A legal luminary has advised President Mohammadu Buhari not to discard the reports and recommendations of the 2014 National Conference.
In an exclusive interview with Naij.com, Prof Akin Oyebode, the chairman of the Office of International Relations, Partnerships and Prospects, University of Lagos, said he was not impressed when he learnt President Buhari might not implement the report of the conference.
Naij.com had earlier quoted a source that claimed Buhari will not implement the report.
The astute professor said the array of respected people who attended the conference suggests that the participants did not take the conference lightly. Hence, it would be counterproductive to trivialise recommendations from such a collection of intellectuals.
”Life is cumulative. It will be short-sighted, myopic in the extreme in fact, dysfunctional to ignore the proceedings of that conference because practically all issues affecting Nigeria were discussed”
”I remember chatting with Femi Falana during the confab about the arrays of people at the conference. No election can bring these arrays of public figures together. We had former speakers, generals, vice chancellors, professors, former judges, among others. ”
”These people are proven, tested and they had paid their dues. So when you had array of stars, personalities and jewels, on the Nigeria firmament and they ruminated on issues pertaining to the destiny of this country for nearly five months and come up with about 600 recommendations and Buhari says he will not look into it?” he queried.
Some Nigerians, especially members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who were in the opposition at that time, did not support the initiative because they felt the convener had a hidden agenda.
Reacting to this, the legal icon said the participants once questioned the sincerity of the convener at the conference, Goodluck Jonathan, who later assured them it was in the interests of the nation.
”We even challenged Jonathan and he said he had no hidden agenda. Of course, he wanted to take credit. It was too late for him but he conveyed it. He was initially afraid of the sovereignty of the conference. He was of the opinion there can’t be two sovereignties in a state,” Oyebode said.
According to him, the report has provided proper guidelines on how to solve a number of problems facing the country.
”It will myopic and counterproductive for Buhari-led administration to ignore the report. ”
”The report is like an access to the pre-proceedings of various governments; you had the Obasanjo conference, even the Abacha conference. Hence, it will myopic and counterproductive for Buhari-led administration to ignore the report. ”
”Life is cumulative. It will be short-sighted, myopic in the extreme in fact, dysfunctional to ignore the proceedings of that conference because practically all issues affecting Nigeria were discussed”.
”There was hardly any issue of vital importance to the country that did not engage the attention of the conference. There is a need for Buhari to have a rethink on the issue concerning proceedings and recommendations of that conference.’’
Oyebode dismissed the suggestion that the conference was a PDP affair: ”Mind you, the APC people that said they won’t participate sent their representatives. Not directly but through the state representatives. I represented Ekiti North. I’m not an APC member but I’m from Ikole- Ekiti.’’
”The governor of the state at that point in time, Kayode Fayemi nominated me so you won’t say the APC was completely absent. You had Bisi Adegboye from Ogun state, a prominent APC member. Lagos state had its delegation too. People like Sasore, former Attorney- General of Lagos.”
The professor of international law said that the Yoruba people were probably the most prepared group for that conference in terms of thinking out solutions to problems.
”Yoruba agenda to that conference was about 314 pages. The representations might be skied because the old Afenifere group manovaured their way through the presidential villa to get over represented in the conference. You had Chief Olu Falae and others,” he said.
Oyebode concluded that the conference was not a wasted effort.
The National conference was convened by the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan from March to May in 2014.
Over N7 billion was spent on the conference which had 492 delegates from all walks of life and across all the 36 states of the federation.
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