From Martins Oloja and Madu Onuorah, Abuja

The President, who spoke during the month's edition of the Presidential Media chat yesterday, observed: "Let me deal with this PRONACO thing. We are in a church and you say we establish a choir so that the church can have melodious hymns. Somebody says I have a very good voice, I want to go solo. You don't stop him from going solo. The good thing is the conference presupposes we have alternative views. We bring the different views, harmonise them. Everybody has the right to call a meeting, they can go ahead and call their own conference."
President Obasanjo also foreclosed, for now, the release of council funds to Lagos State, insisting that he was only following the judgment of the court.

Said he: "It is not an issue of two elephants fighting. As far as the constitution is concerned, all the local governments` are spelt out in the constitution. Five governors, four of them reverted. One of them decided not to. What do you expect me to do. The judgment said give the money to 20 local governments. What do you expect one to do. Let the governor of Lagos State do what his fellow governors have done. For me, I will do what is only constitutionally right."
The President also gave more insight into why his government convened the National Political Reforms Conference, which begins deliberations today.

According to him, he expects the delegates to "come up with decisions that will strengthen our system of government."
The President said the second thing he expects is a "new legislation for electoral act or amendment to existing legislation to ensure justice, unity, gender equity."
President Obasanjo, who has been reported as having imposed no-go areas, said the third expectation is "we have to go to how the constitution can be amended."
The fourth one, according to him, "are things the executive can undertake on its own", noting that "the first three we will execute with the legislative."
He did not explain what he called "those things that will not be of constitutional nature but will enhance our unity, practice of governance."
The President said the inclusion of the Oputa panel report as reference matter is not illegal as the government has obeyed the court's injunction.

He said the report is not a wasted effort as "now we have found a way to bring it out in the open."
On the sovereignty of Nigeria, he said: "I have not minced my words about the sovereignty of Nigeria. We are not averse, but it must be a purposely planned and focused conference. Also, I have found out privately what people want. Three years ago, I called all the zones to find out what they want. And they all want equity, fairness and development. No zone talked about breaking up Nigeria or diminishing the bond that holds us together. So, the time has come for the exercise we have put in place. We also consulted people on why they want a conference. One said we want to produce the next President.

"He said he wants it in his lifetime. The other said the constitution we have now said we, the people of Nigeria..." but he doesn't like that. Another said, what we have now is good, nobody is complaining too much; that what we have now continues but people have a sense of participation for development. You have different people asking for national conference. But for it is to strengthen the bound of unity of Nigeria."
On the reported 'no-go areas, the President noted: "What you call no-go-areas, I don't regard it as such. I said with the experiences we have, attempts at constitution making after independence, we must take certain things as given. It's like a wife and children. Unless you accept your marriage is given, there is no point sitting down to talk about it. Then, if you accept your marriage as given, you can't sit down and talk about it. If you don't accept Nigeria as given, why are you sitting down to discuss? I don't say don't discuss. I say we should regard some things as given..

"I hope this conference will be the mother of all conferences. The speech was to leave nobody in doubt as to the aims and objectives. A leader is to lead. The purpose of leadership is to lead. And if I cannot lead, I should go back to my farm."
On the National Assembly's attitude, he said the National Assembly has right to take its own decision, adding that he "consulted them all the way. Should we establish the conference by legislation or not? We talked about all the problems we will have. We agreed we are not establishing the conference by legislation. They said the way we have been managing your budget go and manage it that way. Democracy is the leeway to abuse and all that. I have called meetings. They believe if they don't establish it by legislation, they cannot approve the budget for it. They asked me to look inwards and be creative for funding not specifically budgeted for."
On the Oputa panel, he noted: "It is up to you; that Oputa panel was meant to be for reconciliation, an opportunity to open up to let the truth be known. The fact that today we have a democracy, to nurture it, to widen it, you got to be reasonably satisfied that what we suffered for is coming with fruits."`