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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Govt Reaffirms Dialogue, Spurns Sovereign National Conference
GOVERNMENT yesterday reaffirmed its readiness to dialogue with aggrieved groups even as it rejected the crucial issue of a Sovereign National Conference.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Akin Olujimi restated government's position in an exclusive interview with The Guardian in Abuja.
He said government was now willing to encourage dialogue as a way of resolving national problems.
The Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Prof. Jerry Gana last week disclosed government's intention for a national dialogue. He said the forum would afford groups an opportunity to dialogue on the problems facing the country and evolve ways of solving them.
Gana's disclosure came barely a week after President Olusegun Obasanjo struck a peace deal with ethnic warlords in Rivers State, who had led a bloody revolt against the government and people of the state.
Their threat to commence attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta caught the attention of the international community and thus the eventual government dialogue with the self-styled freedom fighters.
But aligning himself with Gana's disclosure at the weekend, Olujimi was quick to emphasise that "it is impossible to have a Sovereign National Conference side by side the present sovereign government."
To do that, according to him, would amount to endorsing two separate sovereign organs at the same time.
"I want to make a point clear to Nigerians that we have a listening Federal Government, whatever issue any Nigerian takes up with government or against government. Government is not against national dialogue or even people to hold and express their views within the confines of the law.
"If ethnic Nationalities feel they have certain issues to discuss together, nobody has ever stopped it and I don't see government stopping them from discussing. But when you now insist on having a Sovereign National Conference, that is the point on which the Federal Government differs.
"Sovereign National Conference has a ring of sovereignty around it. You don't have two sovereign powers in one Republic. That position is untenable and unattainable. You can have only one sovereign power.
"I don't see how anybody can think of constituting another sovereign body within an existing sovereignty. This is the clear point of departure between Federal Government and those agitating for a sovereign national conference," he said.
This position runs counter to the general trend of agitation in the country and also falls short of the position of The Patriots, a club of eminent Nigerians, which has drawn up its disposition to a National Conference.
However, the Justice Minister said dialogue among Nigerians was a legitimate endeavour, which government could not stop, "provided such discussions have as priority the interest of the country."
"The government is not repressive and will listen to positions that are reasonable. Government will talk with any group that is working for peace in the society. No group should decide to abandon the law and do things their own way. We cannot allow the law to break down; else society will disintegrate," he warned.
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