By Nse Anthony-Uko
ABUJA, (Sundiata Post) — Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has revealed why he did not implement the 2014 Confab Report, which he said holds the answers to most of what Nigerians are agitating for today.
Jonathan, in his goodwill message during the Integration Summit Annual Roundtable in Abuja on Saturday, revealed that given the time the report was submitted, ((August 2014) the recommendations could not have been implemented before the 2015 elections, without running into ethical questions.
This is the first time that the former president was commenting on that on the 2014 National Conference report.
The former president who was represented by his media adviser, Mr Ikechukwu Eze, noted that it would have taken up to one year to complete the processes of implementing the recommendations.
“I received the report of the National Conference on Thursday
August 21, 2014, after the closing ceremony to mark the end of the
five-month long deliberations. I was satisfied with the outcome. It
has remained the best national conference so far because of the depth of the deliberations and the fact that all the decisions reached were not based on majority votes, but by consensus.”
“I am aware that some people have raised some issues with the
fact that I did not implement the recommendations of the confab during my tenure. I would like to state that those making this kind of claim are not being fair to me.
“Such people tend to forget that the report was submitted in August 2014, few months before the last general elections. It was at a time that the National Assembly was on break with many of the members already retreating to their different constituencies to prepare their constituents for elections.
“I believe that to have a tidy procedure of implementation, it
would have involved committee deliberations, public hearings and town hall consultations on different segments of the report. There is no doubt that the nation then needed up to one year to complete the processes of implementing the recommendations.
“It was obvious that my administration, given the time the report
was submitted, couldn’t have implemented the report, before the 2015 elections, without running into ethical questions, ” Jonathan said.
Jonathan, while urging the present administration to implement to recommendations of the 2014 Confab, said Nigeria was still having agitations, because “we are still trying to discover the best way to run our Republic, so that whatever policies we pursue or projects we implement as a nation, will benefit the greatest number of our population.”
“I believe the recommendations of the confab contain the answers
to most of what we agitate for today. If implemented, they would go a long way in solving most of Nigeria’s identified structural problems, and providing the roadmap for sustainable development.
“I am aware that there are many suggestions and solutions been
debated. We have different people supporting and giving different
definitions to such ideals as true federalism, confederation,
restructuring and regionalism. But we have not been able to achieve much because our conversations seem to be floating in the air. We are yet to establish common grounds and shared values.”
“We should not forget that ours is a nation with a striking ethnic
and religious mix.This diversity should otherwise be our strength.
However, it appears to be holding us down because of our failure to consolidate a strategic roadmap for harnessing the advantages that should lift our nation.
“My belief is that we need to redefine our dialogue and move
quickly from over-theorisation to something tangible. My own way of solving the problem was the 2014 National Conference which I convened.
It was a conclusion I reached in my mind about the best way to
productively leverage the diverse tendencies of our different ethnic
groups, to allow the centre to firmly hold for the good of our nation,” the ex president said
