Delegates to the ongoing National Conference on Thursday concluded debate on the inauguration speech of President Goodluck Jonathan with calls for the restructuring of the federation and resource ownership.
Former Governor Achike Udenwa said the ruling elites should not only apologize to the youths of the country, but be ready to give up their unearned privileges.
Udenwa said though it is not easy to do that, the elites would have to pay retribution for past injustices done the country.
On corruption, the former governor said the vice was encouraged by the Nigerian society.
He said it is a collective admission that corruption has pervaded every strata of the society but no one has ever admitted to being corrupt.
He said insecurity, social pressure and greed were responsible for the deepening corruption in the country.
He said: “It is not enough to say we are corrupt, but no one has ever admitted to being corrupt.
“We all eulogise corruption,
“Corrupt individuals are the ones given chieftaincy titles.
“They are the ones given front row in the churches.
“We have to do more than we are doing now to curb it.”
Hassan Rilwan, a youth delegate, tasked the elites on grooming youths as their successors in the running of the country.
Rilwan also advocated for equitable sharing of resources found in the sea between all the component parts of the country, while resources found on land should however be owned the host community.
He said: “The youths of this country want a government that will best address our diversity as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society that we are.
“A government that is not wasteful, one that can harness the full potentials of our nation, one that can deliver all the socio-economic rights enunciated in Chapter Two of our constitution and a government based on justice and high sense of duty
“From this conference, the country and the Nigerians youths are hopeful and looking forward to a high sense of responsibility that will ensure that we are contented with that which comes from your soil and allow that which is on sea for the benefit of the entire nation.
“The issue of indigeneship brings two way responsibility for the settler and the indigene.
“We must break the false walls that exist between us.
“We must be ready to integrate and proudly identify with the cultures and values on ground.
“That is the Nigeria that youths want.”
Prof. John Uko, who is at the conference on the platform of the North Central, said good governance is being dispensed too little in the country while honesty was given too little attention the government and the populace.
As a result, Uko said the youth took to corrupt vices like cultism as a normal way of life.
He said the conference must proffer enduring solution to corruption, else meaningful development would be a mirage in the country
Prof. Auwalu Yadudu said the gathering lacked popular democratic principles.
Yadudu, a North West delegate, said though Jonathan claimed not to have any personal agenda in convening the conference, there appeared to be a bold agenda set by acts of commission or omission.
He said the conference was not in conformity with popular or democratic indices contrary to the advice offered by the Senator Femi Okuronmu-led committee, adding that the conference was conceived on a novel and very risky rule of the thumb.
He added: “Some have argued that even the National Assembly lacks sufficient popular mandate or credibility.
“That it is incapable or less favourably disposed to undertake the demolition or profound reconstruction job, which Nigeria critically needs.
“This is on account of the alleged deep flaws in our electoral system and processes that its members have benefited from.
“Need one be reminded that the President is himself the product and beneficiary of the same deeply flawed electoral processes.
“As such, he cannot claim or be ascribed any more legitimacy than the National Assembly.
“Yet we recognise his constitutional powers to convene and have responded to his call to participate in this conference.”
Delegates conclude debate on Jonathan’s speech
