LERE OJEDOKUN, COSMAS EKPUNOBI and ABIODUN ADELAJA, Abuja

His admonition which attracted spontaneous applause and concurrence by federal lawmakers came even as the President tongue-lashed South South delegates who recently walked out on their colleagues at the just concluded National Political Reforms Conference (NPRC).

He described the protest as unfortunate and accused the delegate of allowing themselves to be manipulated and misled by people with little knowledge of the confab’s objectives.

Hon. Masari’s remarks which came as "vote of thanks" to cap President Obasanjo’s address to a joint session of the National - Assembly, attracted spontaneous reaction from lawmakers who commended the Speaker for speaking our minds.

"I hope that the zeal with which we started together God will give us the grace to carry on till the end of our tenure in 2007," Alhaji Masari told Obasanjo at the briefing.

Before now, delegates to the NPRC were sharply divided on the issue of tenure for the president and governors.

While some backed a single six-year term for the president and five-year tenure for governors, others voted for retention of maximum two terms of four years for both.

Addressing a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja, however the President said he did not considers a walkout by aggrieved persons to press their demands "a desirable element of democratic practice."

Delegates from the South South geo-political zone had pulled out from the confab last month following their inability to push through their demand for 23 per cent oil derivation for oil bearing states.

The conference approved 17 per cent oil derivation which is an improvement on the existing 13 per cent derivation.

Apparently reacting to the walk-out by the South-South delegates, the President stated that such action was misguided in a modern world where negotiation, dialogue, give-and take and consensus were available.

"I believe that many that were involved in such situations were being maipulated and misled by persons who had little understanding of the goals or purposes of the conference and who might be mixing up the powers and functions of the conference with those of the legislature." He explained.

President Obasanjo said this was the reason he asked the National Assembly to keep off the conference since the legislature would ultimately have the privilege of working on the final outcome of the confab.

On debt relief, President Obasanjo said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did not pre-condition any of its supervised programmes for the nation before the Paris Club of creditors granted the 60 per cent debt cancellation on June 29.

Government, he said, was also working on a bill that would regulate the process of obtaining foreign loans by all levels of government. One of the elements of the proposed law would seek to peg interest on such loans to ensure concession.

Recalling how the "debt trap had caught the nation and the frustrations to secure reprieve," he stated that a senior IMF official had once told him that "debt relief for Nigeria was more or less a pipe dream."