With the submission of the 10,335-page report of the 2014 national conference to President Goodluck Jonathan by its chairman, Justice Idris kutigi (rtd) on Thursday, Nigerians now look up to how its report and recommendations will be handled.
The constitution of the national conference by the Jonathan administration witnessed strong criticism in some quarters as successive administrations in the country had held similar conferences with little or no result.
It could be recalled that Nigeria had the 1978 Constituent Assembly, which had a membership of 230 people and met for nine months, while the 1995 national constitutional conference had a membership of 371 people and met for 12 months. The 2005 political reform conference under the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo administration which was the third of such conferences to be held was made up of 400 delegates and met for five months but yet Nigerians are yet to feel the impact of various reports submitted.
The 2014 national conference which was inaugurated by President Jonathan recently had 494 delegates and met for four and half months.
The delegates approved over 600 resolutions, some dealing with issues of law, policy and amendment to the 1999 constitution. The question however is will the report of the 2014 national conference stands out favourably in comparison with its predecessors so that common man on the street will feel the impact of governance? Time will tell.
John Habila Murai,
Bauchi State Television Authority,
Bauchi state
