Confab delegates won’t sign final report unless… –Investigation

The Custodian July 25, 2014 

Delegates at the National Conference are planning not to sign the final report of the conference unless they are given copies to read before they would append their signatures on it.

Investigations by our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday showed that the delegates felt that they needed to see the details of the reports.

Already, some of the delegates were said to have agreed that this condition must be met before they would append their signature to the conference’s final report.

It was leant that the promoters of this demand might have been influenced by some delegates who were not happy with some of the decisions arrived at during the debates on the reports of the 20 committees of the conference.

Some of the delegates were afraid that some contentious issues that were not agreed on or not favourable to them, could be inserted in the final report.

One of such decisions was the issue of derivation, which spilt the delegates during the plenary, as those from the northern part of the country said they would not support its increment from 13 to 18 per cent.

The northern delegates were asking that five per cent from the Federation Account be also set aside as National Intervention Fund for the reconstruction of the northern part of the country, which they said had been destroyed by the activities of terrorists.

While the northern delegates insisted that the fund must be enjoyed by the three zones in the region, which are North-East, North-West and North-Central, the southern delegates were of the opinion that the fund must be made available to all the zones in the country.

They also said the administration of the fund must start with the North-East, a proposal that was not favourably disposed to by the southern delegates.

This division made the Chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, to announce on the day the plenary closed, that the issue of derivation and the intervention fund would be left for the Federal Government to determine.

“Conference therefore recommends that government should set up a technical committee to determine appropriate percentage for the three issues and advised government accordingly,” Kutigi had said.

It was issues like this that made the northern delegates to say that they would insist that the complete report must be made available for them before they would agree to sign it.

The spokesperson for the delegates, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, who spoke with our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday, said there was no way the delegates would be forced to sign.

He said, “Up till now, they have not told us how the report would be. They just asked us to report, like school children, on August 4. The leadership is so disorganised and may not know what to do.

“There are issues we did not agree on apart from the issue of derivation, and I’m saying that nobody can force us to sign what we have not read or go through or issues we even disagreed on substantially.

“Neither Kutigi nor Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi can force us to do that. We are waiting for them to bring their joker.”

A delegate from the South-South region, Mr. Paul Enebeli, also said that the delegates were yet to be briefed on the way the report would be presented.

But he said the delegates might demand for the records of proceedings at the plenary to enable them to study issues that were discusse and were agreed on or rejected.

“We need sufficient time to go through the reports. But we have requested for verbatim reports of the proceedings during the plenary,” he added.

Another delegate, who is a former President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, said it would be wrong for the northern delegates to insist on the five cent intervention fund.

He said the money for the reconstruction of the zone was the one the Federal Government had asked the Gen. Theophilus Danjuma committee on Victims Support Fund to raise.

He also added that the intervention fund been demanded by the delegates from the North could also make their counterparts from other parts of the country to make similar demand.

Arogundade said, “What do they want to do with that again? The N30bn that the Danjuma Committee has been charged to raise is enough. We should not encourage all these kinds of issues to be coming up. Why did you think our brothers from the eastern part of the country are also asking for money to be paid for the victims of civil war?”

Impeachment: Jonathan, Nasarawa lawmakers in closed-door meeting

The Custodian July 25, 2014 

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday met behind closed-doors with Speaker of Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Musa Mohammed,  some key leaders of the House and the Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus.

The meeting which held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja followed the impeachment notice served on Governor Tanko Al-Makura of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Assembly on Wednesday ordered the state’s Chief Judge, Justice Umaru Dikko, to set up a seven-member committee to investigate the governor of alleged misconduct.
Youths in the state have since taken to the  streets in protest over the impeachment move, insisting the governor must serve out his two terms. Al-Makura is the second APC governor to face impeachment charges. Former governor of Adamawa State, Admiral Murtala Nyako, was last week removed by the House.
Cornered by State House correspondents after meeting with  the President to divulge what transpired, the Speaker, accompanied by some principal officers of the House, declined comments.
“It is a private visit. I don’t have the mandate of the Assembly to brief the press. Chairman of the House Committee on Information has the mandate to speak to the press on anything concerning impeachment”, he said.
Secondus, who emerged a few minutes after the lawmakers,  also declined to state what the meeting was all about.
He said: “It’s consultation. I can’t say whatever transpired now. We are consulting”, as he hurriedly left the Villa.”

National Conference seeks appropriate percentage for revenue allocation, adjourns plenary till August 4

The Custodian July 15, 2014 

The plenary session of the National Conference drew to a close on Monday following completion of debate and adoption of resolutions arising from reports of 20 committees that considered critical issues arising from the convocation of the Conference.
Conference Chairman and former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Idris Kutigi, said the next plenary session would be on August 4, 2014 when delegates would reassemble to consider and approve the final reports of the Conference for presentation to the Federal Government.

Specifically on Monday, Conference formally adopted the Report of the Committee on Devolution of Power but without conclusive decision on the vital issue of derivation principle and what percentage should be paid mineral producing areas.

After days of fruitless discussion by leaders of geo-political zones at the Conference, Justice Kutigi and other principal officers of the Conference met with selected leaders of delegations to the Conference; co-chairmen, chairmen and deputy chairmen of all the Standing Committees to decide on the matter.
The first meeting scheduled for Friday last week did not hold as most of the selected delegates scheduled had already concluded their travel plans in view of the imminent closure of Abuja airport that Friday afternoon for maintenance work on the runway.
As soon as the Conference resumed on Monday, Justice Kutigi said: “I’m still of the view that the Committee that is handling the matter of coming to a compromise will still do their job.
“We couldn’t have the meeting on Friday. So, I am proposing that we give them two hours to meet with us.” He then invited the “Fifty Wise Men, Committees Co-chairmen, Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen to meet now in our usual place.”

After five hours of close-door deliberation with the leadership of the Conference, both the southern and the northern delegates refused to agree on some of the issues thrown up in the initial meetings of some regional leaders.
From the presentations of the leaders, three issues were raised during their discussions. The issues were: 18 per cent derivation for mineral producing area, five per cent for the development of solid minerals and five per cent for the reconstruction of states in the northern region ravaged by insurgency and internal conflicts. The last seemed to have been the point of controversy as some of the leaders insisted that the intervention fund should be for the entire country where such was required.
The issue split the delegates along the north/south divide, but during meeting between the selected delegates and principal officers, it was suggested that since there are other areas that funds are being allocated from the Federation Account outside the issues being considered, it would be proper to have a technical committee to take a global look at the revenue allocation framework and determine the appropriate percentages on the three issues under consideration and advise government accordingly.
But before endorsing that decision, the meeting had critically examined the issues in contention and recognized the need to review the percentage of revenue allocation to oil producing states including those producing other resources; to reconstruct and rehabilitate areas affected by problems of insurgency and internal conflicts; and the diversification of the economy by fast tracking the development of solid minerals.
Conference chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi then conveyed the decision of the leaders to delegates at resumption of plenary. Although some delegates kicked against the decision lamenting the irreconcilable positions of the delegates from both sides, majority of them agreed that the decision was not just a compromise position but a reasonable one in view of the technical nature of the revenue allocation infrastructure.
As delegates started re-opening debate on the issue, the chairman declared, in line with the Rules of Procedure that having adopted the report of the Committee, “this effectively brings us to the end of this debate.”
The Resolution reached at the meeting of the leaders and principal officers of the Conference reads thus:
Having critically examined the issues in contention, Conference recognizes the need to:
a) Review the percentage of revenue to states producing oil (and other resources)
b) Reconstruct and rehabilitate areas affected by problems of insurgency and internal conflicts; and
c) Diversify the Nigerian economy by fast tracking the development of the solid minerals sector;
The Conference also notes that assigning percentages for the increase in derivation principle, and setting up Special Intervention funds to address issues of reconstruction and rehabilitation of areas ravaged by insurgency and internal conflicts as well as solid minerals development, require some technical details and considerations.
Conference therefore recommends that Government should set up Technical Committee to determine the appropriate percentages on the three issues and advise government accordingly.
SIGNED
AKPANDEM JAMES
ASSISTANT SECRETARY, MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS