By Chuks Ehirim/North
Members of the civil society have differed on the composition of the membership of the ongoing National Conference committees with protest trailing the composition.
It was protests galore last Wednesday when the secretariat of the conference announced a list of 20 committees and their compositions.
Most delegates who opposed the composition of the leadership of the committees, had argued that they were placed where they did not want to belong. Others complained of the dominance of the committee’s leadership by those they referred to as the “old brigade” or politicians who have been on the stage for several years. Majority of the protesting delegates come from the civil society.
Speaking to The Niche, Rafsanjani Auwal Ibrahim, a delegate representing civil society from Kano State, said, “On the issue of committees, the way and manner the leadership of this conference arrived at its decision is not the best.”
He added: “We do not believe that the conference will achieve the objective for which it was set up if the committees’ composition and leadership is allowed to stand the way it is now. The way these same old politicians who have refused to quit the stage for decades, have hijacked the major committees, I don’t think anything tangible will come out of it.”
He complained that the politicians were put at the head of the relevant committees which are being looked at to provide solutions to the problems ravaging both the polity and the country. “We think there should be diversity in the composition. We believe that the civil society should be made to head some of these relevant committees,” he said.
His major grouse stems from the fact that the delegates were earlier asked to select three committees in which they would want to serve. When the list eventually came out, their views were not respected.
Rafsanjani has an ally in Dan Nwanyanwu, the National Chairman of Labour Party who told The Niche in a telephone chat last Friday that the conduct of the conference secretariat lacked transparency. He said many delegates were not happy that they lumped where they may not put their professional expertise to maximum use.
“A lot of us complained about their placements in committees they did not wish to serve in. There are professionals expected in certain committees where they could be more relevant but this was not to be,” he said.
He also added that “there is lack of transparency on the part of the Chairman of the Conference.”
But another civil society delegate, Ibuchukwu Ezike, disagreed with his colleagues. Ezike who is the Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), said there is nothing wrong with the way the committees were composed. “The fact that somebody is not a member of a particular committee does not mean he or she cannot contribute to such committee. We can always send in our views to any committee we don’t belong in,” he said.
Civil society delegates have, however, protested formally.
Femi Falana (SAN), Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) and 22 other civil society delegates wrote a letter of protest against the moves by the conference secretariat.
Apart from Falana and Agbakoba, others who signed the protest letter included Hauwa Shekerau, Festus Okoye , Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Jaye Gasikiya, Steve Aluko and Ezinwa Nwangwu. Others include Dudu Manuga, Nasser Kura, Awal Musa Rsfajani, YZ Yau, Joe Okei-Odumakin, Wale Okunniyi, Bisi Olateru Olagbegi, Isaac Osuoka, Kyauta Giwa, Shetu Alfa, Abubakar Sadiq Ibrahim , Femi Obayori, Mahmud Abdul Aminu, Nimmo Bassey, Ibuchukwu Ezeike and Olabisi Aina.
The argued “that the leadership of the conference erred by not getting back to the delegates in relation to their preferred committees’ choices before placing (and in some cases lumping) them into committees they had not indicate any interest in.”
They have therefore demanded that the list be completely reviewed in line with the national outlook of the conference. “We wish to place on record that this conference is a National Conference of Nigeria people from all walks of life, and that it is neither a conference of ethnic nationalities nor a conference of regions or states.”