Posted by Musikilu Mojeed, Gbade Ogunwale and Festus Owete on
The leadership of the National Political Reform Conference and the leaders of the zonal and state delegations on Monday identified nine contentious issues that needed to be resolved amicably.
The leadership of the National Political Reform Conference and the leaders of the zonal and state delegations on Monday identified nine contentious issues that needed to be resolved amicably.
The issues identified at a meeting between the conference Chairman, Justice Niki Tobi, the conference officers and the leaders of delegations included resource control, rotational presidency, ban on former military leaders from future elections, structure of the federation, electronic voting system, derivation and regionalism, states creation and immunity for public office holders.
At the end of a one-hour meeting, behind closed-doors, at the Business Committee room of the conference, the leadership of the conference and the leaders of delegations, were reported to have resolved that there was the need to ensure consensus on the issues rather than subject them to voting.
The meeting, according to sources, deliberated extensively on ways of breaking the logjam on the issues that have deeply polarised the conference.
It also resolved that there was the need for an aggressive campaign to convince delegates to relax their hard line positions on the issues and imbibe the spirit of compromise and consensus building.
There has been apprehension among delegates that the contentious issues, if not well handled, could lead to walkouts and possibly cause a break up of the conference.
The leadership too has been worried as to what modalities to adopt in achieving consensus on the issues.
The debates at the second plenary session, which resumed on May 23, have shown that delegates are still sharply divided over these issues with a rigid North/South divide.
At Monday's meeting, however, Tobi was said to have listed seven issues, which he said the leadership had identified as contentious.
The issues he listed were resource control, rotational presidency, ban on former military leaders from future elections, structure of the federation, electronic voting system, derivation and regionalism.
He was said to have explained that the principal officers have closely watched debates on the floor of the conference and noted that almost all delegates seemed to have disagreed on these.
All other issues, according to him, were not as contentious as the ones identified.
But some of the delegation leaders were said to have disagreed with Tobi, saying that if the contentious issues were restricted to seven, it would amount to sweeping some matters under the carpet.
Though some leaders were said to have argued that all issues that divided the delegates on the floor of the conference should be considered as contentious, it was resolved at the end of deliberation that the issues that really qualified to be so called were nine in number.
Consequently, the issues of state creation and removal of immunity from public office holders were added to the list.
After identifying the knotty issues, Tobi was said to have reminded the delegates of the provision contained in Order 10 of the conference's rule of procedure, which states, 'All decisions of the conference, at plenary and committee stages, shall be reached by consensus.
'In the absence of that, the Chairman shall, at his discretion, adjourn proceedings to allow for further consultations.
'In the case of failure to reach a resolution on the matter by consensus, it shall be decided by vote."
The Chairman was, however, said to have expressed optimism that all the issues could be resolved by consensus, adding that deciding any one by vote might cause bitterness and defeat the essence of the conference.
He therefore appealed to the delegation leaders to work assiduously to persuade their members to embrace compromise in the interest of the nation.
The leaders were said to have promised that they were going to take the message of consensus building to their members and do all that was possible to ensure that all the issues were resolved without rancour.
The meeting, according to sources, will reconvene on Wednesday when the leaders are expected to give progress report.
The Punch, Tuesday June 7, 2005