IFEANYI EZUGWU, ENUGU.
Apparently miffed by various conferences held in the country whose
outcomes have not been implemented, the Southeast geo political zone
on Tuesday called on President Goodluck Jonathan to as a matter of
urgency send an executive bill to the National Assembly to ensure the
legality and integrity of the proposed national dialogue.
The zone also demanded that the outcome of the conference should be
subjected to a national referendum and thereafter without alteration
becomes the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.
It also insisted on equal representation of the six geo political
zones of the country comprising of sixty delegates from each zone to
dialogue at the conference.
The position was contained in a memorandum presented by Ohanaeze
Ndigbo to the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue
which met in Enugu yesterday.
Those who signed the memorandum include President General of Ohanaeze
Ndigbo, Chief Gary Igariwey and secretary general, Dr Joe Nwaorgu.
Others who signed the memorandum were Ezeuzu Awka, Obi Gibson Nwosu,
former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, former governors, Okwesilieze
Nwodo, Sam Egwu; Prof Ukwu I. Ukwu, Chief Mbazulike Amechi and
Ambassador LOC Agubuzo.
Presenting the position of Ndigbo to the committee, Igariwey, listed
issues that should be discussed at the conference to include political
structure of the country, forms of government, power of the tiers of
government/devolution, revenue and fiscal federalism, derivation and
distribution.
Others are citizenship right, structure of the armed forces and other
security agencies to improve the security of life and property of
Nigerians, judicature, population and census issues, religion and
secularism as well as place of traditional rulers and institutions.
Igariwey noted, “ as a nation with enormous natural and human
resources, Nigeria has refused to grow in line with the aspirations of
her founding fathers. Nigeria is not working and cannot work because
it now exists on a faulty foundation. The fundamental problem is
structural. No one builds a super structure on a faulty foundation. It
is therefore time to review and fine –tune the bonds binding us a
nation, in preparation for the challenges of a new global order”.
He implored the committee to rise to the challenges of true patriotism
by ensuring that the recommendations of the conference would lead to
the realization of the dreams of the founding fathers of the country.
