The Convener of the Save Nigeria Group, Pastor Tunde Bakare, on Wednesday urged Nigeria’s statesmen to work toward the success of the national conference instead of focusing on the 2015 elections.
“If we do not do the needful in 2014, there may be no 2015,” Bakare said at the 10th Late Chief Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture in Lagos.
The lecture was organised by the Ikeja Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association.
It had the theme: “Nigeria at Centenary, a Nation under Bondage?”
Bakare said: “If we dedicate ourselves to restructuring our nation at this time, the outcome will be emergence of a credible leadership that will ensure a Nigeria that works.”
Bakare, the Founder of the Latter Rain Assembly, said that it was time for Nigerians to return to dialogue table.
He said that the conference would be an opportunity to create a genuine people’s constitution.
He said: “Those who are against it are selfish and self-focused.
“We must find creative mechanisms to bring all the sub-nationalities together to negotiate the destiny of our nation in such a manner that peacefully transports us from the current system to a true people’s constitution.
“Such a constitution must guarantee social and economic rights as well as civil and political rights, without derogating these rights through backdoor provisions.”
A former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami (retired), urged lawyers to emulate Fawehinmi by dedicating their lives to truth and justice.
Salami claimed that injustice and corruption in the nation’s judiciary led to his suspension and eventual retirement.
He said: “Anybody who wants to stand on the path of truth must be prepared to face trials.
“If we are sworn to do justice, that justice must be done without fear or favour, no matter whose ox is gored.”
Earlier, Onyekachi Ubani, the Chairman, NBA, Ikeja Branch, said that Fawehinmi fought and died in pursuit of a better Nigeria.
Ubani said that the national conference, billed to hold in February, would be another opportunity to restructure the country to achieve the vision of its founding fathers.
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