Oborevwori Proposes Institutionalized National Dialogue

Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori proposed a significant shift in Nigeria's approach to national dialogue during a centenary anniversary lecture at the Yoruba Tennis Club in Lagos. He suggested moving beyond ad hoc national conferences to an institutionalized process, legally anchored to convene every ten years.

This proposal aims to create a structured framework for addressing Nigeria's longstanding governance challenges. Oborevwori's model includes three interlocking pillars: first, ensuring that resolutions from national conferences are directly transmitted to the National Assembly for legislative consideration; second, establishing an independent, non-partisan secretariat to oversee the implementation of conference resolutions; and third, creating a public accountability scorecard to track progress.

The proposal comes against a backdrop of skepticism regarding previous national conferences, such as those in 1994-1995 and 2014, which were criticized for their lack of genuine dialogue and subsequent shelving of resolutions.