KADUNA —The governor of Jigawa state and Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum,, Alhaji Ibrahim Saminu Turaki has accused president Olusegun Obasanjo of attempting to sabotage the just concluded Northern Peace Conference in Kaduna.The governor while delivering his closing remarks and vote of thanks at the Kaduna International Tradeand Investment Centre, venue of the conference that he recieved a letter from the president two days to the conference asking him to postpone the conference.
"Two days to the commencement of this conference, I got a letter from the president asking us to postpone the conference. But I did not agree to that because I felt that we have gone too far to turn back", he said.The governor also linked the physical absence of the Vice President, Atiku Abubakar who is the most senior northerner in the Obasanjo government and all ministers from the north to the request from the president which was turned down.According to him, "the Vice President was surposed to be here. But he could not come because he was given an assignment by his boss. But he sent in his remarks which was read by the governor of Kaduna state."You can also see that none of the ministers from the north are present at this conference. whether they are no longer northerners, I do not know.
But one thing I am confident of is that none of them can say that whatis happening today is not of concern to them.", he said.Governor Turaki who was full of praises for the success of the conference was quick to say that "at the begining, people said we were coming here to choose a presidential candidate. I am happy that we concluded this without any discussion in that regard."He noted that the aim of the conference which was to find a lasting solution to the problem of peace and unity in the north was largely achieved, pointying out that it will be wrong for anybody to denouce being from the north.
The governor noted that the conference was initially scheduled to hold about six months ago, but had to be put off when some people refused to be part it."I remember that CAN said they where not going to take part because they were not properly briefed. I am happy that they are part of this conference and made useful contributions", he said.He argued that the time has gone when the region was producing raw materials for the consumption of other countries, pointing out that what need to be done now is to look inward and develop the potentials in the region.
He laid to rest the fears of some people about implementation pointing out that the forum bought the suggestion brought forward by the Christian Association of Nigeria to set up a monitoring unit to ensure implementation of the decisions arrived at during the two day conference.The conference was attended by governors, senators, members of the House of Representatives, partychieftains, members of the state Houses of Assembly, Local government chairmen and other prominent northern leaders, both serving and retired.
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