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Argument On Voting Pattern Is An Attempt To Rig National Confab – Odekunle

A Public Affairs Analyst, Professor Femi Odekunle, on Thursday said that the disagreement between delegates at the National Conference on the voting pattern to adopt … Continue reading Argument On Voting Pattern Is An Attempt To Rig National Confab – Odekunle


Femi OdekunleA Public Affairs Analyst, Professor Femi Odekunle, on Thursday said that the disagreement between delegates at the National Conference on the voting pattern to adopt is born of an agenda to rig the outcome of the meeting.

“As far as I’m concerned, the argument about the voting pattern is an attempt to rig the outcome later or either to make certain things possible or certain thing impossible and that arises from the matter of composition that was being raised”

He made his view known while speaking on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, insisting that primordial sentiments, and not the desire for a New Nigeria, had become the basis for the delegate’s actions.

According to him, “majority of the delegates are those who have actually ruined this society by their antecedents” and “a snake is a snake, anyday and the son of a snake is also a snake.”

He supported arguments that the age bracket of majority of the delegates was inappropriate considering the fact that the purpose of the Conference was to set an agenda for the nation’s future.

“Considering the population of this country and that we are looking for the future, the modal age of those in that conference should be between 35 and 45, not the past because we are looking for our future. Not those who have brought us to our sorry state.”

On the Conference’s consideration of seeking memoranda from the public, Odekunle said “I really don’t think this is the way to go”, maintaining that, “we have enough documents in this country as to the problems we are facing and why we are facing them.”

He further said that the documents may be obtained from social scientists and activists present at the Conference or from those used for Vision 2020 and information obtained by the Okurounmu Committee. He concluded that the new memoranda-seeking exercise would be a waste of time.

While berating the overall composition of the Conference, Odekunle expressed confidence in certain individuals, Akin Oyebode, Yinka Odumakin, Tunde Bakare, who he believed would stir the agenda in the right course.

He, however, advocated that a good number of the traditional rulers and former governors, senators should be withdrawn from the Conference and fresh minds from the younger generation be injected to ensure success.

Odekunle also advocated that a Truth and Restitution Commission be established as part of the outcomes of the Conference. The Commission, he explained, would comprise Nigerians of integrity who would “ensure that they give six months’ notice to all Nigerians (particularly from the Babangida era), who have looted our country, to come and return the amount of money they have stolen and then they can be forgiven.”

He added that “if they return the loot within a period of six months then you may forgive but if not, you send them to jail, if not death penalty”.

“Those are the kinds of things I’m expecting from this Conference,” he said.