As the National Conference commences today in Abuja, the nation’s capital, the sum of N4.96 billion out of the total amount of N7 billion set aside for the exercise has been earmarked to settle the feeding, accommodation and local transportation allowances of delegates for the 90 days they are expected to sit.
It was gathered that each of the 492 delegates would be paid a daily allowance of N112, 000 (One hundred and twelve thousand Naira only) in lieu of his or her accommodation and feeding, among others.
Already, the federal government has set aside the sum of N7 billion in the 2014 budget under the heading ‘National Dialogue’, to finance the 3-month talkshop.
Efforts made to authenticate our findings on the daily allowances payable to the delegates were unsuccessful as several calls and text messages made to the Special Assistant on Media to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Sam Nwaobasi, were ignored.
Meanwhile, Convener of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) and a delegate at the National Conference, Pastor Tunde Bakare, yesterday rejected monetary compensation for his participation in the exercise. Bakare, speaking at his Latter Rain Assembly in Lagos, said he accepted his nomination as a stakeholder in the building of a new Nigeria.
“Reports have been in the news that I have been nominated for the conference and I accepted. That is true.
“I’m not accepting any form of monetary compensation; I am on a national assignment. It is my personal choice. When the new Nigeria arises, we will not be spectators, but stakeholders”, Bakare said.
However, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has described as wasteful the decision of the government to budget the sum of N7 billion for the conference.
Speaking on behalf of the coalition, its Executive Chairman, Debo Adeniran said: “The holding of the conference is too expensive than it is supposed to be going by the N7 billion they have budgeted for it. If each delegate would be paid up to N4 million per month, that accentuates the profligacy that is going on in the National Assembly where members who are doing part time job are taking more than full time salary”.
The group further decried that: “It is also unfortunate that the conference budget is even more than what has been budgeted for some ministries, departments and agencies. This means in a situation where some MDAs are groaning under the pains of inadequate funds, we are putting so much into the conference”.
On its part, the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has condemned the participation of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in the confab, describing the parley a ‘charade’.
A press release signed by the National Coordinator of ERC, Hassan Taiwo Soweto, and the Secretary, Michael Ogundele, yesterday said that the National Conference is an expensive sideshow that is not designed to address the country’s challenges like mass unemployment, rotten public education sector, and degenerate public health services”.
According to the group: “We do not expect any positive outcome from the conference as it is not a sovereign conference of the elected representatives of working and oppressed masses of Nigeria. Rather it is a gathering meant to rebuild the damaged reputation of the government by presenting a semblance that Nigerians are talking when indeed what is happening is that a few people have been invited closer to dine with the government and thereby reduce the opposition against this brutally anti-poor government”.
In a related development, the Hausa/Fulani and the Muslim Ummah in Plateau state have alleged that they were completely sidelined in the selection of delegates from the state.
The group, in a statement issued yesterday by its Secretary, Malam Usaini Usman, in Jos, described the action as disenfranchisement of Nigerian citizens.
The statement said: “Having keenly watched the list of delegates from the state, we wish to out-rightly express our reservation and protest over our disenfranchisement from the National Confab.
“It is expected that the confab is meant to discuss issues bothering on the socio political, socio-economic as well as socio-cultural identity of the individual communities or constituencies attending the conference, but we observed that the government has either deliberately or mistakenly disenfranchised our right of representation at the scheduled National Confab”.
Similarly, the Igala ethnic group of Kogi state have called on President Goodluck Jonathan to direct a review of the list of socio-cultural groups’ nominees from Kogi to the National Conference. Amodu Methuselah, who spoke under the aegis of Ojuju-Agbadufu Igala, the apex youth socio-cultural organization in Igala land, made the call at a press conference, yesterday in Lokoja.
Methuselah, who is also the Director of Publicity of the organisation, lamented that the three slots meant for Kogi under ethnic socio-cultural groups were “Inappropriately apportioned” as the Ebira and Okun nationalities had taken them without due consideration for the Igala Nation in the state.
“If there were two slots for Kogi state, we expected naturally that Igala, being the single largest and most populous ethnic nationality, will have a slot by right and Ebira ethnic nationality will take the second slot, also by right.
“Now that beyond our expectations, three slots were conceded to Kogi state, the Igala, Ebira and Okun ethnic nationalities in the state ought to take their slots in that order”, he said.
He however, regretted that the published list of socio-cultural groups from North Central Zone to the National Conference revealed that Dr Philip Salau and Prof. (Mrs) Mariatu Tenuche, both Ebiras, took two slots while Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN) of Okun extraction took the third slot.
Sources: Peoples Daily
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