Senate Backs Convene Of National Conference

The President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, said on Tuesday that the National Assembly would support the convocation of a conference of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities to discuss the peculiarities of the Nigerian nation.

Mark, who stated this in an address he read to welcome his colleagues on their resumption from the annual recess, said that such a conference should have a few no go areas including the dismemberment of the federation.

He said that any conference called to discuss the differences within the ethnic configuration of the Nigerian nation would be seen as operating in line with the dictates of the Nigerian Constitution.

According to him, the differences in the polity has been responsible for a number of snaps here and there, adding that the political leaders and institutions should not continue to play the ostrich.

Mark said that the conference should also not be tagged as sovereign so as not to conflict with the letters of the constitution.

He said: “We live in very precarious times, and in a world increasingly made fluid and toxic by strange ideologies and violent tendencies, all of which presently conspire to question the very idea of the nation state.

“But that is not to say that the nation should, like the proverbial ostrich, continue to bury its head in the sand and refuse to confront the perceived or alleged structural distortions which have bred discontentment and alienation in some quarters. This sense of discontentment and alienation has fueled extremism, apathy and even predictions of catastrophy for our dear nation.

“A conference of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities, called to foster frank and open discussions of the national question, can certainly find accommodation in the extant provisions of the 1999 Constitution which guarantee freedom of expression, and of association. To that extent, it is welcome.”

He also said that a conference offbeat nature is imbued with certain  inherent and fundamental difficulties which include problems of its structure and composition.

He also stated that: “Be that as it may, such a conference, if and whenever convened, should have only a few red lines, chief among which would be the dismemberment of the country. “

“Beyond that, every other question should be open to deliberations.

Mark, however, cautioned that it would be unconstitutional to clothe such a conference with constituent or sovereign powers, adding that the resolutions of a national conference, consisting of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities, and called under the auspices of the government of the federation, will indeed carry tremendous weight.

He added: “And the National Assembly, consisting of the elected representatives of the Nigerian people, though not constitutionally bound by such resolutions, will be hard put to ignore them in the continuing task of constitution review.

“But to circumvent the Constitution, and its provisions on how to amend it, and repose sovereignty in an unpredictable mass will be too risky a gamble and may ultimately do great disservice to the idea of one Nigeria.”

He cautioned further that the convocation of such a conference should not be seem as a magic want to all problems bedeviling the country.

“That is not to say that a Constitutional Conference, whether sovereign or not, is a magic wand. The task of nation building requires patience, faith, scrupulous honesty, diligence, dedication, sacrifice, toil, labour, assiduous application and massive investments in our future. The heights attained by great nations were not made by sudden flights,” Mark said