LAGOS—EMINENT Persons Group otherwise known as The Patriots and the Pa Anthony Enahoro-led Nigeria United for Democracy (NUD) have resolved to write President Olusegun Obasanjo on the need for the convocation of a National Conference. They agreed to write the memo this week.
The groups also criticised the labour law passed by the Senate, saying the move was anti-people and retrogressive to the drive to establish democracy in Nigeria.
Yesterday’s meeting of the NUD and The Patriots was in consonance with the former’s decision to ensure that a wide section of the Nigerian polity is involved in on-going consultations for its preparation for a national conference.
It would be re-called that at its last meeting with the leadership of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) two months ago, the NUD and the ACF resolved to embark on wider consultations with a view to ensuring an all-inclusive preparation for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference. In fact, the NUD had called for and got memoranda from different groups within the polity on how best to orgainse a conference.
Also on the bill yesterday was the decision of the two bodies to draw the attention of President Obasanjo to the many flash points within the Nigerian polity, citing the killings in Rivers State, the Jos ethno-religious crisis, and the ethnic crisis rocking Niger Delta region, among others, to show that there is an urgent need for Nigerians to hold talks on how best to re-structure the polity in the best interest of developing the Nigerian nation as well as move the country forward.
The meeting, held at the chambers of Chief Rotimi Williams, saw in attendance the likes of Chief Solomon Lar, founding chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP); Professor Ben Nwabueze, immediate past Secretary-General of the Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo; Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Chief Lanihun Ajayi, both Afenifere chieftains; Chief Isaac Shaw, Second Republic minister; Chief Asemota, and other members of the NUD.
At the end of the meeting, NUD and The Patriots, which have both established themselves as leading lights of, as well as pillars for, democratic emancipation, socio-political and economic development of the Nigerian nation, resolved that a memo would be written to President Obasanjo on the importance of convoking a Sovereign National Conference.
The two groups described the Labour Act as a piece of legislation which would further emasculate the voice of dissent in a nation where there is need for a plethora of views in the pursuit of true and genuine development.
