ACF SAYS NO TO SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE

THE
Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has kicked against the call for a Sovereign
National Conference (SNC) to deliberate on issues about the continued existence
of Nigeria, saying  holding such a conferebce would rubbish our democratic
institutions.

Speaking in Kaduna on Wednesday while
receiving the Irish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Patrick Fay to the Secretariat of
the ACF, the National Publicity Secretary of the Forum, Anthony Sani said some
people were talking about Sovereign National Conference but the ACF saw that it
was not necessary because there was already a democracy in place in the
country.

According to him, “they are calling the
different nationalities in the country to come out and discuss our problems,
that would be passing a vote of no confidence on the democratic institutions in
the country and we don’t want to do that. We have said time without number that
the problem of Nigeria is not with structure but the attitude of the people, we
should not deceive ourselves that by convening an SNC with all the ethnic
nationalities will solve our problems.”

“I believe that our visit to other socio
cultural organisations like the Ohaneze, the Yoruba Unity Forum and other
groups from other regions of the country, is also another form of national
dialogue because the move is all aimed at understanding ourselves for peace and
unity of the country. We stand for peace and unity of the country,” he said.

On the clamour of Northern leaders for
amnesty for members of the Boko Haram sect, Sani said it was because they
believed in dialogue based on the fact that force had not helped the situation
in any way.

He therefore called on the envoy to speak
to the people in government with the purpose of bringing peace to the country,
based on their experience with Northern Ireland, adding that they were also
looking at amnesty as a bait to help bring out the members of the sect and
urged the Federal Government to continue with the amnesty and dialogue.