Emeka Nze
A chieftain of the opposition All Progressive Congress Engr. Buba Galadima has accused the federal government of attempting to delete his name from the list of Yobe delegates because he had been a vehement critic of the idea when it was muted.
Galadima stated that the only difference between Jonathan’s speeches and that of other world leaders was the motives behind the speeches noting that only a former military Head of State Gen Murtala Muhammed had said he would not succeed himself.
The APC chieftain stated that the late Gen Muhammed had said whatever decisions by the constituent assembly would be binding on Nigeria, saying that he attended a similar conference in 1988, as well as 1994/95.
The Yobe delegate and a strong critic of the present administration stated that he expected President Jonathan to say in the presidential inaugural speech at the conference that he would not be a beneficiary of the outcome of the conference.
Galadima maintained that he would have applauded the president if he had told the delegates that as a patriotic Nigeria, he would not benefit from the decisions as the president.
According to the opposition politician, the conference needed not be convened because the president could have appointed different experts to proffer solutions for all the ailing sectors of the country.
The former national secretary of the defunct Congress of Progressive Change (CPC), stated that the problem of the country was a poor electoral system where votes were rigged during election thereby robbing the people of their power to vote out a bad government.
He chided the judiciary for aiding and abetting politicians in depriving the people of their votes warning against inflammatory statements often credited to the religious leaders.
He questioned the rationality of the conference describing it as wastage of the nation’s resources.
In his own contribution, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Bode George from Lagos state gave the credit to his party to have elected somebody from the Ijaw ethnic minority as president of the country which he described as a landmark achievement.
George who corrected that after his military career ended, he changed his commodore title to “chief” warned people to desist from blaming military incursion into politics into the country as the problem of the country.
He said people have shied away from telling the truth blaming intolerance as the bane of Nigeria’s existence.
He also called for justice, fairness and equity to prevail in the country so that Nigeria can survive.
