Jonathan receives resolutions, says…Confab report to go to N/Assembly, Council of State

Speaking in Abuja when he received the report from confab chairman Justice Idris Kutigi, the president said also the Federal Government will act on aspects of the report that require executive action.Jonathan’s decision to send the report to the legislature implies that it will not be subjected to referendum as he had clamoured when he […]

Speaking in Abuja when he received the report from confab chairman Justice Idris Kutigi, the president said also the Federal Government will act on aspects of the report that require executive action.
Jonathan’s decision to send the report to the legislature implies that it will not be subjected to referendum as he had clamoured when he inaugurated the conference in March.
The president formally declared the conference closed yesterday at a ceremony at the National Judicial Institute, about five months after it opened.
“We shall send the relevant aspects of your recommendations to the Council of State and the National Assembly for incorporation into the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. On our part, we shall act on those aspects required of us in the executive,” he said at the event that was attended by delegates and top government officials.
“Let me reaffirm this: Nobody has a monopoly of knowledge. We who are in government need to feed from the thoughts of those who elected us into power. You have done your patriotic duty, we the elected, must now do ours.”
He appealed to all arms of government and other Nigerians “to be ready to play the different roles that the volumes of reports you have produced would assign to you.”
Speaking on concerns that the confab report might not be implemented, Jonathan said “let me assure that your work is not going be a waste of time and resources. We shall do all we can to ensure the implementation of your recommendations which have come out of consensus and not by divisions.”
The president also said successful conclusion of the conference proved cynics wrong.
“There were many other moments of anxiety at the conference with avalanche of headlines about possible ‘walkouts’ and ‘show-downs’. However with your sense of maturity and abiding presence of God who put this country together, what we have today is a walk-in and a show-up!” he said.
Jonathan said the conference created an avenue for dialogue among Nigerians.
“To my mind, one of the main reasons for which the Conference was convoked was fully achieved: that is, to create a platform for a genuine and sincere dialogue among Nigerians. Even in moments when things seemed ready to boil over, it was evident that the delegates were only disagreeing to agree,” he said.
The confab report submitted to the president is in 22 volumes, containing about 600 resolutions, totalling 10,335 pages, Justice Kutigi said.
Yesterday marked the formal end of the conference that stoked long-standing ethnic, sectional and religious tensions in the country.
The conference was also characterised by occasional distrusts among delegates especially on the alleged plot to do the president’s bidding. The emergence of a draft new constitution at the tail end of the confab threatened to scupper the resolutions reached.
Speaking while submitting the report yesterday, Justice Kutigi said the purpose of the conference included addressing the fears, disappointments, aspirations and hopes, “which have accumulated over 100 years.”
Under the circumstance, he said, “it was only to be expected that tempers would fly; and tempers did fly.”
But Kutigi said with the submission of the report, “we have finally laid to rest the apprehension that a national conference will lead to the disintegration of Nigeria. We have held a national conference and we are more united today than ever.”
He said adopting all the resolutions through consensus “is a message that we wish the world to hear loud and clear. Nigerians are capable of not only discussing their differences but are also capable of coming up with solutions to these difficulties.”
The chairman said President Jonathan never interfered with the work of the conference. “The only time we tried to consult the president during the conflict over voting percentages at the very beginning of the conference, we were told that the issue was for us to resolve. At no time after that did you meet with us or speak to us,” he said.
Also speaking, Chief Edwin Clark, who led the Southern delegation, said: “We came in, we came out and we conquered.”
In his comments, former Inspector General of Police and leader of the Northern delegation to the conference, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie, said whatever the northern delegates protested against during the conference, “we did so for one Nigeria.”
Delegates were decorated with medals of honour by Vice President Namadi Sambo, and each of them also received a certificate of participation, diary, conference plaque and photo book.