Senate wants FG to consider 2014 confab report

The Senate has urged the Federal Government to consider the report of the National Conference held in 2014.

Specifically, the Senate said it would go through the recommendations made by the confab to determine the solutions to the current agitations across the country.

Members of the Senate made the resolution at a plenary on Wednesday after debating a motion sponsored by 107 lawmakers titled, “The Need for National Unity and Peaceful Co-existence in Nigeria.”

The lawmakers took turns to highlight the socio-political and economic challenges facing the country, which most of them agreed were the causes of the regional unrests in the country.

While some senators called for the restructuring of the country’s federal system, others called for the application of law against persons and groups making inflammatory statements which they believed could worsen the unrests in the country.

The Senate, however, spoke clearly against secession or breakage of the country, stating that the unity of the nation was not negotiable.

The lawmakers unanimously granted the prayers of the motion, which included ‘conveying the commitment of all Nigerians that we live together in unity and harmony as one indivisible, indissoluble sovereign nation under God’.

They also urged all Nigerians to desist from actions and utterances capable of jeopardising the corporate existence of the nation.

The first lawmaker to call for the submission of the confab report to the legislature was Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi-Central).

He stated that it was the best way to resolve the issues affecting the country.

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The lawmaker noted that Nigerians had come from a long way since the amalgamation of the Northern Protectorate and Southern Protectorate in 1914.

Aliero said, “We have to live together and the corporate existence of this country cannot be negotiated. Nigeria must remain one indivisible and indissoluble entity. I agree that there are problems; there are challenges and those challenges should be addressed. And that was why in 2014 the then president, Goodluck Jonathan, decided to convoke what was called a National Conference and it was a conference where all the ethnic nationalities, states and geopolitical zones were represented.”

“All the issues affecting the unity and stability of this country were thoroughly discussed under the leadership of Justice Idris Kutigi (retd.) and co-chaired by Prof Bolaji Akinyemi. A lot of recommendations were made to address these challenges.

“I will recommend that the Senate should ask for those recommendations to be tabled before the National Assembly because a lot of recommendations on all the agitations in all the geopolitical zones were addressed. I don’t know why we are not asking for those recommendations to be brought to us. They should be implemented where necessary.”

Senator Jonah Jang (Plateau-North) said he supported Aliero on the call for the 2014 confab report. The lawmaker recalled that he was one of those who fought the Civil War to keep Nigeria united. He warned that no nation had fought two civil wars and survived, and Nigeria would not be a different case.

In his remarks, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, explained that the report was sent to the 7th National Assembly towards the close of the legislature, the reason why it was dropped.

Culled from Punch

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