Presidential candidate on the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), Alhaji Bashir Tofa, has stressed the need to convoke a National Conference as a major step to address the nation’s challenges.
Speaking in an interview with National Mirror yesterday in Kano, Alhaji Tofa said that the convocation of the conference to discuss the Nigerian project is inevitable, pointing out that the survival of the country as an entity would depend on the outcome of such conference.
He, however, traced the country’s political and socioeconomic problem to the disagreement among the ethnic nationalities.
The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) chieftain said: “Nigeria’s socio-political challenges are traceable to the disagreement among the ethnic nationalities because we do not have bidding agreement among us on how our country should be governed and how we should also co-habit as a people.
“It is time for the country’s ethnic and political leaders to come together under an arrangement that will be acceptable to all to discuss how this country should be administered; a National Conference is the only way out of the country’s growing conflict.
“I have always canvassed the convocation of a National Conference and in my opinion we cannot avoid it because we, as Nigerians, have to sit down and discuss how we want this country run, if we have to avoid this constant bickering and make progress.
“I don’t think living under pretence will take us anywhere, we all know the country is drifting and we still continue to pretend that all is well when all is bad, so we have to sit down as a people and as representatives of the people to discuss the future of this country and come out with a position that will be binding to all”.
Although the elder statesman foresees the tendency for conflict in such exercise owing to the presence of the National Assembly, he noted that the issue had to be trashed out with the lawmakers, who may also be involved in the project.
He, however, flayed corruption among Nigeria’s public officials, noting that the menace is fast becoming endemic.
