Former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Mustapha Akanbi, has joined the call for a national conference to address some of the problems of Nigeria.

In an interview with our correspondent in Ilorin on Wednesday, the retired judge said there should not be no quarrel over the name of such a meeting, adding that the opinons of the stakeholders could be collated and synthesised to form the basis for a constitutional conference.

He warned against comments suggestive of a possible breakup of the country.

Akanbi said, "It is not in my contemplation that Nigeria will break up. I believe in the unity of Nigeria and in the unity of the African race. That is how I grew up. The National Sovereign Conference call is more pronounced in the South than in the North. So it is an idea of a group."

The former Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission suggested that retired Justice Alfa Belgore should be the chairman of the conference.

He said, "My opinion is that if we can have a roundtable conference, let us not fight whether it is National Sovereign Conference or what. Let us come together and not make it purely political. Let us have Nigerians from all walks of life, from the professional, legislature, executive and judiciary and other bodies. We should meet and bring out opinions from all sides and we have all these opinions from all sides. Let us talk and dialogue and come to a definite conclusion as happened before independence."

"If we now have it and they say what they are doing is constitutional conference, that is enough but then professionals and all stakeholders would have come together and said this is the constitution we are reviewing. What we need is consultation. We all talk together and at the end of the day, by the time we go round the villages, towns and cities, I have a feeling that when the majority of the opinion is streamlined, we can then get the constitution that will take care of every affairs of the nation."