We Don’t Need ‘Jonathan Conference,’ Tinubu Insists

Former Lagos State Governor and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, Monday reiterated his opposition to the national conference being planned by President Goodluck Jonathan. Tinubu, in an address in Lagos to mark the eight memorial anniversary of a former Chairman, Campaign for Democracy (CD),  Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, said rather than hold a fresh national conference, the president should review the reports of the constitutional review under former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Uwais report on electoral reform. Besides, he restated his belief that the current administration lacks the capacity to organise a national conference that will usher in a new order in Nigeria. Tinubu who paid tributes to the late Ransome-Kuti, said: “The things he fought for, the kind of country he wanted and the cause to which he dedicated his life gives us an idea of what needs to be fixed for this country to excel.” He disputed claims by supporters of the national conference that the ‘Jonathan conference’ is what will be the panacea to Nigeria’s problems. He said: “A sovereign conference is an idea Beko during his lifetime championed.  Several others and myself through PRONACO and similar platforms,  have actively promoted, supported and advocated the same idea of a sovereign conference.  To insinuate that I will of all people be opposed to the convocation of a national conference that meets the prescription we have advocated is mischievous and totally untrue. The Jonathan conference is not what we have continuously agitated for.

“My opposition to the Jonathan conference is anchored on principle. In October 2013, after a deep review of the Jonathan conference proposal, I told Nigerians that the conference is not what Nigerians had advocated for. I warned that booby traps lay ahead. Though I remain an unrepentant supporter of a genuinely Sovereign National Conference, I am suspicious of this present concoction because it is half- baked and fully deceptive. Government’s sincerity is questionable, the timing is also suspect. Now that this government is sinking in a pool of political and economic hot water of its own making, it seizes hold of the national conference idea as if it were a life jacket. “Today, there are enough contradictions and confusion to sink the conference even before it starts. Yet the government forges on. “Before embarking on new public relations ploys to whitewash its tarnished record, the government should treat some long outstanding issues and matters. This government cannot give what it does not have. continued