NORTH, SOUTH SQUARE UP OVER CONFAB REPORT. "Confab report: It’s an invitation to civil war-Junaid,

NORTH, SOUTH SQUARE UP OVER CONFAB REPORT. "Confab report: It’s an invitation to civil war-Junaid, "Odumakin to Northerners: You want to break Nigeria.. Twenty four hours after President Goodluck Jonathan indicated his readiness to implement the report of last year’s National Conference, power brokers in the Northern part of the country have commenced spirited efforts to stop the submission of the report to the National Assembly after the general elections. However, they are billed to meet their match in their Southern counterparts who have vowed to ensure the implementation of the report. It was gathered that the Northern leaders, believing that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Major General Muhammadu Buhari, and his party are not favourably disposed to the conference and the implementation of the report, plan to pressurise the National Assembly should President Jonathan win the presidential contest, to jettison the report. Against the backdrop of this development, Convener of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, has raised the alarm that any attempt to embark on the implementation of the report of the conference was an invitation to another civil war. Mohammed spoke just as former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and one-time Special Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Agriculture, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said the conference lacked legal framework, hence it is fraudulent. As the duo spoke yesterday, the propriety or otherwise of the implementation of the conference report appears to have deepened the conflicting regional interests as Afenifere spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, described those against the implementation of the report as enemies of Nigeria. Besides, the two main political parties do not agree on the conference as while the opposition APC is circumspect as regards the issue, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) has tagged the conference as a major landmark achievement of the Federal Government under its control. Jonathan had on Friday promised to fully implement the recommendations of the national conference, if allowed to go for a second term in office. According to him, if the country must be transformed for good, the report of the national conference must be implemented. Jonathan, who spoke when he paid a courtesy call on the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi in his palace in Oyo, Oyo State, said he did not influence the report of the conference because he believed that what is good for the country is good for him. But reacting to the president’s planned move, Mohammed said it was ‘inconceivable’ that in spite of the legal controversies surrounding the conference, Jonathan was “on the verge of throwing the nation into another period of a likable civil war.” “First and foremost, I don’t claim to speak for the North. On this issue of the confab, I was a delegate from Kano duly nominated by the government of Kano State; but I knew that the whole exercise called confab was illegal and not representative enough of the nation’s ethnic nationalities; that means not all Nigerians were represented at the so-called confab. “Again, if you look at what they call recommendations, they are not what we came out with because the entire report was doctored and only an inexperienced person like President Jonathan will conceive an implementation of such report. “To the best of my knowledge, the so-called recommendations are fraudulent and stage-managed by the presidency for a purpose which Nigerians are yet to know of. “For instance, when the East-Central state was created in May 1967, it had a population far less than that of Kano but subsequent states and local governments creation exercises saw to the multiplication of the East-Central to five state while Kano is just split into two; and now, annoyingly, the Igbos are clamouring for an additional state for which they have not given a good and genuine reason. “The same thing goes for the Mid-West Act of 1964 which has today blossomed into several states; so that means, the old Eastern region now has 11 states; it makes no sense at all. “But perhaps the most dangerous of all the recommendations is the socalled state police. I stand to be corrected that there was no agreement on that. It must be noted at this point that any attempt to implement such will lead to a civil war because the contradictions are many in this regard.” On the possibility of the APC presidential candidate caving in to the demands of South-West for the implementation of the conference report, Mohammed said: “That General Buhari will not support the confab’s report is taken as granted because even before he emerged as presidential candidate, one of the leaders of the APC from the South-West, Senator Bola Tinubu, had bared his mind that the confab was a fraud; what we are looking at is beyond this. “We are already putting in place measures that will stop the president from pushing for the implementation of the report at the level of the National Assembly that will come on board in June and this is going to be pan-Northern Nigeria because we have the advantage of population,” he said. Mohammed appears not to be alone in this regard as Abdullahi described the conference as ‘Jonathan’s administrative committee’. “The confab is a fraud of unimaginable magnitude; it did not reflect the views of Nigerians neither did it have a legal backing; so how does he intend to implement the report? The North will not and I mean it, will never support such move to implement the so-called confab report because the motives are parochial, sectional and misguided,” the spokesman of the Northern Elders’ Forum told New Telegraph. Regardless of the North’s position, Odumakin accused those against theimplementation of the report as enemies of Nigeria who should be held accountable for their roles should the nation disintegrate. “These elements should be held liable if anything happens to the nation called Nigeria because by their utterances, one can see arrogance and intolerance; the only way for the country to move forward is the implementation of the confab report. Only enemies of the country will say otherwise,” Odumakin said. Source: ‪#‎NewTelegraph‬ News. 'AKUKO- #UWA. NORTH, SOUTH SQUARE UP OVER CONFAB REPORT. "Confab report: It’s an invitation to civil war-Junaid, "Odumakin to Northerners: You want to break Nigeria.. Twenty four hours after President Goodluck Jonathan indicated his readiness to implement the report of last year’s National Conference, power brokers in the Northern part of the country have commenced spirited efforts to stop the submission of the report to the National Assembly after the general elections. However, they are billed to meet their match in their Southern counterparts who have vowed to ensure the implementation of the report. It was gathered that the Northern leaders, believing that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Major General Muhammadu Buhari, and his party are not favourably disposed to the conference and the implementation of the report, plan to pressurise the National Assembly should President Jonathan win the presidential contest, to jettison the report. Against the backdrop of this development, Convener of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, has raised the alarm that any attempt to embark on the implementation of the report of the conference was an invitation to another civil war. Mohammed spoke just as former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and one-time Special Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Agriculture, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said the conference lacked legal framework, hence it is fraudulent. As the duo spoke yesterday, the propriety or otherwise of the implementation of the conference report appears to have deepened the conflicting regional interests as Afenifere spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, described those against the implementation of the report as enemies of Nigeria. Besides, the two main political parties do not agree on the conference as while the opposition APC is circumspect as regards the issue, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) has tagged the conference as a major landmark achievement of the Federal Government under its control. Jonathan had on Friday promised to fully implement the recommendations of the national conference, if allowed to go for a second term in office. According to him, if the country must be transformed for good, the report of the national conference must be implemented. Jonathan, who spoke when he paid a courtesy call on the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi in his palace in Oyo, Oyo State, said he did not influence the report of the conference because he believed that what is good for the country is good for him. But reacting to the president’s planned move, Mohammed said it was ‘inconceivable’ that in spite of the legal controversies surrounding the conference, Jonathan was “on the verge of throwing the nation into another period of a likable civil war.” “First and foremost, I don’t claim to speak for the North. On this issue of the confab, I was a delegate from Kano duly nominated by the government of Kano State; but I knew that the whole exercise called confab was illegal and not representative enough of the nation’s ethnic nationalities; that means not all Nigerians were represented at the so-called confab. “Again, if you look at what they call recommendations, they are not what we came out with because the entire report was doctored and only an inexperienced person like President Jonathan will conceive an implementation of such report. “To the best of my knowledge, the so-called recommendations are fraudulent and stage-managed by the presidency for a purpose which Nigerians are yet to know of. “For instance, when the East-Central state was created in May 1967, it had a population far less than that of Kano but subsequent states and local governments creation exercises saw to the multiplication of the East-Central to five state while Kano is just split into two; and now, annoyingly, the Igbos are clamouring for an additional state for which they have not given a good and genuine reason. “The same thing goes for the Mid-West Act of 1964 which has today blossomed into several states; so that means, the old Eastern region now has 11 states; it makes no sense at all. “But perhaps the most dangerous of all the recommendations is the socalled state police. I stand to be corrected that there was no agreement on that. It must be noted at this point that any attempt to implement such will lead to a civil war because the contradictions are many in this regard.” On the possibility of the APC presidential candidate caving in to the demands of South-West for the implementation of the conference report, Mohammed said: “That General Buhari will not support the confab’s report is taken as granted because even before he emerged as presidential candidate, one of the leaders of the APC from the South-West, Senator Bola Tinubu, had bared his mind that the confab was a fraud; what we are looking at is beyond this. “We are already putting in place measures that will stop the president from pushing for the implementation of the report at the level of the National Assembly that will come on board in June and this is going to be pan-Northern Nigeria because we have the advantage of population,” he said. Mohammed appears not to be alone in this regard as Abdullahi described the conference as ‘Jonathan’s administrative committee’. “The confab is a fraud of unimaginable magnitude; it did not reflect the views of Nigerians neither did it have a legal backing; so how does he intend to implement the report? The North will not and I mean it, will never support such move to implement the so-called confab report because the motives are parochial, sectional and misguided,” the spokesman of the Northern Elders’ Forum told New Telegraph. Regardless of the North’s position, Odumakin accused those against theimplementation of the report as enemies of Nigeria who should be held accountable for their roles should the nation disintegrate. “These elements should be held liable if anything happens to the nation called Nigeria because by their utterances, one can see arrogance and intolerance; the only way for the country to move forward is the implementation of the confab report. Only enemies of the country will say otherwise,” Odumakin said. Source: #NewTelegraph News.'