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Enahoro, others meet today on national confab
By Clifford Ndujihe
LEADERS of ethnic nationalities, civil society groups and some political parties will today meet in Lagos to harmonise their positions on the modalities for President Olusegun Obasanjo's proposed national dialogue.
The Guardian learnt that the meeting would be chaired by the First Republic politician and elder statesman, Chief Anthony Eromosele Enahoro.
Expected at the meeting are leaders of The Patriots, Afenifere, Igbo National Assembly (INA), Ndigbo Lagos, South-South Group and Middle Belt Progressive Union.
According to sources, the Prof. Wole Soyinka-led Citizens Forum (CF), United Action for Democracy, six political parties which include the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Movement for National Reformation (MNR), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and a group in the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) will also be at the meeting.
Holding at a location in Ikeja GRA, the meeting is to harmonise the work of the Enahoro-led Nigerians United for Democracy (NUD), the ethnic nationalities chaired by Chief Reuben Fasoranti (Afenifere acting leader) and other groups.
Their position, which sources said would be far-reaching is expected to pre-empt President Obasanjo's end of the year speech on the issue on Friday night.
Strident criticisms have trailed the planning committee on National Dialogue set up by the Federal Government. Chaired by Governor Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna State, the committee is expected to submit its recommendations to the government this week before the Friday speech. Sources informed The Guardian that the coalition of ethnic nationalities, political parties and civil society groups might opt for the 1960 Independence Constitution to be looked at again for adoption.
"We are going to come up with a position. We believe that self-determination is a right to all peoples of Nigeria. We believe that resource control should be the way it was at independence," one of the sources said.
Contributing to the issue, Chief Bisi Akande, the National Chairman of the AD criticised the approach taken by the government so far.
Akande said in a statement that there were deficiencies in the process adopted by the government which would not augur well for the success of the dialogue.
The party leader faulted the appointment of a committee whose membership did not suggest multi-partisanship and independence.
"The experience of countries that have achieved this objective is that government must adopt a credible process for constitution making; that is, a process that constructively engages the largest majority of the population. This is necessary to ensure that the end product is seen as legitimate, and owned by all the people," he said.
To imbue the exercise with credibility and legitimacy, Akande suggested that:
- the composition of membership to the National Dialogue must be representative. In our view, members should be drawn from political parties, ethnic nationalities, professional bodies, civil society organisations, Women groups, in addition to representation from elected bodies - National and State Assemblies. Each group should be invested with the authority of choosing their representatives, and on no account should the President announce names of individuals that have not been represented by the identified groups;
- since every interest group has engaged in mini-national conferences over the past five years, sufficient time should be built into the dialogue process for the groups to harmonise their positions with a view to ensuring that this is the position presented by the representatives at the National Dialogue. This will not only enhance the legitimacy of the process; it will also save the country time;
- the full body must have sufficient powers to endorse, adopt or review any agenda put forward by the planning committee and government for discussion by the body;
- government should plan for a process that will last at least 12 months and perhaps 18 months. This should give interest groups at least three months to prepare and harmonise their positions before the government summons the dialogue. It will also ease the tension that has been generated in the country by unresolved constitutional questions and allow the completion of the process in time for the next national elections;
- the issue of how the final constitution would be approved has to be addressed up-front. In our view, a ratification process that ends up in a referendum offers the only alternative that enables the citizens to have the final say in the eventual product. This is without prejudice to the National Assembly's role, but the final arbiter should be the people in a national referendum; and
- at all times, the core values and principles of inclusivity, participation, openness, transparency, accessibility, accountability and independence must guide the work of the National Dialogue.`
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