Aside the total sum of N7 billion to be spent on the National Conference, which includes allowances of delegates, some of the conferees yesterday requested that their retinue of aides be paid allowances by the government.
Already, the sum of N4.96 billion on the basis of N112, 000 per delegate daily has been earmarked for the 492 delegates participating at the confab.
Former Nigerian Ambassador to the United States of America (USA) and chairman of the Board of Directors of Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Alhaji Hassan Adamu, was one of the delegates who demanded to know from the secretariat of the conference if provision would be made for allowances for their aides.
But the secretariat replied in the affirmative that no such provision was made, but those personal assistants who needed to join the conferees to the venue could be accredited to enhance their (the aides’) access to the venue, which is the National Judicial Institute (NJI) in Abuja.
Also yesterday, former Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, angrily accused some of the delegates at the conference of being architects of the problems currently afflicting the nation.
Contributing to the debate on the general principles of the confab, and more specifically on whether or not sitting arrangements of delegates should be by state, Ita-Giwa, who was apparently supporting the position of former Ogun state governor, Segun Osoba, said some of her colleagues seated there with her were responsible for the country’s woes.
“Some of the problems facing this country today were caused by some of us who are in this Conference,” he said.
Some of the delegates at the conference have been playing key role in government since the first republic in various capacities and have one way or the other associated with every administration both military and civilian.
The same position was echoed by the Emir of Dutse, Alhaji Nuhu Sanusi. “We are responsible for what Nigeria is facing today and we are also the answer to the problem of this country. There is corruption from the local government to the highest level”, the monarch said.
Also yesterday, the Secretary to the conference, Dr. (Mrs.) Valerie Azinge, while reacting to the suggestion by President Goodluck Jonathan that the outcome of the parley may be subjected to a referendum said, it is the prerogative of the delegates, and not that of Jonathan, to decide on what to do.
However, while responding to questions from delegates on the seeming presidential fiat, Azinge said the secretariat of the confab does not feel compelled to accept any suggestion from the president on the modalities to be adopted in the implementation of the outcome of the conference.
Instead, she said it behoves on the delegates to fashion out whatever modalities they deem fit for the implementation of the resolutions, stressing that this would be applicable since the confab is not a constitutional conference.
“On the issue of a referendum, we are not working at cross purposes with the National Assembly. President Jonathan informed us yesterday that the National Assembly is working at amending the Constitution, which will include provisions for a referendum. Let them work.
“If the issue of referendum emerges during the deliberation we shall deliberate on it and whatever the outcome we shall advice accordingly on the legal framework or otherwise. That is our prerogative”, she stressed.
Further, the scribe informed the delegates that the secretariat has designed a guideline to assist in conducting the procedures but insisted that it would only be binding after it must have been adopted by the delegates.
According to her, the procedures included issues to be deliberated upon and modalities for putting up issues for discussions, adding that for a start, the speech of President Jonathan would be carefully examined next Monday when the confab is scheduled to begin formal business.
Also, she added that delegates would be required to make formal written presentations on sundry issues they wish to discuss, noting that it would be foolhardy to expect each delegate to make contribution on every subject matter.
Consequently, Azinge said the secretariat proposed that each state or institution would select a member to speak on its behalf for an allotted time dwelling on the preamble, prayer and way forward to make room for the speedy but carefully thought out deliberations on all the matters which would be raised on the floor.
Meanwhile, a delegate, Dr. Junaidu Mohammed, has accused President Jonathan of trying to blackmail the National Assembly into adopting a position on referendum, which he argued is alien to the nation’s Constitution.
According to him, the referendum suggestion from Jonathan was an illegal means of imposing the resolutions of the confab on the people.
“We would assume that everything that is going to be done would be done in accordance with the current law of the current constitution.
We have subsisting laws. And in the subsisting constitutional provisions, you cannot go outside those provisions and provide for something which is not there.
“A referendum or a plebiscite, whatever you call it, is alien to the current constitution of Nigeria, which came into being in1999 and unless that constitution has been so amended to make provision for it any talk about it is null and void,” he declared.
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