PRESS RELEASE
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has berated some Nigerians and groups for kicking against the convening of the national conference.
Among those who kicked against it are the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, the All Progessives Congress leader, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Nigeria Labour Congress.
The CNPP has urged the National Assembly to halt the proposed national conference, describing it as a journey to nowhere, while Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu described it as ‘greek gift’ whereas the NLC said it is diversionary and wasteful.
Speaking on behalf of the Coalition, its Executive Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran described those opposing the convening of the National Conference as self-serving individual and groups who are benefiting from the status quo.
He said, “Those opposing national conference are self-serving. It is like they are living under the illusion that if the status quo remains, their party may actually take over the government and they also want to enjoy the inordinate proceeds of the pseudo-federalism that we are enduring before there is restructuring. Or it may be that many of them are afraid that Nigeria may break up so they want to take the advantage of the people that had been held captive, to feeder their own nests.
Their argument holds no water because it is the Nigerian people that will determine the direction of the conference; and the way it is, most members of the committee are credible people that could be relied on, and if given the right support, they are likely to organise better conference than what we had witnessed.
As a matter of fact, if we insist the conference may turn out to be sovereign in its entirety as we have been agitating. It is when government begins to manipulate that the people should come up with their own resistance because in this case, the conference wouldn’t be necessary if the people won’t have their say and way. For once the people should be taken serious, and the people themselves should conduct themselves seriously and force their leaders to be accountable and submissive to their authority, which is the main tenet of true democracy. We have discussed it in the past that democracy should be redefined as the authority of the people.”
The human rights activist however called on well-meaning Nigerians to cooperate with national conference committee to make its work successful.
“Basically, the convening up of a Sovereign National Conference is beyond the present regime. That is why the people should work with the committee that has been set up. We don’t have any other means of doing it than for the existing government to organise it; and if they are doing it the best way they know, it is for us to discover anything wrong with it, point it out and insist that the errors be corrected. Once those errors are corrected, we don’t have to bank on whether the proponents are initially sincere or not. It is Nigerian people that would make it work. Once we are ready to make it work, everything will fall in place,” Adeniran said.
Abimbola Adegoke
Media Officer, CACOL
07 October, 2013