The National Conference on Wednesday adjourned again for consultation over disagreement on whether the voting modality should be based on two-third or three-quarter majority.
The plenary was abruptly adjourned on Tuesday when the issue of voting led to a sharp disagreement among the delegates and, today, it took the intervention of some of the delegates who advised the leadership to adjourn for wider consultations barely an hour into the plenary session, to avert what could have been a free for all.
Chairman of the conference, Idris Kutigi had asked the delegates to decide whether the secretariat should advertise for contributions from members of the public and for how long.
Thereafter, the deputy chairman, Bolaji Akinyemi, announced the names of selected delegates that would be consulted by the secretariat over the voting mode to be adopted.
The list included Ike Nwachukwu, Mike Ahamba, Olu Falae, Kunle Olajide, Peter Odili, Edwin Clark, Ibrahim Gambari, Jerry Gana, Adamu Waziri, Tanko Yakassi, Ibrahim Idah, A. B. Mamman, Issa Aremu, Olisa Agbakoba, Vincent Okon, Femi Okunrounmu and Mohammed Umaru.
Others are Obong Victor Attah, Josephine Anenih, Adamu Aliero, Atedo Peterside, Ken Nnamani, Olusola Akanmode, Auwal Gumi and Raymond Dokpesi.
Akinyemi told the delegates that the list of those the secretariat selected to confer with was arrived at after extensive consultations which lasted to this morning.
Speaking to journalists after the adjournment, most delegates supported the leadership over its decision to consult selected delegates on the issue.
Some, however, expressed mixed feelings about the modalities used to arrive at the “leadership” of the geo-political zones at the conference.
Amakievi Gabriel, a delegate from Rivers, said she had no misgivings about the selection of some delegates for consultations, adding that the important thing is to arrive at an amicable solution.
“I don’t see any problem in the delegates selected because everybody cannot be selected; it has to be a sample of the population. The idea of consultation is an opportunity to fast track the conference,” she said.
However, Steve Aluko, representing Coalition of Civil Society Organisations, expressed fear that the consultation might not have the requisite input of the majority of the delegates.
“If you selected less than 10 per cent of the delegates without them conferring with the people they thought they were representing, then it means the majority has been left out. Who is representing the youth, the disabled, the students or the civil societies in the group?” he queried.