The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) rose from an emergency meeting this afternoon in Kaduna and expressed strong disagreement with the idea of Prof. Ben Nwabueze being single-handedly commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan to write the national constitution, as revealed in a letter Nwabueze wrote to the president.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) rose from an emergency meeting this afternoon in Kaduna and expressed strong disagreement with the idea of Prof. Ben Nwabueze being single-handedly commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan to write the national constitution, as revealed in a letter Nwabueze wrote to the president.
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ACF expressed its position in a communiqué read out by its national publicity Secretary, Anthony Sani, a copy of which was obtained by SaharaReporters.
It noted that when President Jonathan, who had previously been against convoking a National Conference of any kind announced he was going ahead with it on October 1, Professor Nwabueze turned down membership of the Advisory Committee, citing health concerns.
“The elder statesman, who said he never expected to be appointed Chairman or member of the Committee, added that he ‘considered such appointment in the circumstances to be an appointment for younger person, not for an old man of 83 years afflicted by ill-health’…inspite of the reason for declining membership of the Advisory Committee, [he] has now requested the President to commission him to single-handedly produce a draft new constitution for Nigeria which will become the sole working paper for the conference; and did so without any request from the Committee or the Presidency.”
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ACF argued that Professor Nwabueze, who served a government put in place by a military regime cannot reasonably and morally question the legitimacy of the 1999 constitution simply because the framers worked under the watch of a military regime. Furthermore, the Forum said, the pedigree of Professor Ben Nwabueze does not include nationalistic struggle for Nigeria’s independence, having spent most of his productive life outside the country.
“It is, therefore, the considered view of ACF that Prof. Nwabueze, like every Nigerian, still has the opportunity to articulate and propose his points of view on the floor of the Conference instead of attempting to smuggle in his proposal to form part of the recommendations by the Advisory Committee, an act which is outside its mandate,” the communique said.
The ACF drew the attention of Mr. Jonathan to the fact that all along Nigerians has had no cause to question his sincerity in changing his mind in favour of the National Conference.
“But latest activities of Prof Nwabueze, who led the Patriots to see the president and submitted their recommendations before Mr. President changed his mind, may tend to suggest the presidency is acting the Professor’s script, considering the fact that he has been hankering for Sovereign National Conference for quite some time.”
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