The Dr Femi Okurounmu Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue made a lot of far-reaching recommendations to President Goodluck Jonathan in the report the committee submitted on Wednesday, Sunday Tribune can reveal.It was learnt that the 13-member committee recommended that the proposed national confab should be held within six months.It also advised President Jonathan to ensure that the conference should be held before the 2015 general election, just as it added that preparations should begin in earnest.Sunday Tribune gathered from a highly placed source that President Jonathan set machinery in motion for the conference shortly after the New Year celebration.The source said the month on January, 2014 was significant in the history of the country as it marked 100 years of the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates of the country into a single entity.On how delegates to the conference should be selected, it was learnt from a dependable source that the committee proposed representation based on senatorial district or federal constituency.If the first option is accepted, delegates may not be more than 200 inclusive of delegates from various organised bodies and groups. Should the second option be contemplated, about 500 delegates would be invited to speak at the confab.In order to solve the thorny issue of whether the outcome of the conference should be sent to the National Assembly for approval or be subjected to a referendum, Okurounmu Committee advised that the 1999 Constitution as amended should be further amended for the inclusion of referendum, which is currently not in the document.In another development, the National Publicity
Secretary of the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin, has urged President Jonathan to ignore the distractions being laid on the way of a successful conference through letters and other means by those opposed to the initiative.In an interview with Sunday Tribune, Odumakin said 100 elections would not solve the problem of the country and advised that the entire structure, which he said, was forcefully put together in 1914 be totally collapse and re-designed.by Dare Adekanmbi
