Frontline constitutional lawyer and former Minister of Education Professor Ben Nwabueze has said he turned down the nomination of President Goodluck Jonathan as amember of the National Dialogue advisory committe because he believed a younger person could perform better.
The 83-year-old elder statesman described his nomination to the 13-member national conference committee as inappropriate, arguing that a younger and healthier person ought to have been appointed.
In a statement he personally issued and signed on Thursday, Nwabueze said: “It is an appointment for a younger person, not for an old man of 83 years afflicted by ill-health”.
He said Jonathan should have requested his (Nwabueze’s) socio-political association), the Patriots, to nominate someone to the committee rather than ask him who is currently battling with a terminal illness at a very old age to come be part of the committee.
He said: “I never expected to be appointed chairman or member of the Committee, and would, quite frankly, have considered such an appointment inappropriate in the circumstances. The Patriots would be asked to nominate a member to the Committee.
“It is not generally known to people that I have been fighting prostrate cancer for some years now, and have been kept going by consultations from time to time with, and treatment by a Consultant Oncologist at Charing Cross Hospital, London.
“My appointment with the Consultant Oncologist had been shifted many times because of several postponements in the dates of The Patriots meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Summit at Uyo, both of which eventually took place on August 29 and September 3 and 4 respectively, leaving me free at last to travel to London on September 8 for my medical appointments.
“This is the area in which I think my contribution to the work of the conference would be particularly useful, and I do not see this as in any way conflicting with the terms of reference of the Presidential Committee, although they (i.e. the Terms of Reference) contain a somewhat vaguely worded item, to wit, “to advise government on legal procedures and options for integrating decisions and outcomes of the national dialogue/conference into the constitution and laws of the nation”.
