TheCable

The ongoing national confab has been extended by four weeks, Chairman of the confab, Retired Justice Idris Kutigi, has confirmed.

Addressing delegates on Wednesday, Kutigi said the one-month extension was secured at a Wednesday-night meeting with Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim.

He urged delegates to work harder since the confab could not secure its preferred six-week extension.

Former President of the Senate, Adolphus Wabara, also implored the confab to re-strategise its style of deliberating in order to make maximum use of the extension.

“We are talking about finding ways and means of saving time, and I think I have a formula on how we can finish our assignment,” Wabara said.

“We are allowing debate that has to do with recommendation. As soon as the chairman is called, we should retire to the committee of whole. Yesterday, all we did was amendment, but we still have to come back to do the same thing.

“If we allow all of us to start talking, we would not leave here. All we have to do is go through the recommendations line by line, then if you have anything to say against [it] — not for [it] — put it forward. We move on. We don’t have to come back to that again. If we continue like this we would not leave here, even the one month that we have been granted, we will not leave till August!”

The national confab, which began on March 17, 2014, was scheduled to end on June 19. But the extension means it will now end on July 17, 2014.

Most of the delegates had been expressing concerns over the time limitation, as many of the matters up for debate are nowhere near conclusion.

It also means each of the 492 delegates earns an extra N4million, on top of the initial N12million conference allowance for three months.