National Conference: Is this what we really need?
Agitations by individuals and groups, especially from southern Nigeria for a Sovereign National Conference over the years have put pressure on the President to cave in. On 1 st October, 2013, the President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in his independence speech agreed to set-up a committee to look at the modalities of organizing a National Conference. For many, the conference is the only panacea to the litany of woes plaguing the country. The belief is that there is need for all sections of the country to come to a roundtable to discuss the continued existence of corporate Nigeria. With over 300 ethnic nationalities and close to a 1000 distinct languages and dialects, those who hold that view consider the entity called Nigeria as a fraud. These calls are as diverse as the people making them. Some of the calls are as genuine as those making them, while some are as fraudulent as the people making them. The calls initially were for a Sovereign National Conference, but realizing the im...