Posted by By PETER ANOSIKE on
Against the backdrop of the decision by President Umaru Yar'Adua that the proposed Niger-Delta Summit must go on, a legal luminary, Barrister Gabriel Ezeogbuefi has called for the replacement of the chairman of the summit Dr Ibrahim Gambari.
‘N'Delta summit'll be marred by absenteeism'
Against the backdrop of the decision by President Umaru Yar'Adua that the proposed Niger-Delta Summit must go on, a legal luminary, Barrister Gabriel Ezeogbuefi has called for the replacement of the chairman of the summit Dr Ibrahim Gambari.
According to him, if Gambari chairs the summit, the desired result would not be achieved.
He said that since the Niger Deltans have rejected him, the summit would be marred by absenteeism.
According to him, before somebody is appointed to head a position, his antecedents and utterances should be put into consideration.
Ezeogbuefi said that because the Niger Delta people have seen Gambari as their enemy based on his utterances in the past, they are not likely to cooperate with his committee, adding that it would affect the purpose of the summit.
'I am advocating that Dr Ibrahim Gambari should be replaced as the chairman of the Niger Delta summit that is if government is interested in seeing peace reign in the region. In 1996,Gambari called those who were agitating for resource control in the region common criminals and because of that unfounded insult; he drew the wrath of the people of the region.
Therefore, coming now to impose him on the people he had called common criminals would not achieve the desired result. Government should not think of somebody who will represent its own interest but somebody who will balance the interest of government, the Niger Deltans and the whole country but Gambari's antecedents have shown him as a biased umpire and for that reason the people in the region are not likely to cooperate with him," he said
The legal luminary said that, even in a village meeting, if the appointment of a chairman causes uproar, the best thing to do is to change him with a more acceptable person otherwise the village would not move forward.
He said that though Gambari had an excellent career at the United Nations that it did not make him the only person in the country that is qualified for the position.
He said that since his appointment has drawn bad blood, he should be changed so that the summit would not be like the others ones that had been set up for the volatile region, which ended up as a waste of time and resources