Jonathan wants referendum on confab report

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday asked the National Assembly to speed up the constitution review process so as to ensure legal backing for subjecting the outcome of the National Conference to a referendum.He spoke in Abuja while inaugurating the conference, which is to run till June.The president also listed areas that the conference is expected to […]

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday asked the National Assembly to speed up the constitution review process so as to ensure legal backing for subjecting the outcome of the National Conference to a referendum.
He spoke in Abuja while inaugurating the conference, which is to run till June.
The president also listed areas that the conference is expected to focus on, as well as matters and attitudes to avoid.
“Let me at this point thank the National Assembly for introducing the provision for a referendum in the proposed amendment of the Constitution. This should be relevant for this Conference if at the end of the deliberations, the need for a referendum arises,” he said.
“I therefore urge the National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly to speed up the Constitutional amendment process especially with regard to the subject of referendum.”
The focus areas for the conference listed by the president include form of government, structures of government, devolution of powers, revenue sharing, resource control, state and local government creation, boundary adjustment, state police and fiscal federalism, to local government elections, indigeneship, gender equality and children’s rights.
Jonathan enjoined the delegates to, while debating the issues, be focused on strengthening Nigeria’s unity and avoid fanning embers of sectionalism and ethnic jingoism.
“We must not approach these issues with suspicion and antagonism. Rather, we should be open-minded and work to achieve what is best for Nigeria,” he said.
“Even though you come to the Conference as nominees and representatives of different interest groups, I urge you all to make a more united, stronger, indivisible and prosperous Nigeria your preoccupation and reference point at this national gathering. Whatever the pressures on you may be, I call upon you to put the best interest of Nigeria before all other sectional or group interests.
“Indeed, I am quite worried when I hear people say that some participants in this National Conversation are coming here to defend and promote ethnic or clannish agenda.”
Jonathan said given that the conference was coming when Nigeria celebrated its first 100 years, “the most compelling task before us, as we move ahead and contemplate what our nation will be at the end of its second century, is to lay a much stronger foundation for faster development.
“This we can achieve by building a more inclusive national consensus on the structure and guiding principles of state that will guarantee our emergence as a more united, progressive and prosperous nation.”
He said the conference was being convened to engage in intense introspection about the political and socio-economic challenges confronting the nation and to chart the best way for the resolution of such challenges.
“We cannot continue to fold our arms and assume that things will straighten themselves out in due course,” he said.
Jonathan dismissed allegations of harbouring a hidden agenda by convening the conference.
“Our sole motivation for convening this conference is the patriotic desire for a better and greater nation,” he said.
“Let me again repeat what I have been saying that Goodluck Jonathan has no personal agenda in convening this national conference.”
The president also spoke on the scepticism about the conference, saying though there are elected representatives in office, voices of the people must also be heard and factored into whatever decisions those elected take.
“The power we hold is, without question, in trust for the people. Sovereignty belongs to the people. Their voices must be heard and factored into every decision we take on their behalf,” he said.
He said it was wrong to posit that there is no need for another conference since several were held in the past. He said present-day national challenges were different from past challenges and could therefore not be solved by outcome of previous conferences.
“It makes sense, therefore, that as the challenges before us evolve, we must be constant and proactive in our search for fresh solutions. We cannot continue to proffer yesterday’s solutions for today’s problems,” he said.
The National Conference has 492 delegates, mostly appointed by the president and state governors.
There are also representatives of professional, regional and other non-governmental groups.
It is being chaired by former Chief Justice of Nigeria Idris Kutigi.
Yesterday’s inauguration ceremony was attended by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal, Minister of Defence Aliyu Gusau, as well as many state governors and other ministers.
But no former head of state or president attended—a departure from the inauguration ceremony of the 2005 National Political Reform Conference held during the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo, which was attended by at least four former leaders.
Delegates are to reconvene at 10am today to begin deliberations.
(See full text of Jonathan’s speech on pages 14 & 53)