Posted October 10, 2012 by Emmanuel Bello in Politics

NIGERIA NEEDS NATIONAL CONFERENCE …Agoro asserts

From BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan –
NATIONAL Chairman and former Presidential candidate of the National Action Council [NAC], Dr Olapade Agoro yesterday said Nigeria needs Sovereign National Conference [SNC] and not a constitutional amendment by the National Assembly.
Dr Agoro in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan declared that there was no basis for the unending constitutional amendment being embarked upon by the National Assembly if the country is to move forward.
According to the NAC National Chairman,it is unfortunate that the National Assembly will embark on the same constitutional amendment for the ‘’fourth time ‘’ with the nation having nothing to show for it.
‘’It behoves to ask what commonsense will be found in the current exercise of constitution amendment taking into cognizance the generality of the people’s demand for a National Conference and which lofty and reasonable demands President Goodluck Jonathan gave a nod of approval to of very recent,’’he said
The NAC Chieftain maintained that it was glaring now that Sovereign National Conference stands as the only solution to the nation’s socio-political woes adding that ‘’should a national conference be held anytime very soon one of the expectations of such would be touching up or down of the constitutional relatives and which will no doubt put paid to the ongoing constitutional amendments’’.
Dr Agoro lamented that the past efforts at amending the constitution may have resulted in wastage of the nation’s resources saying presently,Nigeria is becoming the ‘’most notorious nation on earth currently with the highest number of constitution amendments and rules changing per year, per a National Assembly’’. .
‘’One would have thought therefore that someone somewhere among the nation’s leaders ought to have been nationalistic conscious and considerate that the time, resources and money being spent wastefully now on another unnecessary constitution amendment could be better channeled into the much awaited national conference- now considered by all an urgent necessity,’’he noted.
He stressed further that having a Sovereign National Conference in place of the on going constitutional amendment by the National Assembly will go a long way in solving most of the societal evils in the country in the areas of Oil bunkering.
Dr Agoro gave other societal ills which the SNC is capable of resolving as the issues of the ‘’Turn Around Maintenance’ again being planned to gulp another N260 billion, the Oil subsidy Fraud, Issuance of Private Refinery Licences to 18 non oil producers, Kidnapping, Boko Haram insurgency, Niger Delta militants rampage and the ugliness of unresolved political murders ad infinitum.