Former president Goodluck Jonathan, Tuesday, explained why he did not implement the report of the 2014 national conference.
Speaking at the public presentation of a book ‘The National Question’ authored by Akpandem James and Sam Akpe on Tuesday June 28, Jonathan who was represented at the event by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, said he did not have enough time to implement the report.
According to him, those knowledgeable about the processes of constitutional reforms will know that to implement the Confab report, a number of alterations will be made in the constitution which would require the involvement of the National Assembly and state assemblies.
said his administration could not implement the 2014 National Conference report, because he was confident that he would win the 2015 presidential election and use the first two years of his second tenure to implement the report.
Jonathan, however, explained that with a new government, it would have been easier to achieve the implementation of the report, saying one of the problems of the country was that Nigerians liked playing politics with things that had very much to do with national interest.
The former president, whose speech, was delivered by a former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, was a guest speaker at a public presentation of a book titled: “The National Conversation”, authored by the former spokesman for the 2014 National Conference, James Akpadem and the Communication Strategist for the conference, Sam Akpe, in Abuja.
“When I contested the 2015 elections, my expectation was that I would win a second term within which period I would have worked for the implementation of the confab report. I felt that within the next four-year mandate, my first two years would have been dedicated to implementing a reasonable part of the recommendations.
If we take politics out of our national calculations, we would all agree that with a fresh government, it would have been easier to achieve the implementation of the report. One of the problems of this country is that we like playing politics with things that have very much to do with national interest.
“We play politics with our security. We play politics with our economy. We play politics with almost everything. That, definitely, is not the way to go, if we must make progress in realising our national aspirations and goals.
”Explaining how his efforts to implement the report were frustrated, Jonathan disclosed that he was handicapped not only because of the political environment at the build-up to the 2015 general election at the time, but was also betrayed by members of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), especially, PDP-elected members of National Assembly.