BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI
ABUJA — The National Consensus Group, a body of eminent persons, leaders of thought and statesmen, weekend, backed governors of the 36 states of the federation over call for an urgent convocation of an all-inclusive national conference to re-examine the structure of the country.

Making this disclosure in a statement reviewing “the state of Nigeria” on the occasion of her 51st independence anniversary, the eminent persons charged President Goodluck Jonathan “to quickly heed the counsel of the governors in the interest of the peace, harmony, stability, security and good governance of the country and also make possible an end to the sustained hostilities and spate of bombings in the country”.

Speaking through its spokesperson, Olawale Okunniyi, the group said “good governance and political stability may continue to elude the country if the Federal Government continues to force the existing lopsided unitary structure on the diverse peoples of the country.”

The governors recalled that through Governors Olusegun Mimiko and Peter Obi of Ondo and Anambra States respectively, last Wednesday in Abuja, requested the presidency to convoke an urgent peoples national confab, different from the proposed constitutional amendments of the National Assembly, to agree on how Nigeria should be administered

The group said it was backing the call in tandem with the resolutions of its national political dialogue held recently in Port Harcourt and planned to complement the historic demand of the governors at its 9th working session to be attended by 60 eminent leaders, advocates and experts from the six geo-political zones on Tuesday in Kano.

Okunniyi said: “Except Nigeria first fashion an agreed nation, the quest for national security and democratic consolidation will continue to be a pipe dream as the Nigerian peoples must first be encouraged to own and believe in their union for them to make it work and defend it”

The group also tasked the Presidency and the National Assembly to, “rather than bask in empty optimism about overcoming the country’s challenges, do the needful by commencing the process of convening a peoples’ driven national constitutional dialogue without delay as “heavens only help those who help themselves.”

“We make bold to say, once more, that what government requires to solve the heightening tension in the land is to make a law for a constitutional convention of the building blocks and sectors of the country to agree on the nature of their co existence as the constitutional amendment proposed by the National Assembly fall short of the current aspirations of Nigerians for national consensus.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Presidency should set up a standing Independent National Constitutional Commission, INCC, to fashion out a bill to be enacted by the National Assembly for the convocation of an inclusive National Constitutional Convention, which can be convened at regular intervals to address national necessity.”