BY TONY EDIKE
ENUGU — The Igbo Leaders of Thought, yesterday, declared that the 75 percent controversy and other ground rules that had bogged down the on-going national conference for two weeks after commencement would have been averted if the organisers had adhered to due diligence and consultations.
Briefing journalists at the end of its 7th meeting in Enugu, leader of the group, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, also insisted that non-adherence to selection of delegates to the national conference, based on ethnic nationalities, was another major flaw that might derail the confab from achieving set objectives.
The group, however, said that despite its belief that the national conference as currently constituted might not achieve the expected objective, the group still believed that something good might still come out of it.
Nwabueze said: “Ethnic nationalities are the best suited to solve Nigeria’s problem. You can’t achieve anything except the ethnic nationalities come together. We all individually belong to an ethnic nationality; we cannot run away from that, it is a sociological reality.
“The problem is how do you coalesce 389 ethnic nationalities? The day you find the answer to this question, then Nigeria’s problem will be solved.”
According to the renowned constitutional lawyer, at the ethnic nationalities conference recently organized, only 58 ethnic nations attended and they spent millions organizing it, meaning that mobilization required government intervention and funding.
Speaking on the voting pattern of 75 percent which raised a lot of controversy at the beginning of the conference, Prof Nwabueze said the controversy could have been avoided, if the organisers had consulted well.
“The problem of 75% shouldn’t have been there, 75% is impossible to achieve. Muslims already, not the North as a whole, are over 190 (about 34 per cent), they have equally created Northern delegates Forum. And the other day the Sultan led a delegation to the President where they complained.
“I would have said let them try and achieve a consensus but where it fails they should go for absolute majority, not necessarily on percentage,” he said.
He said even the 70% said to have been agreed on by leaders of the delegation would still be difficult to achieve.
Vanguard