Northern Elders Threaten To Boycott National Conference

The  Northern Elders’ Forum  (NEF) has threatened to boycott the National Conference as proposed by the President Goodluck Jonathan.

Prof. Ango Abdullahi

 
The Federal Government released the modalities of the national confab on January 30.
It will be held before the 2015 general elections. 492 delegates will participate in the even that will last three months.

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Spokesperson of the forum Professor Ango Abdullahi told reporters in Bauchi that the National Conference was merely designed to protect the President’s personal interests.

According to Abdullahi, previous national conferences did not make any impact on Nigerians and this one will not be different.
The NEF spokesperson said that if a national conference was to be conducted, it should be sovereign and the executive and legislative arms of government should be dissolved leaving only the judiciary.

Abdullahi said that the event was badly timed because the 2015 general elections are approaching. He added that the conference would be a "waste of public funds."

Besides, he said, the process of choice of the delegates is "all wrong."

"We heard that when the delegates are nominated by their states, it is Jonathan who is going to approve. So, you can see that this is not a Nigerian conference but Jonathan’s conference," the spokesperson stated.

He disclosed that the North was going to boycott the conference and would continue advocating the need for power rotation as the only way to stabilise to polity.