Apparently miffed by the suggestion by Professor Ben Nwabueze, that he should be allowed to produce the working paper for proposed National Conference, the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, once again reacted to the idea, accusing President Goodluck Jonathan of of acting Nwabueze’s script on the matter.
ACF made similar accusation against Nwabueze last week saying that he should not be allowed to produce the working paper for the conference.
The National Working Committee, NWC, of ACF, which rose from its National Executive meeting in Kaduna, yesterday, reacted to the alleged request by Nwabueze, in a communiqué signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Anthony Sani.
The communiqué entitled “ACF’s reactions to Prof Nwabueze’s request to the President,” read: “President Jonathan had previously been against the convocation of a national conference of any nature. He had on many occasion dismissed the idea with a sleight of hand.
”To the surprise of everyone, the President in his independence day speech of October 1, 2013, announced the government’s decision to convene a National Conference/Dialogue, and set up an Advisory Committee to collect and collate the views of Nigerians on the agenda, participants and other modalities for the conference.
“Prof Nwabueze was one of the eminent persons announced by the President as a member of the Advisory Committee on the National Conference. Prof Nwabueze promptly declined membership of the Advisory Committee.
His statement disclosed that he has been battling with prostate cancer and has been surviving by ‘consultation from time to time with treatment by a consultant oncologist at Charing Cross Hospital in London.’
“Prof Nwabueze, inspite of the reason for declining membership of the Advisory Committee, has now requested the President to commission him to single-handedly produce a draft new constitution for Nigeria which will become the sole working paper for the conference; and did so without any request from the Committee or the Presidency.”
