Politics
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Plagued by many problems and avoidable distractions, the ongoing national conference seems to be running a race against time
| By Vincent Nzemeke | Jun. 16, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
LIKE a dying man vulnerable to many ailments, the ongoing national conference in Abuja is plagued by myriads of problems. Already the conference has lost about three participants through death, wasted three weeks to debate on irrelevances, had to request and get a four-week extension and is currently battling to reach a consensus on some controversial issues.
Other than the heated debates, the conference is also distracted by the furore generated by allegations of unpaid allowances and the request by drivers and aides of some of the delegates to be paid allowances. On Monday June 2, 2014, when the conference reconvened after a three days breaĸ, issues of unpaid allowances and demands by drivers and aides of some the delegates overshadowed other important discussions on such controversial issues as the removal of fuel subsidy and the Land Use Act.
The conference had adjourned on Tuesday May 27, to commiserate with Idris Kutigi, its chairman, over the demise of his wife, Mariam, and also to celebrate the 2014 Democracy Day. On resumption on Monday, it was expected that conference would immediately resume debate on the controversial issues of fuel subsidy, scrapping of government sponsored pilgrimage and Land Use Act which dominated discussions before the adjournment.
But discussions did not begin until the conference addressed the issue of unpaid allowance and the demand by aides and drivers who, according to the Mohammed Abubaĸar, the inspector general of police, were planning to stage a protest in Abuja.
In his letter addressed to the leadership of the conference, Abubakar asked the delegates to address the plan by their aides and drivers to stage a protest over unpaid allowance. Abubakar said the aides and drivers had written to him seeking permission to stage a protest against non- payment of allowances to them.
Bolaji Akinyemi, deputy chairman of the conference, who read the IGP’s letter, said a letter from the drivers and aides was sent back to the conference secretariat by the police boss for action. He advised delegates to call their aides and drivers to order so that they would not disrupt the conference.
The drivers and aides, who had complained against non-provision of salaries and allowances for them by the conference, had, on many occasions, threatened to protest. The conference had made it clear that the personal aides and drivers of the delegates were not to be paid by it. It said each delegate must take care of his or her aide and driver.
In spite of this, the aides and drivers embarked on continuous agitation for them to be paid by the conference, with many of them saying that their principals were not paying them.
While advising the drivers and the aides against the planned protest, Akinyemi confirmed rumours of unpaid allowances when he disclosed that the principal officers and delegates at the conference had not been paid their allowances for almost five weeks. He added that the welfare of aides and drivers of the delegates were not captured by government while drawing up the budget for the conference.
He told the delegates: “Don’t give us the impression you can’t control them. If you cannot, security will control them. That I can assure you.” When the delegates finally got down to the business of the day, a heated debate about the controversial fuel subsidy turned them against each other.
The conference also failed to reach a consensus on outstanding issues of expunging the Land Use Act from the 1999 Constitution and the scrapping of the Pilgrims Welfare Boards. On fuel subsidy, the committee on public finance and revenue, led by Senator Adamu Aliero, had recommended among others things, its total removal.
And as it has always been whenever the issue comes up, a heated debate ensued with some delegates speaking in support while others were against it. Whereas some of the delegates blamed the problem of fuel subsidy on corrupt officials in the oil and gas sector, others heaped the blame on the lack of monitoring by the security agencies on the implementation of the subsidy regime.
One of the delegates, Etuk Duke, expressed support for the removal of oil subsidy, saying nobody in Cross River would protest against its removal since they have never bought fuel at the subsidised rate. “If you are removing subsidy, let us also remove the monopoly from the importation of kerosene and liberalise it for all to participate,” he said.
Alfred Diette-Spiff, a delegate and former military governor of Rivers State, spoke in support of subsidy removal saying the corruption in subsidy regime was growing bigger by the day. He charged former top government functionaries who are delegates at the conference to use the opportunity they have now to correct the ills of the past by voting for the removal of fuel subsidy.
He was supported by Peter Okon, who said the subsidy regime has not satisfied the interest and well-being of majority of Nigerians. He said the country must stop living in self-denials and stop fuelling scams by continuing the subsidy regimes.
Their views were, however, opposed by delegates, who posited that when compared with other oil producing countries, Nigerians pay outrageous prices on fuel, adding that the issue of proposal for subsidy removal should be dropped from the report of the conference.
Mike Ozoekhome, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, and renowned constitutional rights lawyer, opposed subsidy removal on petroleum products. He argued that it was wrong “to be talking about removing subsidy on a product you produce”. He said there was nothing called subsidy on fuel. “You do not subsidise a product you have, neither does one subsidise himself,” he said.
In his contribution, Atedo Peterside, a delegate from Rivers State, suggested that rather than total subsidy removal, Nigeria could alter the way it applied the fuel subsidy by identifying every Nigerian and then applying the subsidy in such a manner that the actual targets of the subsidy would be reached.
Peterside said what is happening now is that the government is subsidising mainly the rich and the multinational companies with several fleets of cars to the detriment of the poor and the needy.
On the unresolved issue of Land Use Act, the leadership of the conference informed the delegates of a new proposal on the issue. The proposal stated that the Act would remain in the constitution in the concurrent list to be domesticated by states which want it while states, which did not want it, can leave.
On the banning of government sponsored pilgrimage, the conference leadership announced that no agreement had been reached on the matter. At the end of the day, none of the issues discussed was resolved as they were all deferred to another day.
With less than one month to go, some Nigerians are of the view that the conference will not be able to discuss all the issues it was meant to address.
Omobolaji Aĸingbe, an Abuja based public affairs analyst, in a recent contribution to a radio programme said, the conference may not achieve its objective because of the composition of the delegates. He said: “We noted this right from when the list was made public. How can you gather the same people who brought our country to this sorry state to talk about solutions?
“You can tell from their body language that at the end of this conference, nothing will change. We will still have the same problems we have always had because these people are not willing to make any sacrifice.”
As the conference draws to a close, it remains to be seen how the multitudes of problems facing it will be solved.
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