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Last Updated: Wednesday, December 15th, 2004 HOME | Previous Page Edet, former NYSC boss, supports national dialogue     By Rafiu Ajakaye, reporter, Lagos   Former Director of the National Youths Service Corps  (NYSC),  Major-General Edet Akpan (rtd), has lauded President Olusegun Obasanjo�s readiness to pave way for the convocation of a national conference, just as he berated the views that Abuja intends using it as a platform for actualising the much talked about third term ambition of the president.  This was against the stance of civil society group leaders who viewed with suspicion the President�s support and the immediate inauguration of an eight-man committee headed by Governor Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna State to effect the plan, tagging it as an attempt to subvert the outcome of the confab to the whims and caprices of few individuals in future. In an interview with Daily Independent in Lagos at the weekend, Edet said Obasanjo�s support was timely and should be embraced by the Nigerian masses, because � the president is now responding to the yearnings of the masses that there is the need for a national conference to hold.�  Adding that there was no need to doubt his (Obasanjo�s) sincerity on the issue, since, �Mr. President has spoken openly to the public that he has no such intention to pursue third term ambition, that he has no such plan and I believe him.�� The retired major however, said it was not in the capacity if Mr. President to single-handedly host the conference rather, the civil societies, women and other strata of the larger society should be at the planning of the confab, while government plays a supervisory role. He feared that government�s domination of the conference may not be too healthy for the nation�s democracy, adding �if the Nigerian masses are allowed to participate by independently choosing their representatives for the confab, if it succeeds we all will share the glory and if it fails we share the blame. So he must allow all the ethnic groups, pressure groups, the women  and the civil society groups to be fully represented�. experience on the development of the country.    Copyright� 2004. All Rights Reserved. Independent Newspapers Limited Block5, Plot 7D, Wempco Road, Ogba, P.M.B. 21777, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. www.independentng.com e-mail: [email protected] Designed By Powered By DNet.

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