…We’re not engaging yet- Ohanaeze

The Afenifere and Arewa Consultative Forum are flexing muscles over the 2014 confab report which the former accused the latter of not willing to implement because the status quo favours it. EZUGWU OBINNA reports

The apex Igbo sociology-political group Ohaneze Ndigbo has stated that it would not yet partake in the ongoing controversy surrounding the implementation of the 2014 National Conference Report which had in recent weeks pitted the Northern socio-political group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) against their South West counterpart, Afenifere.

The controversy, it would be recalled started when a chieftain of the Afenifere group, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, who had on several occasions called on President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to implement the recommendations of the conference, noted in an interview with a national daily that he was convinced that Northerners were against the implementation of the conference since the current arrangement in the country works in their favour.

“My own view and the view of Afenifere is that a Northerner will not be so disposed to changing the constitution because they are the beneficiaries of what we are complaining about. Let them disprove that,” Adebajo was quoted to have said.

He further added that it would be out of place for anyone to disregard the resolutions of the conference which according to him, was drafted by over 500 notable Nigerians.

“About 500 distinguished Nigerians recommended a new constitution unanimously and nobody has come out to say what we did there was wrong.”

Adebanjo’s assertions had however, drawn the ire of the ACF which delivered a scathing condemnation of the Afenifere chieftain’s position.

The ACF, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Muhamma Ibrahim alleged that the North was not adequately represented in the conference and accused the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan-led administration of constituting the conference in a way that favoured the South as against the North. The statement went on to claim that the North constitutes 80 percent of the country’s population.

“The selection process of delegates by President Jonathan’s government to the confab made the North, that has a population of 75,268,686 people (NPC 2006) with a land mass of 730,885 square km (80%) as a minority with 189 delegates, while the South with a population of 65,151,458 people (NPC 2006) with a land mass of 193,438 square km (20%) as a majority with 303 delegates,” ACF said in the statement.

“Despite this glaring injustice and disadvantage, the North, as a region did not only participate in the overall national interest of Nigeria, but also stabilized the conference on crucial issues of national unity.

“The 2014 Confab was therefore not a platform for constitution making and did not unanimously recommend a new constitution for Nigeria as claimed by Chief Adebanjo.”

The ACF further insisted that the 2014 confab did not meet the requirements for the making of a constitution. “The learned Chief knows better the process of constitution making and certainly the delegates to the 2014 Confab did not qualify for such process, as they were not elected as representatives of the people but selected or nominated by government and interest groups.”

”The delegates therefore did not have the legitimate mandate of the people to draft or recommend a new constitution for Nigeria and did not even do so.”

The above position of the ACF was not nonetheless, the last of the disagreement as Afenifere expectedly rose in defence of Adebanjo.

Over the weekend, the General Secretary of Afenifere, Chief Sehinde Arogbofa, dismissed the ACF position that the Conference was against Northern interests.

Chief Arogbofa insisted that contrary to ACF claims, the North was adequately represented at the conference considering that there were many prominent leaders from the region who took part in the conference and were part of the entire process.

“This Arewa people you are talking about, I don’t know about them but leaders from the North were present, and in all the decisions we took at the confab and all the decisions were taken by consensus and they were there unless maybe Arewa is now telling us that highly placed Nigerians like Alhaji Coomassie, Tanko Yakasai, some of their former governors too, are not from the North; but they know that they are good northern people,” Arogbofa said.

“So, to say something different now is just the usual way in this country; once they have a new government, people start destroying and backing out from their initial decisions which is not good.

We took over 600 decisions on issues affecting this country and there was no single day we voted that we did not all agree. Do they want to tell me that somebody like, the Lamido of Adamawa, the Emir of Ilorin were not Northerners?” He queried.

The Afenifere leader went on to attribute the ACF claims to the Nigerian mentality of destroying past governments, noting that the implementation of the report was good for the country’s development.

“I think it is Nigerian psyche that once a government is out of office, we start destroying that government; we can’t move forward with this. I am not saying that all the decisions we took would be implemented but most of the decisions are good for us and the government should look at them and accept that they are good.”

While the controversy is raging however, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has insisted it was not engaging in it yet. The Secretary General of the apex Igbo group, Chief Joe Nworgu, who spoke with Hallmark on telephone yesterday insisted that while Ohanaeze already has a position on the conference, it would not delve into the issues yet.  “We are not engaging yet; if you want to report me, report that we are not engaging yet,” Nworgu said.