The National Conference is the cheapest in the history of the country, a delegate, Senator Anthony Adefuye, has said.
Adefuye spoke yesterday in Lagos, at a book presentation by a former member of the House of Representatives, Moshood Salvador.
Adefuye said the noise about how much to be paid to each delegate is uncalled for as the amount in question has been exaggerated.
“I think there has been a lot of exaggeration about the pay. The pay is far less than what is being reported. It is not up to N2million at all. It is slightly less than N1.5 million per two weeks,” he said.
He continued: “But let me say to you, for instance, I stay in a hotel where I pay N67,000.000 per day. I have a car hire, which takes me tom and fro. Then I dry clean my dress almost every day, which costs me about N5,000. So, it is not that jumbo as some people erroneously think. If it were that I reside in Abuja it would not have cost me much. For people who do not reside in Abuja but come all the way to pay for accommodation, transport and food, I think this is the cheapest conference they have attended.”
On the call for allowances by some delegates for the aides, Adefuye said it was misconstrued.
“That was misconstrued. What we said was that they should give our aides tags to access the conference. Some of us are old and we are asking them to give us tags for them. You cannot access the conference without the tags on you. Somebody said we were asking for allowances for aides, no. Nobody ever asked for allowances for his or her aide,” he said.
Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina, has called on delegates to the national conference to support agenda on women and girls during the conference.
Mrs Maina, who made this call yesterday in Abuja at an interactive with female delegates to the conference, said women and girls were strategic in the development of any nation.
“Our country cannot become great without the active contribution its women folk. I therefore urge the leadership and delegates to the conference to support initiatives that will mainstream issues of women and girls.
“I would particularly want them to align with the national gender policy and its outcomes as a strategy for addressing some of the challenges that affect women and girls in Nigeria.
“The national conference, we hope, will provide the enabling framework for the mainstreaming of gender into all sectors of the economy as well as create the opportunity to engage with Nigerian men on issues of women and other vulnerable groups.
“I therefore request that the delegates push for the entrenchment of affirmative action of 35 per cent, universal access to fundamental human rights as well as zero tolerance to violence and discrimination against women and girls.”
The minister also urged the delegates to push for the entrenchment of affirmative action to ensure the integration of women into development processes.
According to her, efforts are on to sensitise all female delegates to the need to push the gender agenda forward, saying development without women was incomplete.
Mrs Maina said it was the desire of the ministry to ensure that at the end of the conference gender issues received deserved attention.
