National Conference: "Some Delegates Are Against Its Success" - Raymond Dokpesi Reveals

A member of the National Conference Consensus Building Group and a representative of the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) to the conference, High Chief Aleogho Raymond Dokpesi has blamed the current disagreements at the conference on the attitude of some delegates, whom he said are bent on scuttling the exercise.

Dokpesi who stated this while briefing the media shortly after Thursday’s session of the conference, also explained some of the decisions reached by the consensus building group.
“The point, which we found difficult to agree upon, in principle we agreed on it but it was the phraseology, how do you put it together? It was stated by the greater majority of the delegates or representatives of the committee said that there shall be a national intervention fund which would be 5% of the annual revenue accruing to the account of the federal government for the stabilisation, rehabilitation and reconstruction of areas affected by terrorism and insurgency. And in the first instance in the northeast of Nigeria and any other parts of the country affected. The representatives from the north-west in particular said they wanted it to read that there shall be a national intervention fund which shall be 5% of the annual revenue accruing to the account of the federal government for the stabilisation, rehabilitation and reconstruction of areas affected by terrorism and insurgency and in the first instance in the north-east of Nigeria, north central, north-west and any other parts of the country.

“So you can see that it is only the addition of the north-west, north central and any other parts of Nigeria, that is the bone of contention and we reflected as a committee that both drafting should be made available to the Conference but there are people that are determined to ensure that this conference does not come to a proper end. I want to irrevocably assure you that the committee at work has worked tirelessly and made a lot of consensus with all the southern leaders and the north central leaders made sacrifices but there are people who never wanted this Conference to succeed and these people are the people that were shouting out today.”
In addition to the proposal for 18% derivation formula for oil producing states, the Consensus Building Group has also recommended that not less than 5% of the total derivation fund shall be payable to the host communities within the state where the resources are derived.

Source: AITonline