Drama as Northern delegates accuse Confab leadership of hidden agenda

  

There was mild drama at the ongoing National Conference on Monday when Northern delegates accused the confab leadership of habouring a hidden agenda.

Trouble started when Ishaq Modibo drew the attention of the Conference, under a matter of urgent national importance, to media reports which he said, questioned the integrity of the Conference leadership.

Mr. Modibo said two reports on Daily Trust newspaper indicted the Deputy Chairman, Bolaji Akinyemi, of lobbying Northern delegates in order to smuggle in a demand for a new Constitution in the Conference final report.

He also drew the attention to another publication in a section of the media, alluding that the Conference was trying to adopt a geo-political arrangement in the country.

“Mr. Chairman, I want to urge that the leadership should come out and clear its name from the allegations contained in the newspaper report,” Mr. Modibo said.

But Sergeant Awuse disagreed with Mr. Modibo, saying that the Conference should not be distracted from doing its job because of unfair media reports.

To buttress his point, Mr. Awuse said, “We should avoid grandstanding. Most of those sponsoring these publications are from this Conference. I am pleading that we continue the good work we are doing.

“There are many people who do not support the Conference but there are more people in support of what we are doing here.

“If there is a delegate here who has been approached by the Deputy Chairman, such delegate should rise up and say it. But if there is none, then we should ignore the publication sponsored by people inside this Conference.”

Mike Ahamba, however, disagreed with Mr. Modibo on the need for the Deputy Chairman to address the Conference on account of the allegation in the newspaper report.

“We must always try to act in accordance with what we know. When we started, a lot of people said the Conference will break in down less than two weeks,” he began.a

“But they have failed. We have a duty to disappoint them. There is no young person here; even those who are youth here are not very young.

“When people start writing about things that are not true and quote sources that are nonexistent, we should not be pulled into it. If there is anybody that has been lobbied, he should stand up and tell us.

Haruna Yerima, however, insisted that dismissing the newspaper publication would not be in the best interest of the Conference.

He said Mr. Akinyemi has been mentioned and the onus is on him to rise up and clear his name.

Mr. Yerima said, “You either clear your name here and now or you will have morality demands that you take it on yourself to defend your name in this Conference. This is the opportunity for you to clear your name. I am advising you as a patriot, as a friend and as a true Nigerian.”

Given the opposing views on the matter, Mr. Ahamba moved a motion to invite those who were lobbied to speak up publicly.

This was supported by Ken Nnamani who argued that it was necessary for the Conference Vice Chairman to clear his name.

He said, “Whereas God gave us two ears to hear two sides of the story, I hereby move that the Vice Chairman should clear his name from the allegation made against him in the media report.”

Responding, Mr. Akinyemi said, “Since the beginning of this Conference, whenever I find controversies arising, I have always tried to reach out to people on both divides to resolve them.”

We have an issue coming up which has to do with the modality for implementing the outcome of this Conference.

“I approached those who say they want to write a new Constitution. I also approached those who kick against the writing of a new constitution.

I had approached Ibrahim Kumasi, who is the leader of the Northern delegates.

“And I said to them, I have spoken to the people who say they want us to write a new Constitution and those who say we don’t need a new constitution. I had told him we need to build a consensus.”

Mr. Akinyemi argued that he was merely trying to build bridges between the two groups in a bid to create a consensus when the matter came up for debate on the floor.