The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the report of the recently concluded National Conference Report of 2014.
The council presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan stated that the contributions of everyone that contributed to the document made the document rich, adding that the report is for the collective interest of all Nigerians.
Briefing State House correspondents shortly after the meeting, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, said that council approved that the resolutions and Recommendations that have implications on constitutional amendment or enactment of new laws, the Attorney General of the Federation should compile, vet them for onward transmission to the national assembly for enactment into law.
According to Anyim, Council also approved that all policy matters that require action by federal agencies be referred to the agencies for immediate implementation and all that require action by state governments or state agencies should be referred to the states for their immediate implementations and ditto for local government.
“The National Conference report came to council today. You will recall that barely one year ago, Mr. President inaugurated the conference and that at the end of their seating, the conference came up with a report and submitted the report to him.
“You will also recall that the conference came up with modalities for implementing their resolutions or recommendations. And I think it was the high point of that effort. They not only came up with recommendations, they not only agreed on basic measure, they also recommended to government on how to implement those recommendations and resolutions.
“Let me as state that what happened in council today was for the council to approve that those modalities be adopted in implementing the report. Recall that when the report was submitted to Mr. President, he set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Attorney General of the Federation and the committee has looked at the report in its entirety. They have looked at the recommendations and they have advised Mr. President that they were implementable.
“You would have heard the President promising severally that he was going to implement the recommendations of the conference. So, the report coming to the council today is the first leg of taking concrete steps towards implementing the recommendations and resolutions of the conference and what was agreed today in council are one, that the resolutions and Recommendations that have implications on constitutional amendment or enactment of new laws, the attorney general should compile them, vet them for onward transmission to the national assembly for enactment into law. So we expect that in the nearest future, the attorney general would have concluded work on them and they will be forwarded by mr president to the National Assembly.
“The second approval was also that there are recommendations that have to do with policy matters and those recommendations are necessarily for implementation by either federal agencies or state agencies or local government areas. So, it’s was approved in council that all policy matters that require action by federal agencies would be referred to the agencies for immediate implementation and all that require action by state governments or state agencies should be referred to the states for their immediate implementations and ditto for local government.
“On other matters that require legal issues, for instance where it concerns constitutional amendment, it is not really the responsibility of the National Assembly alone. They have to work with the state assemblies in bringing effect to this. So, today, we are taking steps towards implementing the resolutions of the national conference and we believe that the vision of Mr. President in setting up the conference and the wonderful work done by eminent Nigerians who attended the conference in producing the report, the resolutions and recommendations, we would be giving consideration and we believe our country will benefit immensely from the work of this conference,” he stated.
Asked if National Assembly will pass the draft bill before the end of the life span of this administration, Anyim said, “Is not the place of the executive and is the place of every Nigerian to push his/her representative at the National Assembly to pass into law. We therefore recommend this report to Nigerians and urge them to get their representatives at the National Assembly to get it implemented”.
Asked why of the hurry in implementing the report with few days to the elections, the SGF said, President Jonathan had been consistent right from his closing remarks at the conference that he will implement the recommendations.
“The conference didn’t stop at recommendations, they went ahead to set out modalities. The process starting now is not going to end tomorrow. Is not an over night thing but the journey starts now.
“There is no pressure from any group to implement the report, Mr. President is keeping to his promise”, he said.
