‘With mature delegates, I find it easy managing Confab image’

You are shouldered with the task of being the spokesperson and image maker of the National Conference 2014. How has it been managing about 500 delegates?You would expect that it would be a tedious experience, but no, because the management of the National Conference is capable with qualified persons who are fit to handle the […]

You are shouldered with the task of being the spokesperson and image maker of the National Conference 2014. How has it been managing about 500 delegates?
You would expect that it would be a tedious experience, but no, because the management of the National Conference is capable with qualified persons who are fit to handle the project. So far, you can see that though there are issues, those issues have been handled and the conference has progressed as expected and we are moving on.

How has it been containing the numerous conflicting interests, particularly the plenary where all manners of interests have been springing up?
First and foremost, those that were chosen as delegates to the National Conference are all mature people and we also assume that they are Nigerians with patriotic zeal. So, even with the vested interests and perceptions that they have as individuals, by the time they came to the National Conference, a larger chunk of those had been subsumed.
Though some of them may be driven by primordial sentiments, they are now looking at the national picture. But, of course, you should not expect those kinds of people from diverse backgrounds to just come in and start agreeing on every issue.

Why was the conference put in place in the first place? It was basically because there are contentious issues and people had misgivings about certain things.
The president, acting on behalf of the people so said, ‘look, let us come together through representation and discuss these issues and agree and tell us the way forward; how the country should be like, how it should be governed and how we can live together.’
You would expect that at the initial stage, people would bring up the issues that bother them. People may see these as contentious but these are issues that bother them. They would now pour them into a mix and turn it. At a point some of them would discover that their problem is not as big as has been put out or there may have been misconceptions about these issues or there may have been some kind of wrong placement of some of these things. So they said, ‘we have taken this and taken that, why don’t we trust and make it like this?’ That is the essence of the Conference.
If the delegates came in and they didn’t have any contention in the first place the conference wouldn’t have been necessary. You would expect contention at the beginning but these are just perceptions and views and ideas that people have long had. There are certain things that have been bordering them; they will have to bring these out. They can never be the same; they are different.
I think what has been happening was expected and our responsibility is to guide them and get the result that is expected.
Basically there are rules. The kind of things people thought they were going to do were streamlined by the rules. There are rules of proceedings: how you will conduct yourself, how you will do this and that. But by and large, the delegates are the ones to decide not the management. The management is to provide logistics, provide the enabling environment, provide the materials that are needed and all that stuff and ensure that the rules are adhered to. But the issues that are being discussed come from the delegates; they are the ones that take decisions.

At the initial stage, the delegates complained about issues considered by the public as flimsy or trivial – issues like food and seating arrangements. How did you, as image maker of the conference, manage the reputation angle of such issues?
I think those things were thrown up because you have people coming from their different backgrounds, and then there are logistic problems. You would expect such problems at the inception of a project like this. But we are not patient, and we assume anything that doesn’t accord with what we think is a problem.
You would also notice that it was just the first week. And for a project of this magnitude and with the number of people involved, you were bound to have such challenges coming up. It is not any challenge coming up that is the issue but how you address it, and of course these issues came up and they were appropriately addressed.
Some delegates were advocating for closed-door sessions but your management did not heed to their request. How do you situate this?
We always have different opinions and views when you have a large number of people who congregate in a place. But from day one, the idea behind the conference was made very clear  –  Nigerians must discuss their problems. You cannot want to discuss people’s problems and then be hiding those problems at the same time. Let them know what you are discussing, let them also take part.
Everybody cannot come to this auditorium, we are just their representatives. But those they represent have to hear their views. But we now close the door and sit down and discuss.
No, it is not a secret meeting. The Conference is an open conference. That is why when the idea came, we said no way.
That is why we also had to air the plenary live, on television and on the website because we want Nigerians to know what is going on here. The president said it, he has no agenda, and of course we have no agenda. So, why should anybody want to discuss in secret? Everything must be discussed in the open.
You also would notice that when the committees were set up, one or two committees tried to lock out journalists, but I came up and said No! Open the door let everybody come in. The press must cover both the plenary and the committees.

Do you foresee stormy sessions, particularly over recommendations by committees like those on the devolution of power, religion and political restructuring?
As I said, delegates to the conference are all mature people. They have the interest of the country at heart. A good number of them are politicians; they know how to resolve conflicts without necessarily fighting and breaking heads.
If there are issues, there is no part of the country that doesn’t have some kind of interest. Horse-trading is part of the game; if that is going to solve the problem, why not. What I do not expect is unnecessary contention.

There was controversy over the tenure of the conference. What is the true position of things?
There was a misconception by certain delegates who misled some members of the media. But again, those who allowed themselves to be misled deliberately allowed themselves to do so because there are appropriate authorities as far as information dissemination in the Conference is concerned.
As at the time that issue was peddled, there was nothing like tenure extension, it was not discussed, the Conference Secretariat did not apply. What happened was that in its routine engagement with the committees, the management had that particular meeting with the heads of the committees just to find out if they have issues, and the leadership of the committees themselves came up with a suggestion that the time allotted for the committee work was too short, given the enormity of the issues.
They had to invite people to give them information, but even the days that were given to them were eaten up by public holidays. We had Easter, we had the May Day and then we had the World Economic Forum. So, it became necessary to make up for those lost days, which was why sitting was extended for one week.
They also suggested that given the volume of issues raised which will also translate to volumes of reports –  reports which will be analysed and reduced to recommendations that will go to plenary as the report of the conference – the period allotted for the drafting of these reports was also short. They suggested that if the conference secretariat management intends to do something about the extension of the committee sitting period, they should also include it so that you don’t have to ask for extension.
So, we said it was a suggestion we would look at. If it is ok, we will make a presentation to the appropriate quarters. When we left the meeting, we did a draft work plan to accommodate those suggestions.