Secretary to the Edo State Government, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, has described the ongoing National Conference in Abuja as an “alternative parliament” whose results would not be implemented.
Ihonvbere, who stated this in Benin, the state capital yesterday, said that based on precedents, where reports of past conferences were kept in the shelf to gather dust, the report of the current exercise would not be any different.
He said, “This is not the first time we are having recommendations on how to reposition Nigeria. We had it over and over and their reports just gather dust somewhere. I have no doubt that the report of the ongoing conference will also go the same way.
“For me, while the conference is behaving like an alternative parliament now, discussing everything from the price of oil, to budget, to light, women, I begin to think there is no focus in what exactly are the four or five points we ought to deal with and provide a holistic recommendation that will be implemented.
“If you provide the recommendations and those you are submitting the report to do not carry the social consciousness of change, of progressive reformation, if not even the transformation, of the entire society for empowering community and constituencies, it will just be a fine recommendation well bound and submitted to the same custodians of state power, who have recycled the system since independence in different ways”.
The Edo SSG, who lamented the crisis bedeviling the nation, following the series of bombings, the missing Chibok schoolgirls and socio-cultural conflicts, said Nigeria needed a working norm in order to achieve robust transformation.
He, therefore, advocated the establishment of a grand norm for the country in form of a constitution geared towards rapid growth and development.
