-APC protests -Committee begs governor – Okurounmu: I don’t know if Nyiam is still member
IT is meant to collate the agenda for a national conference, which is expected to resolve Nigeria’s differences, but the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue is now in need of a peacemaker.
The national dialogue panel has been hit by a crisis over the conduct of its member, Col. Tony Nyiam (rtd), in Benin on Monday.
Nyiam led the heckling of Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole when the governor was making his presentation during the panel’s public sitting .
The panel member was restrained by his colleagues and others as he stood up and tried to launch himself at the governor, whose security team formed a ring round him.
Oshiomhole is opposed to the conference, which he says has no agenda, in addition to being unnecessary.
Nyiam’s action and those of people, who invaded the venue, ended the sitting – in a fiasco.
Members of the panel are divided over Nyiam’s continued membership.
To the chairman, Dr. Femi Okurounmu, Nyiam should cease to be a member.
But it was gathered that some other members of the panel want him to continue but be cautioned.
Those who argue for Nyiam’s retention believe that the panel has no authority to exclude any member since it was the President who inaugurated it.
“I’m not in a position to say whether he has resigned or not. I don’t know anything about that. I can’t say whether he is still a member of the committee. I will not comment,” Dr. Okurounmu said last night on the telephone.
He was asked to confirm the rumour that Nyiam had quit the job.
Nyiam was absent when the panel sat in Enugu yesterday.
But the panel has apologised to the governor on Nyiam’s conduct.
In a letter signed by Okurounmu, titled “Dialogue Committee condemns unruly behaviour”, it said: “The Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue wants to put it on record that we noted the sad incident at today’s (Monday’s) Interactive Session with Nigerians from the Southsouth held in Benin City, Edo State.
“The Committee wishes to state its unequivocal commitment and that of its members to the principles of democratic discourse. Although we take special exception to the unruly conduct of one of our members who joined the crowd in shouting down the Comrade Governor of Edo State, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, while he was giving his remarks, the session continued and ended peacefully.”
“We want to emphasise that the Committee will listen to all shades of opinions in the areas of its mandates and will not henceforth condone the kind of unacceptable behaviour we witnessed in Benin City.
“The Committee wishes to express its sincere appreciation to the Government and people of Edo State for providing support to the Committee in its assignment in the state.”
The panel, which sat in Enugu yesterday, will round off its sitting in the Southeast in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, today.
The panel will be in Lagos on Friday, Okurounmu said yesterday. The Lagos leg ought to have been held tomorrow, according to the panel’s itinerary. No reason was given for the shift.
The panel will meet with Southwest leaders at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) on Victoria Island, where a source said it was seeking “full security protection”.
This is to avoid what happened in Benin, it was learnt, since the government of Lagos State, along with other All Progressives Congress (APC) controlled states, is opposed to the conference.
The APC yesterday condemned the “sponsored disruption” of Oshiomhole’s presentation, saying “the despicable action has vindicated the party’s decision not to be part of the proposed conference”.
In a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the Committee “must be ashamed of itself that one of its members led the show of shame”.
It demanded an unreserved apology from the Committee to Oshiomhole. Nyiam, said APC, must be publicly cautioned at the least or be excused from the committee.
Said the APC: “The truth is that in proposing the conference, the government has no sincerity of purpose, does not believe in engaging in any dialogue with anyone, but itself and has only used it to distract the attention of Nigerians from the total absence of governance and sense of direction by the Jonathan Administration.
“This is why we refused to participate in what is nothing but a sheer deceit. We have already been vindicated even before the start of the conference.”
The party said since the essence of democratic discourse is for all sides to be allowed to have their say, it was wrong to have shouted down anyone because his stand does not tally with that of the committee or the organisers of the meeting.
‘’Worse still is that a member of the committee led the thugs who so rudely and irresponsibly shouted down a governor. What a contradiction, that a member of a panel set up to help forge national discourse does not even believe in the plurality of opinions. Does anyone need any further evidence that the committee has already made up its mind on the direction their so-called assignment will take? How can you sincerely hope to midwive a dialogue with Nigerians when you cannot even oversee a dialogue in a town hall meeting?’’ it queried.
The APC expressed “shock” and “disgust” that the governor of a state” hosting a meeting of the advisory committee could be so primitively treated by hired thugs, led by no other than an out-of-control committee member.
‘’Even if they have no respect for the person of Governor Oshiomhole, couldn’t they have at least shown respect for the office he is occupying? If a person in the calibre of Oshiomhole, with his antecedents and prominent role in the national political discourse, cannot be allowed to air his opinion on any issue, what then will happen to ordinary citizens?’’ the party asked.
It praised Oshiomhole for his maturity and decency, which showed in his handling of the situation.
‘’By his comportment, from which his security and other aides apparently took a cue, Oshiomhole averted what could have been a violent confrontation and left no one in doubt that he is a true democrat. In the end, those who conspired to humiliate him have unwittingly played up his tolerance, his decency and his democratic credentials,’’ the party said.
The Edo State caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the House of Representatives also asked the committee to sack Nyiam.
The caucus also supported the argument that the timing of the proposed conference was wrong as preparation for the 2015 elections would not give room for the constitution of credible delegates to the talks.
The leader of the caucus, and the Minority Whip of the House, Samson Osagie, who was flanked by Razak Bello-Osagie, Abubabakr Momoh, Peter Akpatason and Jim Adun at a news briefing, said the attack on the governor was an attack and insult on the entire people of Edo State.
He said: “‘We watched with serious concern and miffed that at a meeting convened to listen to the views of Nigerians on the necessity or otherwise of a National Conference, a governor could be disallowed from airing his personal views simply because it was unpalatable to some members of the Advisory Committee, which is supposed to be an umpire and their uniformed tribal jingoist”.
“We agree, unequivocally with our governor that there have been 10 conferences which have yielded no positive result and that this present effort is calculated to further fritter away public resources that are supposed to be channeled on public spirited ventures and will yield no different result.
“What we need, in our view, is a leadership that can break all barriers to our national development through purposeful, focused, courageous and visionary policies and programmes of government that will address the intractable problems of insecurity, unemployment, infrastructural deficit and human capital development,” Osagie said.
