PRofessor Gordini Darah, a delegate representing Delta State at the National Conference teaches English and Literary Studies at the Delta State University, Abraka.

A former Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Guardian Newspapers, he also served as chief of staff to the former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori. He spoke to Vanguard on his expectations from the National Conference.

Praising President Goodluck Jonathan by delegates to the National Conference in their opening statements has triggered the question on their sincerity.

I think this is a make or mar conference for Nigeria. I appeal to all delegates to understand the urgency of this period. Our country is falling apart. We need to put things right. Nobody should come to this conference with any sense of arrogance. We must not negotiate out of fear. We must come as equal partners to the Nigerian project and shed all our prejudices.

Ibuchukwu Ezike is the Executive Director, Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO. He, along with three others was nominated by the South-East Coalition of Civil Society Groups, made up of over 70 civil society organisations that met in Enugu to nominate four delegates to the confab.

Chief Goody Uwazurike is the President of Aka Ikenga, the think-tank of Ohaneze Ndi Igbo. A lawyer, he is also a delegate to the on going National Conference in Abuja. In this interview,with Levinus Nwabuchiogu he reacts to Professor Ben Nwabueze’s position on the conference, describing it as petty.

Nigerians who believed that the labour movement had gone to permanent sleep were in for a shocker yesterday when the top hierarchy of the labour movement at the conference surfaced.

With delegates continuing to groan over the shortage of food at lunchtime, the conference secretariat is now considering monetizing the food.

Debate on President Goodluck Jonathan’s inauguration speech continued at the National Conference yesterday with delegates noting that Nigeria sat on a time bomb factored by high level unemployment, insecurity, corruption, and religious intolerance.

The rush by delegates to attend the marriage ceremony of a daughter of President Goodluck Jonathan raised unease among some delegates who frowned that conferees abandoned national issues for socializing.

A CONSTITUTION that will outlast its makers must derive from collective ambitions that are not driven by immediate, or merely alimentary, concerns! Unity is not enough. Nor welfare. A good constitution must seek a shared future, based on justice and a common, benign morality. It is such a constitution that we seek as a syllabus of ideals into the next Nigerian century. And beyond.