ABUJA – The President, Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), Dr Nelson Uwaga, said on Sunday that the Federal Government’s initiative in creating the ongoing National Conference was to provide the best platform to deliberate and provide solutions to national issues.
Uwaga, a conference delegate, said at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja that when the government declared its intention to set up the platform many Nigerians wrongly believed that it would breed chaos.
He, however, said the reverse had been the case adding that the combination of different calibres of people had helped to make the conference a success this far.
“I think that it is one of the best things that have happened to us in recent times and it is fairly different from the other conferences of its nature that took place in 2005, 1995 and so on and so forth.
“The difference this time around is that the Government did not gather ethnic nationalities only; but they (officials) were wise to bring on board professionals, like us, then the civil societies and women.
“And you know that wherever women are, they are there under the label of council of women societies and market women.
“And they may just be 91 amongst us but they have made sure, just like they do in their homes, that everything is going on well. So they have managed to keep us on track,’’ he said.
Uwaga recalled that initially, there were a lot of scepticism towards the success of the conference but that based on the level of the intelligent conversations going on Nigerians would achieve enormous results.
“We are moving to the position of give and take going by our thoughts that presently the 1999 Constitution, as amended, has no position for plebiscite unless there is an amendment before we finish this.
“So we are looking at the position of redoing the constitution, based on what we are doing, and then ask the president to send an executive bill to the National Assembly.
“And the government might as well listen because the civil societies are there and they are in a battle mood.
“And the battle is to make Nigeria a better place. And I believe it will help very much in improving governance in Nigeria after this time,’’ he said.
The NIM president said that the institute was committed to ensuring that competent and reliable managers were produced in future to stop the current waste of the nation’s resources.
“It may be a gradual process but we believe that with time, NIM will help build good leaders that will bring positive change to the society.
“So we are optimistic that after going through the trauma we are going through in this country we will come up with a society where people are decent and appreciate the right things,’’ he said. (NAN)
