Stakes for the proposed Sovereign National Conference (SNC)
will be raised on Friday when the planners meet with leaders of regional organisations
to fine-tune their strategy.
The Nigeria United for Democracy (NUD), the umbrella body
co-ordinating other civil society and political groups that support the SNC,
has set a machinery in motion for the summit.
Elder statesman Anthony Enahoro is leading a team of other
members of the NUD to meet with the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, as well as the Yoruba Council of
Elders (YCE) and the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC).
The team will also brainstorm with the Igbo socio-cultural body,
Ohaneze Ndigbo,and others of like mind from the South
South.
Campaign for the convocation of the SNC became rife after
the cancellation of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election by former military
President Ibrahim Babangida.
The brutal regime of late Sani Abacha heightened the
agitation, which led to a call by the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) in
1994 that the only way the nation can move forward is when a conference of
ethnic nationalities is held to devise a blueprint for the co-existence of“the peoples” Nigeria.
The advent of democracy since 1999 has not doused the demand
for the recognition of the efficacy of the SNC as the only way out.
And in apparent disapproval of the lukewarm attitude by
President Olusegun Obasanjo to it, the NUD recently mandated Enahoro and the
Chairman of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Balarabe Musa, to explore the
possibility of going ahead with the convocation.
The team, our source explained on Tuesday, would also hold
discussions with leaders of other ethnic groups in the country.
This Friday’s meeting, which one of the organisers has
described as a “high level contact and mobilisation for the
summit”, would also determine the practicability or otherwise of the
proposed conference, expected to take place in October.
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