Kudos, Knocks as National Conference begins Monday

  This is coming about five-and-half months after he approved the membership and terms of reference of an Advisory Committee on National Dialogue headed by Dr. Femi Okurounmu. MONDAY, what may go down in history as one of the landmark achievements of the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Administration, the National Conference, will be inaugurated by the President himself. That the inauguration is taking place can be interpreted to mean that, despite protests, some of them quite loud, the Federal Government intends to push the National Conference through, hoping fervently that in the end, it would turn out to have been in the best interest of Nigeria.

So far, there have been knocks as well as kudos for the government.

  The kudos come from those who commend the wide-spectrum the delegates have been drawn from: professional groups, retirees, women, ethnic nationalities, states, religious groups and others.

  That the conference will not be tied to the purse-strings of the government has also been commended.

  But there have also been knocks that it is going to be a N7 billion jamboree which the nation can hardly afford.

  There have been complaints too that most of the delegates are pro-establishment personalities who have benefitted so much from the way things are that they may not want to ‘rock the boat’.

  But, perhaps the most scathing criticism has come from the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Rise Networks, Toyosi Akerele who laments that the national conference does not have enough slots for Nigeria’s youths.

   In The Guardian’s Youth Speak page today, she wrote: “A National Conference is about to happen in my country. We have less than 10 per cent participation of people below the age range of 30-40. Many others are above 50, and please stretch it to 70 and 80. I do not detest these people. In fact, I am inherently a traditional Yoruba woman and so, respect and reverence for my elders are not obligatory, they are mandatory.”

Noting the youthful ages at which some of the nation’s great leaders took charge such as “Awolowo (37), Akintola (36), Ahmadu Bello (36), Balewa (34), Okotie-Eboh (27), Enahoro (27), Kaduna Nzeogwu (29), Murtala Muhammed (28), Theophilus Danjuma (28), Babangida (25), Nanven Joe Garba (23), Sani Abacha (23) and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (23), she must be speaking the minds of millions of the nation’s young people who do not feel that the deliberations the 492 delegates would be engaging in may have any relevance to their lives.

  “I see that the youths are inadequately represented at this forthcoming national conference. How do you exclude a people from a discourse that will involve issues that affect their future? Why should we have septuagenarians and octogenarians in their multitude and almightiness representing our interests when several of them are disconnected from the daily challenges that affect us? Is Nigeria merely about politics? What happened to entrepreneurship and dignity in labour? I am not opposed to their nominations but a fair balance and mix of the young and old would have made a phenomenon. What one of my finest teachers, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has coined “Generational Integration” has come alive, brilliantly. It would have engendered a cross-fertilisation of ideas and cross-examination.”
Source: The Guardian