GEJ is using the National Conference has another Distraction - PDM

The Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) has said that the National Dialogue committee set up by President Goodluck Jonathan is another distraction.

According to the party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government will use the Conference to confuse Nigerians and win the 2015 General election.

In a chat with newsmen in Bauchi yesterday, the National chairman of the party, Bashir Hassan said, “The decision of President GoodLuck Jonathan to convey a national dialogue is a distraction. The reason it is a distraction is because last year, this same president had said that there was no reason why we should sub-convene the constitutional process of making laws and create another one.”

Hassan, who spoke shortly after the Zonal North East stakeholders meeting, recalled that President Jonathan had said whoever has any grouse on any matter affecting the country should go to the National Assembly because he does not believe in any National Conference.

“Now, he has contradicted himself and this same Goodluck Jonathan has suddenly sprung up the idea of a national dialogue. He wants a National Conference now that his party is disintergrating under him and he is foreseeing the chance of losing the 2015 elections.”

Hassan insisted that idea of a national dialogue should be initiated by political parties and not by an individual. http://dailypost.com.ng/2013/10/06/national-conference-is-a-distraction-pdm/

He also opposed the call for use of electronic voting system in the country, saying without that, it is more difficult to manipulate and rig.”

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He later addressed the press as he spoke through the roof of the vehicle taking a swipe at President Goodluck Jonathan-led government over the recent move to convene a national conference and the air disaster that affected the corpse of former Governor Olusegun Agagu, in which 13 people died. He also spoke on his newly registered party, the APC.

Tinubu described the move by President Jonathan to hold a national conference right now in the country as unnecessary, a contradiction and a distraction, as well as a demonstration of lack of honesty and integrity on the part of the government.

The APC national leader, while querying the timing of the dialogue, asked: “When? How long have we been talking of it? It is only a very smart rodent in a house full of little crumbles of poison that will survive.”

The former governor, who further wondered why the focus on national dialogue should come around now, maintained that some salient issues had been jettisoned and should be addressed as a matter of priority.

“But Nigeria is very divisive right now, so why is this necessary? Where is the sovereignty? What about the Electoral Act, what about the Lemu Committee? Have you heard of a White Paper or green paper or pink paper come out of that for Nigerians? Why? How many months to the elections? How many months to the election?

Can’t you smell a good look porridge; can’t you smell a pit latrine and the odour of deception when it is passing by?” he queried.  Tinubu

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President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday said he was hitherto sceptical of holding a national conference because the nomenclature being ascribed to it was capable of undermining existing democratic structures.

But Jonathan said he changed his mind because the need to seek for solutions to the nation's problems created urgency for such conference, which he said would strengthen national unity.

The president spoke while inaugurating the 13-member National Dialogue Advisory Committee at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

His mention of nomenclature as the reason for his previous scepticism on holding a national conference apparently refers to the insistence by advocates for such conference to be 'sovereign'.

"There is a view by some of our people that we do not need to sit together to dialogue over the socio-political challenges facing our country," he said.

"Some believe that because we haveheld several conferences in the past, we do not need to hold another one. I was one of those who exhibited scepticism on the need for another conference or dialogue.

"My scepticism was borne out of the nomenclature of such a conference, taking into cognisance, existing democratic structures that were products of the will of the people."

But he said as challenges emerge, leaders must respond with best available strategies to ensure that the ship of state remained undeterred.

"We cannot proffer yesterday's solutions to today's problems. Clearly, every dialogue adds something valuable to our evolving nation. The urgency of a national conversation in the present, therefore, need not be over emphasised," Jonathan said.

He said the concept of participatory democracy is such that even after the people have given their representatives the mandate to make laws, there is also a space for the governed to make further input into the political processes without undermining the authority of statutory bodies.

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