•Says conference best decision by President
National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, has said that the opposition to the proposed National Conference by the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was borne out of his selfish interests and his determination to ensure that the Igbos continue to suffer marginalisation in Nigeria.
He stated that APGA and Ndigbo are fully in support of the proposed conference. But he however pointed out that the report of the conference should not be sent to the National
Assembly as proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan, but should rather be put through a referendum or plebiscite with the aim of creating a new Constitution for the country.In an interview with Sunday Independent, Umeh stated: “The National conference is one thing that the President has done that has enjoyed 100 per cent support from APGA. The issue of National Conference is not something anybody can put away anymore, the country is over burdened with different challenges, most of them orchestrated because of disagreements in power sharing, many parts of this country are aggrieved with the manner things are being done in the country, and there is no way you can continue to hold a country together without coming to discuss in a round table.
“There is the need to come together to discuss how to resolve these problems and address the grievances of all the federating units in this country, you cannot carry on like that indefinitely with such a problem and hope to succeed, In fact, the President yielded to National Conference somehow late, as all these things we are witnessing in this country, like theBoko Haram and all other security challenges are enough for any sane society to come to the dialogue table so that we can put back the ship of state on a steady course,” he added.
On comments by Tinubu condemning the conference, Umeh stated: “Many people today are working hard to pull down the Nigerian nation and that is why I got so confused when I read Alhaji Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the leader of the APC, condemning National Conference. It means that he does not want Nigerian to succeed as a nation; a leader of his status should be angling for National Conference. He cannot now say that as the leader of the APC that every part of Nigeria is satisfied with what is happening in Nigeria. We theIgbos are not satisfied with the structural arrangement in Nigeria.
“We have been talking about it, that the structural arrangement in Nigeria is skewed against the Igbos in this country; we have five states and 95 local governments. Despite our huge population and size, the military that ruled Nigeria for 33 years before the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999 balkanized Nigeria into states and local governments to the disadvantage of the Igbos of this country and the states and local governments were enshrined in the constitution.
“In the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria it was written there shall be 774 local governments in the Federation of Nigeria and it proceeded in an annexure to list the said local governments areas, it said that there shall 36 states of the Federation and proceeded to list the 36 states in the Constitution, and went down to Section 8 of the Constitution to make it impossible for additional states and local governments to be created in this country, no group of persons in this country have suffered this level of marginalisation particularly as revenue is shared in the basis of local governments and states. Recruitment into the armed forces, civil service and everything is done on the basis of states and local government even in political activities, delegates to national conventions are raised based on states and local government.
“And Tinubu is saying that there should no National Conference so that theIgbos will continue to suffer in Nigeria, we say no to it and I as the National Chairman of APGA is calling on Tinubu to apologise to Nigerians because what he has been trying to push himself to the Nigerian public to believe is that he is a progressive and anybody is impervious to any idea to resolve disagreements in any nation is not worthy of leadership. Is he telling us to continue with the level of insecurity in Nigeria until APC takes over the Presidency of Nigeria? Then that time Boko Haram will stop, are they the sponsors of Boko Haram?”
Source: Daily Independent
National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, has said that the opposition to the proposed National Conference by the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was borne out of his selfish interests and his determination to ensure that the Igbos continue to suffer marginalisation in Nigeria.
He stated that APGA and Ndigbo are fully in support of the proposed conference. But he however pointed out that the report of the conference should not be sent to the National
Assembly as proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan, but should rather be put through a referendum or plebiscite with the aim of creating a new Constitution for the country.In an interview with Sunday Independent, Umeh stated: “The National conference is one thing that the President has done that has enjoyed 100 per cent support from APGA. The issue of National Conference is not something anybody can put away anymore, the country is over burdened with different challenges, most of them orchestrated because of disagreements in power sharing, many parts of this country are aggrieved with the manner things are being done in the country, and there is no way you can continue to hold a country together without coming to discuss in a round table.
“There is the need to come together to discuss how to resolve these problems and address the grievances of all the federating units in this country, you cannot carry on like that indefinitely with such a problem and hope to succeed, In fact, the President yielded to National Conference somehow late, as all these things we are witnessing in this country, like theBoko Haram and all other security challenges are enough for any sane society to come to the dialogue table so that we can put back the ship of state on a steady course,” he added.
On comments by Tinubu condemning the conference, Umeh stated: “Many people today are working hard to pull down the Nigerian nation and that is why I got so confused when I read Alhaji Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the leader of the APC, condemning National Conference. It means that he does not want Nigerian to succeed as a nation; a leader of his status should be angling for National Conference. He cannot now say that as the leader of the APC that every part of Nigeria is satisfied with what is happening in Nigeria. We theIgbos are not satisfied with the structural arrangement in Nigeria.
“We have been talking about it, that the structural arrangement in Nigeria is skewed against the Igbos in this country; we have five states and 95 local governments. Despite our huge population and size, the military that ruled Nigeria for 33 years before the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999 balkanized Nigeria into states and local governments to the disadvantage of the Igbos of this country and the states and local governments were enshrined in the constitution.
“In the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria it was written there shall be 774 local governments in the Federation of Nigeria and it proceeded in an annexure to list the said local governments areas, it said that there shall 36 states of the Federation and proceeded to list the 36 states in the Constitution, and went down to Section 8 of the Constitution to make it impossible for additional states and local governments to be created in this country, no group of persons in this country have suffered this level of marginalisation particularly as revenue is shared in the basis of local governments and states. Recruitment into the armed forces, civil service and everything is done on the basis of states and local government even in political activities, delegates to national conventions are raised based on states and local government.
“And Tinubu is saying that there should no National Conference so that theIgbos will continue to suffer in Nigeria, we say no to it and I as the National Chairman of APGA is calling on Tinubu to apologise to Nigerians because what he has been trying to push himself to the Nigerian public to believe is that he is a progressive and anybody is impervious to any idea to resolve disagreements in any nation is not worthy of leadership. Is he telling us to continue with the level of insecurity in Nigeria until APC takes over the Presidency of Nigeria? Then that time Boko Haram will stop, are they the sponsors of Boko Haram?”
Source: Daily Independent
