Wednesday, August 20, 2014

National Conference’s Recommendations Will Strengthen Nigeria’s Unity- Mai-Sule

A Delegate at the National Conference, Ambassador Ibrahim Mai-Sule, says the recommendations made at the end of the National Conference will strengthen the unity of of Nigeria and lead to rapid infrastructural development.
He stated that contrary to expectations that the conference would not end well due to disagreements over some crucial issues, the conference ended in an amicable way.
Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, Ambassador Mai-Sule noted that most of the decisions had been reached through voice votes and that recommendations like the creation of more states were made to ensure that all states could begin to look at their resources and develop them.
“It has been a wonderful experience. We have made a little friends. We have exchanged ideas and our motive of being there was to help achieve the unity of this country and I believe we have achieved that purpose.
“The unity of Nigeria as a country is not negotiable.
“If you look at the demands of infrastructure in Nigeria, the rail, ports and roads, you don’t need to spend too much money on recurrent expenditure,” he said.
The Ambassador mentioned that the current states were created under the military regime and that they had never had any sovereignty.
He advised states getting less than other states to try and look for resources outside the oil money but called on the federal government to give the states something they can survive with .
“It has been the will of the people that states have to be created and that has been done actually to satisfy the yearnings of some people. The issue of sharing the money from the oil proceed is part of why that was called for.
“The basic idea is that when you are living as a federation, people tend to misconstrue the idea. Looking at the 1963 constitution, the regions came in and surrendered some of their sovereignty. And the state that we have now never had any sovereignty,” he pointed out.
The conference delegate said that the conference saw the need to encourage other states to look at other resources other than crude oil, but stressed that the states should be given money to start up. “If you move out of that one, it will be very difficult for some states to survive as it is now.”
He explained that there is a lot of demand for infrastructural development in states affected by terrorist, leading to the suggestion of five per cent allocation to the states, which resulted in heated disagreements.
He said that the elders of the conference had called on the Federal Government to set up a committee to look at the demands that were not resolved by the conference.
Ambassador Mai-Sule stressed that needed infrastructure should be put in place to encourage investors to come and invest in the country.
He said that lack of needed infrastructures would continue to hinder investments in Nigeria.

No comments:

Post a Comment

CDC Adds 6 New Coronavirus Symptoms

CDC added six new symptoms to its official list of COVID-19 symptoms Sunday, as the medical community continues to report new presentatio...