Melaye To Jonathan: You’re Not Competent To Organise Nat’l Confab

The executive secretary of Anti-Corruption Network, Hon Dino Melaye, has berated President Goodluck Jonathan for setting up a national conference committee, saying that a divisive president like Jonathan is not competent to organise such a conference.

Speaking in Abuja, yesterday, Melaye noted that the national conference committee is one of several committees set up by Jonathan’s administration but whose recommendations were never implemented.

Melaye said he was not in support of the national conference because President Jonathan had no capacity or capability to conduct such a conference. He said, “A man who has further divided Nigeria on the lines of religion, ethnicity and tribalism does not have the capacity to organise a national dialogue; to organise a national conference we need a president with a fatherly posture, we need a Mandela-like president that is seen as a nationalist; that is seen as a father of all, not a president that has reduced himself from the president of the Niger Delta to the president of the Ijaw nation.

“President Jonathan has no capacity to conduct a national conference and I believe that the all hue and cries about the national conference or national confab or whatever name they may be called is deceptive and diversionary. The president is trying to divert attention from the insecurity on the ground, from the economic collapse on the ground, from the ground that the country is indebted as I speak to you.”

While noting that the national conference committee is one of several other committees that Jonathan has inaugurated in the past, he queried why so many committees have been set up in the past with nothing to show for it. “ I want to tell you that not one of the committees have their reports been implemented, we have good wonderful reports from various committees that have been set up, but the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is yet to implement one of the recommendations of the committee. For example, one, the Sheik Lemu Post Election Violence Committee, the white paper has been signed but till this moment it has not been implemented, not a paragraph of that white paper has been implemented; we have the Ribadu Committee that investigated the fuel subsidy scam, the report has not been implemented ; we have the Senate Committee report on Subsidy it has not been implemented; we have the Farouk Lawan Report, it has not been implemented; we have the Oransaye report, it has not been implemented; even the Boko Haram Committee, the preliminary report has not been implemented, so as far as we are concern we see it as an opportunity to create some chop chop for the boys.”

Speaking on the position of Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, that the state will not send delegates to the conference, Melaye said that he expected other Nigerians to boycott the conference.

He said, “Except those who are hungry and want to go and feed on the Abuja carnival, those are the only people that would be interested in going to such a kangaroo conference by a president that has further divided the unity of this country, nobody is interested in such a caricature conference”.

The anti-corruption crusader wondered why Jonathan who was averse to such a conference a few months back has turned around to support it. “The same people has said before that there will be no sovereign national conference ,what happened that he changed his mind? That is the question, because 2015 is approaching, he want to use it as a political bait?”

Melaye who said he was not opposed to a national dialogue, noted however that such a conference must be conducted by a president who is sincere and transparent but not a president that is creating divisions.

Source: Leadershiip