guardian on Wednesday that there should be no limit to the issues for discussion.
On the issue that whatever comes out of the conference will return to the Senate for ratification, he said, “it is all tied to the constitutionality of having multiple sovereignty. The fact remains that there is always the need to ensure that everything is done within the confines of the existing constitutional order.
Nevertheless, Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has expressed optimism that at the end of the proposed national dialogue, Nigerians would be proud to have a constitution they would call their own because all issues to be discussed must go back to the National Assembly for ratification since it is not a Sovereign National Conference.
Aliyu spoke in Minna yesterday when he received the state’s delegation of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), which paid him sallah homage at his residence. He maintained that in a democratic society, every leader must identify with his people without discrimination to avoid unnecessary tension.
He urged Niger pilgrims to Jerusalem, who will this year be performing the pilgrimage with President Goodluck Jonathan, to give him all the courtesies at the Holy Land, as they are privileged to be in the same delegation with him.
According to Nwabueze, it would be unwise for him at 83 and with his health condition to be part of the committee, but he is fully behind the proposed dialogue to end the country’s malaise.
The statement read: “It is not generally known to people that I have been fighting prostrate cancer for some years now, and have been kept going by consultations from time to time with and treatment by a Consultant Oncologist at Charing Cross Hospital, London.
“My appointment had been shifted many times because of several postponements in the dates of The Patriots meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Summit at Uyo, both of which eventually took place on August 29 and September 3 to 4 respectively, leaving me free at last to travel to London on September 8 for my medical appointments.
“But The Patriots remain willing to work with the Presidential Committee, and to give it all necessary assistance, if called upon to do so.”
However, he disclosed: “While still in London and before the Presidential Committee was announced, I wrote to 13 prominent lawyers and political scientists to join me in a committee to prepare a Draft People’s Constitution.
That “will be submitted for deliberation at the Uyo National Summit when it re-convenes in terms of paragraph 7 of the Communique adopted at the September 3 to 4 meeting, and thereafter to be presented to the Presidency and the National Assembly as a working paper for the National Conference proper.”
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