By Henry Umoru, Joseph Erunke & Levinus Nwabughiogu

Members were yesterday divided on the need to call for memoranda from the public.

Contributing to the discussion, elder statesman, Dr. Kunle Olajide urged the House to call for memoranda from the public but was opposed by Dr. Bello Mohammed who said that doing so would be time wasting.

Dr. Mohammed suggested that the conference should go back to the memoranda submitted to the Senator Femi Okurunmu advisory committee which recommended the National Conference.

Dr. Mohammed’s views won the support of Chief (Mrs.) Josephine Anenih who said “we should be mindful of the time frame that we have. We have spent one week going to two and haven’t started. Calling for memoranda will eat into our time.”

I don’t think it is necessary. We come from various interest groups and zones. We sit here from Monday till Thursday. We can use the weekend to go back to our people and ask what they want. If not, we should not ask for memo at this time. We should go to task at hand.”

Alhaji Mohammad Maigari (Sokoto state) who   also threw his weight behind the need to call for memoranda from the public said: “I will like to believe that it is important and significant to allow the general public to make input into what we are doing.

“It is important we become more democratic and listen to the people who sent us. Let the secretariat invite the public to send it memoranda and we can go round and collect them from those who cannot send them electronically.”