Nigerian Tribune
- Thursday, 17 October 2013 04:52
THE Coaliton Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), has differed with President Goodluck Jonathan, on sending the outcome of the national conference to the National Assembly.President Jonathan, on Tuesday, had said that he would forward the outcome of the national conference to the National Assembly, so it would form an integral part of the ongoing constitution amendment.
Reacting to this development on behalf of the coalition, its executive chairman, Mr Debo Adeniran, stated that the conference may not be necessary if its outcome would be subjected to the whimps and caprices of the National Assembly.
He said: “Sending the outcome of the Sovereign National Conference to the National Assembly for ratification defeats the purpose completely. The final decision should rest with the people. If the conference must hold, its outcome must be ratified by Nigerians through a referendum, as anything short of this is no longer a conference of the people, but an imposition. Sending the outcome of the conference to the National Assembly to incorporate in the constitution amendment project would amount to a great waste of resources, time and effort and will make it just a conference.
It is only a fool that will continue to do the same thing and expect a different result. What Nigerians want is Sovereign National Conference. Other regimes had tried their hands on a conference. Nigerians are tired of having just a conference. We had constituency assembly in the days of Shehu Shagari; general debate about the economyduring Ibrahim Babangida’s regime; constitutional conference during Sani Abacha’s. We had another conference during Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration; now that the outcome of this would be endorsed by the National Assembly, it would be another talk shop, because all the former conferences did not give us what we wanted.
This is the same National Assembly that has seen a national conference as threatening to their self-serving interests. This is the political brigandage that has been holding the growth of the nation down through their jumbo salaries and high corruption.