Rep faults calls for confab, state creation

CHAIRMAN of the South-South Parliamentary Caucus in the House of Representatives, Warman Ogoriba, has faulted calls for convocation of a sovereign national conference,as well as creation of more states in the country.Ogoriba, who represents Yenagoa/Okpokuma Federal Constituency in Bayelsa State, said convening Sovereign National Conference (SNC) would undermine the National Assembly. According to him, a sovereign national conference has no place in a constitutional democracy with a parliament in session.In an interview in Abuja at the weekend, Ogoriba said the call for a sovereign national conference should not be contemplated, urging all aggrieved citizens,political parties or ethnic nationalities not satisfied with the present structure of Nigeria to pursue their proposals for changes through the National Assembly.He said:'I do not want to subscribe to the ideabecause it undermines the potency of the parliament. I think it is not right. However, I think that they are just expressing their opinionand as Nigerians, the 1999 Constitution guarantees everyone of us the right to hold and express our opinions. We cannot begrudge anyone from holding such opinions although there are some opinions that will not really augur well for the unity of the country.'It is very sad when you see some very prominent Nigerians coming out to say that what we need in Nigeria today is a sovereign national conference. Why is this so' It is sad because many of them are very learned and exposed and one would have expected them to know better'.According to the lawmaker, 'the symbol of any democracy is the parliament and once there is a parliament, it is wrong for anybody toconvenea sovereign national conference. It amounts to saying that there is no parliament in Nigeria. Asparliamentarians, we are the representatives of the people. There is no one citizen of this countrywho does not have a representative in the National Assembly'.The lawmaker also dismissed the current clamour for the creation of new states as misplaced, stressing that the solution to the problem of under-development could not be resolved through state creation.
Click here to read full news..