Babalola Seeks Southern Govs’ Support for Proposed National Summit

By Victor Ogunje

A legal icon and founder of Afe Babalola University, Ekiti, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) , has written a letter to the Southern Governors Forum (SGF), seeking the governors’ backing for his proposed convocation of a private summit to discuss all the problems confronting the nation.

Babalola sought the SGF’s backing for the concept tagged: “Summit of Hope,” having passed a resolution urging President Muhammadu Buhari to convene a National Conference to restructure the country despite Presidency’s foreclosure of such policy.

Babalola in a letter dated May 17, 2021, congratulated the 17 governors from different political parties in the Southern part of the country for rising above partisan politics and for the 12-point resolution raised after their meeting in Asaba, the Delta State capital.

The eminent lawyer added that if the 12-point resolution are properly managed and executed, the unity of Nigeria as a nation is assured and the drift towards anarchy and another civil war would come to an end.

“I observed that the governors recommended that President Muhammadu Buhari should convene a National Conference/Dialogue as a matter of urgency.

“In view of the declaration by the presidency, the governors’ recommendation for a National Conference/ Dialogue seems to have been met with a fait accompli. Any recommendation in that regard amounts to an exercise in futility”.

Babalola said he made the suggestion to Ooni of Ife and the Co-Chair of All Nigeria’s Traditional Rulers, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi and he gleefully accepted during the 2021 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Law Week on May 4.

“The revered monarch accepted my suggestion to reach out to distinguished and influential Nigerians throughout the country, including opinion leaders and opinion moulders of all former presidents of this country, the leadership of the National Assembly and states’ assembly, traditional and religious leaders, trade unions, professional bodies and Civil Society Organisations to summon a summit to discuss and suggest how to prevent the country from drifting into anarchy and civil war”.

On the crucially important issue of Dialogue/Conference, which the Presidency had foreclosed, as a viable option, Babalola urged the governors to support the summit, which was hailed by over 21 Obas and over 500 people present at the Bar Lecture on May 4, 2021.

He called on the governors to support this initiative to “which I have committed the sum of N50 million in addition to my provision of venue, accommodation and feeding.

“Moreover, I had briefed the Ekiti State Governor and the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, about the proposed Summit before the May 4, 2021 resolution”.

Babalola told the governors to set up a Committee of Governors to deliberate on how to implement the lofty resolutions in their communique.

“The governors should hold either a Physical of Virtual meeting to discuss the implementation strategy of their resolutions. For instance, the Governors should direct their respective Houses of Assembly to enact laws banning Open Grazing.

Meanwhile, Governor Fayemi has constituted a nine- person Committee to harmonise the views of the Government and People of Ekiti State on the review of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).