The Deputy Senate President and Chairman of the Senate Committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has described the agitation for the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference, SNC, as clear invitation to anarchy.
Ekweremadu said it will be out of place to convoke an SNC when there is a constitutional government in place in the country and in the absence of a proper legal framework in place.
Speaking while playing host to members of the presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue led by Dr. Femi Okuroumu at the National Assembly yesterday, Ekweremadu said Nigeria must take a cue from the likes of Brazil, Kenya and Mozambique, which did the needful first by providing the necessary legal framework before convoking their sovereign conference.
The Deputy Senate President said on the part of members the National Assembly, they welcomed the decision of the Federal Government to set up the national conference, which will allow Nigerians to discuss and bring about possible changes that will better the lives of all of us.
According to Ekweremadu, "If we say that we are a country that believes in the rule of law, we must withbe ready like others to obey the laws and not the rule of the thong. So, when we hear people talk about SNC, referendum and all that, there must be a legal framework for it.
"You don't wake up when you have a constitutional government in place and say you want an SNC, you impose the will of the people on the rest of the people without a legal basis, that is absolutely difficult. Other countries that have had this kind of challenge, what they did first was to provide the necessary legal basis for it, legal basis for what they are doing. Otherwise, you are calling for anarchy."
Ekweremadu, who received the committee members in company of the Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba and the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Abdul Ningi, pledged that the National Assembly will on its part provide the necessary legal framework that will support whatever outcome of both the advisory committee and the committee that will come after it.
His words: "For us in the National Assembly, the most important thing in this exercise is to provide the necessary legal framework that will support whatever outcome of both your own committee and the committee that will come after it."
Source: Call for sovereign confab, invitation to anarchy –Ekweremadu (http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/call-for-sovereign-confab-invitation-to-anarchy-ekweremadu/)