Nigeria : Key National Conference Recommendations

The National Conference will today present its report to President Goodluck Jonathan at a ceremony in Abuja. The Chairman of the Conference, Idris Kutigi will lead the other members of the leadership as well as the 492 delegates to present the document, which is in three volumes, at a ceremony scheduled for 3p.m. at the National Judicial Institute, NJI. The delegates held a dinner Wednesday night to mark the end of the confab. The dinner was attended by Vice President Namadi Sambo, who assured that the outcome of the Conference would be utilized to settle the nation’s myriad problems. “The deliberations of the Conference will be utilized to settle the nation’s problems,” Mr. Sambo said, stressing that it was convoked by Mr. Jonathan because of his belief that there was no alternative to dialogue. The vice president expressed joy at the understanding exhibited by the delegates while the Conference lasted and that Nigerians and the Federal Government would remain grateful to them. He said the delegates succeeded in producing a living document. The Assistant Secretary, Media and Communications, Akpadem James, told PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday night that top government officials, including Mr. Namadi, President of the Senate, David Mark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Aloma Muktar, would attend the closing ceremony today. The Conference commenced March 17 when it was inaugurated by Mr. Jonathan. It was originally billed to last three months but was granted about one month extension. It concluded committee sittings and plenary sessions in mid-July after which delegates went on a short break to enable the conference’s secretariat compile the report. The delegates returned to approve the draft report after which it finally closed last Thursday following a motion by Second Republic Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Richard Akinjide, and seconded by Yadoma Mandara, who was the youngest delegate. The convocation of the Conference was packaged by a 13-member Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue headed by Femi Okurounmu, a former senator. The Committee submitted its 69-member report last December. Apart from its 492 membership drawn from different spheres of life, the Conference was supervised and managed by a secretariat whose six members were also nominated by the Federal Government. The others, besides Mr. Kutigi, were Bolaji Akinyemi, (deputy chairman), Valerie-Janette Azinge (Secretary), Akilu Ndabawa (Assistant Secretary, Conference Proceedings), Mahmood Yakubu (Assistant Secretary, Administration and Finance), and Akpandem James (Assistant Secretary, Media and Communications). During the period the Conference sat, its stability was tested by some thorny national issues, which included resource control, derivation principle, Land Use Act, national security among others. However, at the end of it all, the Conference made some far-reaching recommendations. Below are the highlight of its recommendations made compared with those of the previous conferences, namely the 1994/1995 Constitutional Conference (CC) convoked by late head of state, Sani Abacha and the National Political Reform Conference, NPRC, convoked by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Creation of 18 New States 2014 National Conference: Recommended the creation of 18 new states (three per geo-political zone).. Among them are Apa, Edu, Kainji, Katagum, Savannah, Amana, Gurara, Ghari, Etiti (South East zone), Aba, Adada, Njaba-Anim, Anioma, Orashi, Ogoja, Ijebu and New Oyo. Apart from the 18 proposed states, the Conference also recommended one new states for the South East to make the zone have equal number of states with the other zones except the North West which has seven. It also recommended that states willing to merge can also do so based on certain conditions. 2005: NPRC said 36 states structure is too expensive and that the situation will become worse given the number of requests for the creation of new states some of which would need to be met for the sake of peace and stability of the economy.. continued