There will be no restriction on issues that the proposed
national conference will discuss, the government said yesterday as Prof Ben
Nwabueze (SAN), a key personality appointed into the 13-member Planning
Committee, pulled out.
Opinions have been divided on the
conference since President Goodluck Jonathan in his October 1 anniversary
broadcast announced his intention to convoke it.
The Senator Femi Okurounmu-led
committee is due for inauguration by Dr. Jonathan today.
Members of the committee are: Dr.
Akilu Ndabawa (secretary) Prof. George Obiozor, Sen. Khairat Gwadabe, Sen.
Timothy Adudu, Col. Tony Nyiam, Prof. Funke Adebayo, Dr. Mairo Ahmed Amshi, Dr.
Abubakar Sadiq, Alhaji Dauda Birma, Mallam Bello Bukhari and Mr. Tony Uranta.
Nwabueze, the octogenarian leader of
The Patriots, a group of elder statesmen who have been canvassing the
convocation of a sovereign national conference, said he was quitting the
planning team on health grounds. But he hailed the presidential move as a bold
step.
Nwabueze urged the President to
replace him with another member of The Patriots, Chief Solomon Asemota (SAN).
In his letter to President Jonathan
on behalf of The Patriots, Nwabueze, said : “‘The Patriots’ regard this
development as epochal and re-affirms the support, which we conveyed to you on
the occasion of our visit on August 29. It is our fervent hope that nothing
would be allowed to stand in the way during the preparation for and execution
of the national conference that would finally bring every Nigerian into the
mainstream of governance.”
In another personal letter to the
President, Nwabueze said: “I am presently in London and may be away from
Nigeria for some time. I will be glad, if I could be replaced in the
Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue/Conference by Mr. Solomon
Asemota (SAN), who is a member of ‘The Patriots’.”
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Politics