The National Conference on
Tuesday adjourned sitting by one week in order for its secretariat to
formulate the ground rules that would guide debates.
The chairman of the conference, retired Justice Idris Kutigi, adjourned
sitting after the Secretary, Mrs. Valerie Azinge, told delegates that the rules
would be ready by Thursday.
In the interim, however, delegates had been handed copies of reports of
past conferences to study.
“We adjourned till Monday for obvious reasons: first and foremost for
them (delegates) to go and study the voluminous materials given to them and
also the rules that will govern them so that when they have studied them, they
will come here with an informed opinion on which way to go because they need
those rules so that if they have apprehensions on the way to go, we can amend
before we start,” Azinge told journalists after the adjournment.
In the bags handed over to the delegates were the main report of the
2005 National Political Reforms Conference; the main report and executive
summary of the report of the Presidential Committee on review of outstanding
issues from recent Constitutional Conference, July 2012; and the National
Conference report of the Political Bureau, March 1987.
Other documents in the bag were the Implementation Guide of the National
Political Reforms Conference, 2005; the Report of the 1995 Constitutional
Conference, containing the draft Constitution (Volume I and II); and the Policy
Recommendation for Presidential Committee to review outstanding issues from
recent Constitutional conferences, July 2012.
Meanwhile, the sitting arrangement to be adopted while the conference
lasts on Tuesday sparked a debate among delegates who expressed diverse views.
A delegate from Rivers State, Chief Sergeant Awuzie, had suggested that
delegates from states and ethnic composition should sit together in order to
afford them the ease of conferring with one another on issues whenever the need
arises.
Mr. Charles Edosomwan (SAN) from Edo State suggested that those who
preferred to sit in the front row should come early in order to avoid a
situation whereby the younger delegates would be forced to vacate their seats
for the elderly ones. Edosomwan’s suggestion however drew a murmur of
disagreement from the delegates.
But the suggestion by a former Ogun State governor, Chief Olusegun
Osoba, for the conference to adopt a sitting arrangement that would promote
friendship across ethnic divides was greeted with applause by delegates.
Osoba, who is the leader of the former governors’ forum at the
conference, said delegates should sit in alphabetical order of their names but
with special consideration for the elderly and the physically challenged.
Responding to the former governor’s suggestion, Azinge said, “From the
preponderance of views, when his Excellency (Osoba) was speaking, it seemed it
was the views of the delegates. We will carry your votes.”