Jonathan’s Mistakes Over Planned National Confab By Balarabe Musa

PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN (M), VICE-PRESIDENT NAMADI SAMBO (4TH R) WITH MEMBERS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL DIALOGUE AFTER THEIR INAUGURATION IN ABUJA (PHOTO CREDIT: NAN)
PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN (M), VICE-PRESIDENT NAMADI SAMBO (4TH R) WITH MEMBERS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL DIALOGUE AFTER THEIR INAUGURATION IN ABUJA (PHOTO CREDIT: NAN)

Second Republic governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa has said that the proposed National Conference will not achieve any result because it will not be able to resolve the problems associated with corruption and factors controlling socio-economic development of Nigeria.

Musa, who is chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, also ruled out his participation in the conference, expressing doubts in the outcome of the exercise.

In a statement issued in Kaduna on Monday and titled “Critique of President Jonathan’s National Conference”, Musa said, “the present campaign for national conference and sovereign national conference arose from continuing low level of development of the country in spite of the identifiable huge opportunities for development, allegation of northern domination of political leadership, Islamic fundamentalism, the failure of military regimes to be corrective, and the bureaucracy and irrelevance of the socio-economic and political system controlling all developments in the country and the political leaders produced by it”.

He alleged that President Goodluck Jonathan has already positioned his men in the Advisory Dialogue Committee to promote the interests of government and what should be placed as agenda of the conference despite being saddled with the responsibility of meeting Nigerians for their inputs.

The former governor specifically questioned the inclusion of Mr. Jonathan’s ally – Chief Tony Uranta, who accused of being a strong promoter of the presidency’s interests, as well as a former member of the aborted Orka Coup, who was known to have canvassed for the severance of some northern states from Nigeria during the ill-fated coup plot, as members of the presidential advisory committee on National Dialogue.

According to him, the inclusion of these personalities was enough reason for the North and patriotic Nigerians to reject the dialogue committee membership.

Musa argued that if there was to be element of seriousness in organising a conference in the country, “President Jonathan alone ought not to decide on the conference and set up a committee for it because the president is most responsible for the continuation of the negative state of the nation which the conference is to deal with.

“The action he took ought to be taken by all Nigerians jointly represented by the Sovereign People of Nigeria, the president of the country, the president of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the chief justice of the Nigeria”.

Musa, who was also the National Chairman of the de-registered Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), stressed further that “ the Sovereign Peoples of Nigeria are all the 70 million registered voters who can be represented by, say, 20 most credible and named capable civil society organisations such as NBA, NLC/TUC, ASUU, Chamber of Commerce, SCIA, CAN, Ohanaeze, ACF, SSPA, Afenifere and others.

“There are too many allegations against President Jonathan concerning his political ambition for 2015 elections and his designs and prejudices to disqualify him from acting alone. The legislature and judiciary have also failed in their areas of responsibility and they cannot be relied upon.

“Since none of the four institutions can claim innocence and there should be no vacuum in the overall conduct of public affairs in the country, and the accusations and counter-accusations cannot continue indefinitely, the five must act together and jointly in a patriotic effort to save the country and avoid the historic alternative”.

-The Guardian