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Tag: Northern delegates

  • Why we’re opposed to draft constitution, by Northern delegates

    Why we’re opposed to draft constitution, by Northern delegates

    Northern Delegates to the just concluded National Conference say their opposition to the draft constitution stemmed from the fact that it did not reflect the decisions of the conference.

    The Northern Delegates also accused the leadership of the conference of manipulating the conference in favour of the South through the use of voice vote to arrive at decisions as against   consensus or 75 percent votes as earlier agreed before the commencement of the conference plenary.

    Spokesman for the Northern Delegates Forum, Mr. Anthony Sani told The Nation that replacing the 1999 constitution with a draft constitution from the conference would be undemocratic and against the interest of Nigerians who never gave the government the mandate to bring about a new constitution through a national conference of unelected delegates.

    He said: “Northern Delegates are opposed to some aspects of the reports of the conference because they do not reflect the decisions of the conference. For example, Northern delegates do not share the wisdom of removing local governments from the constitution and from benefitting from the federation account and placing them under exclusive preserve of whims and caprices of state governments.

    “This is because such an action would amount to scrapping the local governments. Yet, we all know that this is the closest government to ordinary Nigerians who have been clamouring for some autonomy for local government in order to free them from shackles of state government for performance.

    “To now remove them from the constitution and place them under the exclusive purview of state government amounts to scrapping them to the chagrin of ordinary Nigerians.

    “The order of procedure for the conference requires that decisions be by consensus or in the case of division,75% should prevail. But the leadership of the conference used voice vote to put northern delegates at short end of the lever simply because they were fewer than those from the South. The same goes for state police, but most of all was the draft new constitution which was never discussed at the conference.”

    Mr. Sani said the inclusion of the draft   constitution offended the sense of justice of most northern delegates.

    “Making of a new constitution in a democracy is a serious business, and certainly not a tea party.

    “As far as many of us are concerned, the conference has done its work of bringing some important issues into popular consciousness so that they are not ignored or forgotten by political parties whenever they articulate their manifestos for the purpose of seeking for mandate during the elections.

    “Unless a political party includes a method of solution and later given the mandate by voters, it cannot reasonably do it without having included same in its manifestos prior to the elections which it won.

  • Confab: North rejects recommended eight states

    The Northern States Forum (NSF) of the National Association of State Movements (NASM) on Friday rejected the eight states recommended for the region in the report of the just concluded National Conference.

    The Conference had recommended a total of 10 states for South and eight for the North in its report.

    The NSF of NASM in a statement in Abuja and signed by its Chairman, Senator Ahmad Zakari and Secretary, Dr. Yakubu Ugwolawo, said the Forum was still at a loss over the yardstick used by the confab delegates to recommend the creation of the 18 additional states.

    The group called for the creation of Hadeija State from the existing North Western Zone and Okura State from the North-Central zone.

    Senator Ahmad told reporters at a news conference in Abuja that the absence of a clear guideline used to determine the 18 states recommended has impugned the credibility of the exercise.

    Ahmad argued that the history of Nigeria did not begin with six geo-political zones now being made sacrosanct for all-purpose treatment of Nigerian socio-political and economic problems.

    He noted that it can never be an equitable exercise to treat the North-West zone with a population of 35,786,944 and 216,065 square kilometres on the same pedestal with the South-East zone with a population of 16,381,729 and a land mass of 29,526 square kilometres.

    While describing the logic as absurd and confusing, Ahmad noted that if statistics are to be used to confer advantage on a zone, the same use of statistics should be used for all zones.

    He insisted that the recommendation of the Conference in terms of state creation was skewed against the North-West and North-Central zones of the country.

  • Draft constitution splits conference as North’s delegates meet

    Draft constitution splits conference as North’s delegates meet

    A six-year single term for the president and governors, 50 per cent derivation and the scrapping of the 774 local councils. These are the highlights of the draft constitution presented yesterday to National Conference members in Abuja.

    But the draft constitution, given to members along with the draft proposal of the conference for their review before discussion starts tomorrow, did not go down well with the northern delegates who will meet today in Abuja.

    The meeting will decide on whether to confront the leadership on the draft constitution or boycott the conference’s final leg.

    Most Northern delegates were shocked that a draft constitution was “smuggled” into the agenda of the conference, in spite of the persistent denial by its leadership.

    One of the highly-respected Northern delegates, who spoke anonymously, said: “It was shocking to hear that a draft constitution is being circulated to members. We have summoned an emergency meeting of Northern delegates for Tuesday (today).

    “The Northern delegates are angry that extraneous issues are being brought into the agenda of the National Conference.

    “If the government had made up its mind from the beginning, there was no basis for bringing 492 Nigerians for the conference.

    “Our meeting might also take a firm decision on whether to go ahead with the conference or boycott its final stage. We cannot be used for selfish purpose.”

    A delegate, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, described the draft constitution as a “fraud”.

    Mohammed said: “We are not aware of the draft constitution; it is a fraud because no new constitution was deliberated upon.

    “We raised it on the floor of the National Conference and the Chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi, and his deputy, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, told us that it is not our business to write a new constitution.

    “I can hazard a guess that  Northern delegates will certainly reject this ambush.”

    Another delegate, Yinka Odumakin, however, said: “The conference is yet to decide whether it will opt for a draft constitution or present a bill on amendments to the 1999 Constitution.

    “What the National Conference Secretariat did was to make our job easier for us by giving us documents on a bill proposing  some amendments to the 1999 Constitution or a draft new constitution.

    “With what we have done (resolutions), we have mutilated the 1999 Constitution. But it is left to the National Conference delegates to decide on either amendments or a new constitution.”

  • Bombings desecrate Islam – Northern delegates

    Northern delegates to the National Conference have said Wednesday’s explosions in Kaduna targeted at former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Islamic scholar, Sheik Dahiru Bauchi, desecrate the religion of Islam especially coming during the holy month of Ramadan.

    In a statement signed by spokesman of the Northern Delegates Forum, Anthony Sani and emailed to The Nation, the delegates described the explosions as heinous and condemnable.

    They also dismissed insinuations that Boko Haram was brought about by some northern leaders to make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan because of his religion and region.

    It noted that members of the Boko Haram sect have never hidden their desire to bring the north under their own brand of Islam and possibly bring the cleavages of the country along religious lines, warning that “Nigerians should not make the mistake of allowing the insurgence to redefine our togetherness.”

    The statement reads: “The twin bombs which exploded in Kaduna, and during the month of Ramadan, on Wednesday ostensibly targeted at Gen. Buhari and Sheik Dahiru Bauchi, are heinous and condemnable.

    “The bombs are condemnable not only because of the loss of lives and because of those injured, but also the bombs desecrate the religion of Islam which forbids such actions against sacred inviolability of the individual. Worse still, during the month of Ramadan.

    “We condole with the families of those who lost their lives and commiserate with those who suffered injuries from the bombs. May God repose the lives lost and provide fortitude to endure the irreparable losses.

    “As to the personalities targeted and the implications of the attacks, I wish to submit that Boko Haram has never hidden its desire for the substantial parts of the north to be under its own version of Islam, and if possible the cleavages of the country should be along religious lines.

    “What has been at issue is our submission that majority of Muslims do not share Boko Haram’s vision that the country should be converted to Islam through violent loss of innocent lives, precisely because true Islam has no provision for compulsion.

    “As to the conspiracy theories that some northern leaders brought about Boko Haram in order to make the country ungovernable for President Jonathan on account of his faith, ethnicity or region, and the other one that the Presidency sires Boko Haram in order to eviscerate the North socio economically and politically, I wish to say neither of the two conspiracy theories is here or there.”

     

  • Why North rejected resource control – Arewa, confab delegates

    The pan northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern delegates at the ongoing National Conference said the current renewed agitation for resource control will increase imbalance in the development of the country, leading to inequality.
    Reacting to the current debate, the ACF through its National Publicity Secretary, Mohammed Ibrahim, said it was against the abolition of the on/ off shore dichotomy, but was however opposed to the principle of derivation that will compensate for the environmental pollution suffered by oil producing communities.
    Ibrahim said “Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) disagrees with the abolition of the on/ off shore dichotomy, where proceeds from the off shore activities that are not due to efforts of the states or any host communities, nor cause any degradation of the environment, are factored into calculation for derivation with consequences to the economic well being of the non oil producing states.
    “ACF is however not opposed to principle of derivation that will compensate for the environmental degradation due to any exploration, or to reward efforts. ACF therefore calls for the review of the current situation to allow for the proceeds from off shore activities to be shared to all the states.”
    On their part, the Northern Delegates under the auspices of the Northern Delegates Forum said the argument that resource control has made non oil producing states not to be viable is neither here nor there, pointing out that apart from Lagos State, no state of the federation pays salaries without federal allocations.
    In a statement signed by their Spokesman, Anthony Sani and made available to The Nation in Kaduna, the northern delegates argued that the fact that the economy of Nigeria is not diversified today is not due to lack of resource control but due to cheap oil money which drives away productive money.