Elombah.com Correspondent was at the Nigeria@50 Summit that took place at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, in Park Lane, London, W1K 7TN today. The summit, a privately funded enterprise under the umbrella of Business in Africa Events [BIAE] to “harness the celebratory spirit into creating opportunity for business development in Nigeria”. The Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of BIAE, Christian Dozie Udechukwu put together the
Business Summit & Cultural Gala Dinner 2010 that kicked on June 28 to end on June 29 of 2010.
According to our reporter, the event was misrepresented in the media especially coming on the heels of reports, though denied by the government, that N10 billion has been earmarked for the celebration of the country’s Golden Jubilee.
The opposition party, The Labour Unions and Nigerians in the Diaspora wondered why a conference meant to mark the independence anniversary of Nigeria is being held in London, thousands of kilometres away.
This led to several Nigerians in UK including registering a protest at the waste and profligacy of staging the Golden Jubilee celebration in the UK.
But according to reports, the event was low-key. “When I got to the Hotel, there was nothing to indicate significant government presence”, our correspondent said.
The occasion witnessed the attendance of the former vice president Alex Ekwueme, the former CBN Governor, Chukwuma Soludo – who gave a thought-provoking and sobering lecture on the state of the Nation.
The chairman of NEIC, Mr Sam Ohabunwa spoke on the prospects of Nigeria by 2060. The chairman of PDP and the DG NAFDAC as well as the chairman, vice-chairman and the treasurer of NIDO-UK at the summit.
The corporate sponsores of the event included Access Bank, British Airways, First Bank, Shell, Travelex, UBS, Zenith Bank Laurent – Perrier, AFR-INVEST, GTBank, EKO Atlantic, Capital Oil & Gas, FERMA, Federal Ministry of Transportation, A-Z Petroleum, among others.
However, there are reports that the government organised event is still planned for today, June 30, 2010, I am still trying to find out the venue.
The Nigeria at 50 summits taking place in London generated ripples at home with the Organised Labour, opposition political parties and politicians querying the rationale behind it.
The Nigeria media reported that President Goodluck Jonathan had been expected to lead dozens of ministers, state governors and government officials to the conference, where they were due to address issues from bank and power sector reforms to eradicating counterfeit drugs.
But the President and most of the delegation made no-show which would have come days after he returned from a G20 summit in Toronto
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) condenmed the two-day conference, saying the summit is irrational and unnecessary.
Elder statesman Alhaji Tanko Yakassai and the Action Congress (AC) also described it as a waste of scarce national resources.
NLC President Comrade Adbulwaheed Omar in a statement lamented that huge resources at both federal and state levels have been wasted on travel expenses for a project that has no relation to transforming the nation’s economy.
Omar who reiterated labour’s opposition to the idea of independence anniversary celebration, urged President Jonathan to discourage every act of frivolity and use the resources to fund people-centred projects and policies.
“Is the two-day event sponsored by the United Kingdom on the condition that it must hold in London? Are travel expenses and logistics of the event part of the N10 billion anniversary jamboree? Are issues expected to be discussed at the conference, such as power, infrastructure, corruption, health, education and agriculture so exclusively sacrosanct that they could not be debated here in Nigeria? These and many more urgently beg for answers.
“We wish to restate here our earlier opposition to the whole idea of celebrating in a prodigal manner our country’s 50 years of independence and urge President Goodluck Jonathan to instead use this moment to concretely deepen our democracy by discouraging acts of frivolity that this London Summit represents. It is clearly a meaningless summit at the expense of dearly needed resources that should instead be used to fund people-centred projects and policies,” Omar said.
Yakassai said the London confab is unnecessary adding that “If the meeting has any value… (it) ought to have taken place in Nigeria.”
He described the agenda as suspicious and a waste of scarce resources.
“The agenda of the meeting is suspicious laden with political motives. What is the need of having such a meeting when it can take place in Nigeria; this is sheer waste of public funds when the people are poor,” he said.
National Publicity Secretary of AC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in a statement, said the conference is an insult to millions of Nigerians who are daily struggling to make ends meet.
He said it also highlights the insensitivity of those at the helm of affairs in Nigeria, especially coming on the heels of reports, though denied by the government, that N10 billion has been earmarked for the celebration of the country’s Golden Jubilee.
The opposition party wondered why a conference meant to mark the independence anniversary of Nigeria is being held in London, thousands of kilometres away.
“Who is behind this conference? What informed the choice of London for a conference on Nigeria that is expected to be attended by state and federal government officials as well as ruling party members? Who will pay the expenses to be incurred by the slew of officials attending the conference? Of what benefit is this conference to Nigerians that it will cost them so much? And how does this advance our democracy?” the party queried.
According to the AC, “The times we are in are very tough, and even richer nations are cutting costs in all areas. Nigeria cannot be an exception. We must find a way to slash the cost of running governments at all levels, so that we can channel our scarce resources into improving the living standards of our long-suffering people. This is the essence of governance.”
It said all those who embarked on the “London Jamboree” must be made to either pay their own expenses or refund such to the coffers if they have been bankrolled from the public treasury.
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