Some 10,000 Nigerians have died in communal violence since 1999

A three month national conference to discuss political reforms in Nigeria, opened on Monday in the capital Abuja, amid controversy, boycotts and threats of court action.

Nearly 400 delegates from around the country have been invited to come up with recommendations for constitutional changes that will address the ethnic and religious tensions that have often sparked violence in the country.

But things seem to be falling apart as some of the dignitaries expected at the meeting - including Nobel prize winner, Professor Wole Soyinka - have turned down their invitation.

Critics have dismissed the government-sponsored conference as a pointless talking shop.

The BBC's Africa Live programme asks: Has there been a national conference in your country? What was the outcome?

Is a national conference the best way to improve democracy and the political situation in your country?

This debate is now closed. We have published below, a section of the comments we received:

It is counter productive to complain about a broken system while sabotaging efforts to improve it. Deci Spence Opiyo, Arlington, USA

Dialogue is essential to growth and improvement. It is counter productive to constantly complain about a broken system while sabotaging efforts to improve it. Deciding not to engage in discussions because of the narrow agenda is unacceptable.
Deci Spence Opiyo, Arlington, USA

National conferences don't work in Africa; they just inflate existing problems. In Liberia, national conferences were only an opportunity for greedy politicians to continue their tricky ways. Africa needs rulers who are honest and respectable men and women who love their country.
Boakai Kanneh, Conakry,Guinea

Different Nigerian governments have organised different national conferences, but none have ever solved the nation's questions. The new conference is just another talking shop.
Olusegun Banjo, Enugu, Nigeria

It is much better to thrash things out at the table than resort to guns. Mmabatho, Gaborone, Botswana

National conferences can be a way forward. It is much better to thrash things out at the table than resort to guns. Who knows, perhaps the various Nigerian parties will agree to compromise on key issues for the benefit of all. Nigeria should be the leading country in Africa. Let us not lose sight of the reality that those delegates represent all Nigerians. We can't expect the local vicar or the village chief to be invited to represent each and every person.
Mmabatho, Gaborone, Botswana

National conferences in Africa are a waste of time and just another avenue to steal or waste public funds. Everyone already knows what the problems are. Just appoint a commission consisting of independent professionals to come up with workable solutions to the problems.
Stephen Manah, USA

In my view, any opportunity for citizens to brainstorm on the way forward for their nation is welcome. The conference in Nigeria is a good opportunity for people, especially the aggrieved ones, to air their feelings and for the delegates to come up with binding resolutions for the nation as a whole. I think Professor Wole Soyinka and others refusing their invitations is a wrong move. I would have expected them to use this opportunity, their influence, and their wealth of knowledge and experience to ensure that a popular agenda could be followed.
Michael O. Omidiran, Lagos, Nigeria

National conferences are important brainstorming sessions that allow for ideas from non-traditional sources to be discussed. They are a good foundation for policy formulation but can only achieve good results when the participants are diverse and the discussions are open and fair.
Joseph Okech, Texas, USA

The national conference, if steered properly, can seek answers to long standing problems. Obioma Nwaefulu, Benin City, Nigeria

Yes. A national conference in Nigeria is long overdue. The country is beginning to put herself together again after a long spell of military dictatorship and corruption. Nigerians and indeed Africans are capable of governing themselves. The national conference, if steered properly, can seek answers to long standing problems which hitherto have hindered the progress of the nation such as nepotism, tribalism, religious intolerance, corruption, the continuous brain drain, national revenue allocations and diversifying external revenue income.
Obioma Nwaefulu, Benin City, Nigeria

This conference is being held at what cost to the tax payer? What an utter and absolute farce. It's yet another talking shop to indulge the corrupt elite. There are pressing issues that this government has continually failed to address: where is the revenue from oil being channelled to? Not schools, health care, policing, or job creation. Personally, I would rather see the President and his cronies give an account of how our money has been spent all these years that he has been in power. Now that would be a public spectacle worth seeing.
Pete, Ibadan, Nigeria

For this conference to make any meaningful contribution, all stakeholders should be represented. The current selection of the delegates is questionable; they do not represent the true stakeholders.
Oluchukwu Ogwu, Sweden/Nigeria

There is no alternative to dialogue. Even if the national conference does not totally transform Nigeria's economic and political situation, I believe it will have some positive impact.
Okogun Nelson, Paris, France

National conferences can only work if there is transparency and a real commitment to taking the country forward. We asked for one in Cameroon back in the early 1990's and we're still waiting.
Ngum Ngafor, Manchester, UK

Lucky delegates accrue huge allowances at the expense of poor tax payers. Shuttie F.N.Libuta, Kitwe, Zambia

Yes national conferences work, but only in creating quick money for the lucky delegates who accrue huge allowances at the expense of poor tax payers. I'm not surprised some great thinkers have declined to attend such misplaced gatherings which benefit only a select few. Anybody that has been in government and has not contributed positively to national development during their tenure should not be recycled. Let new brains come on board.
Shuttie F.N.Libuta, Kitwe, Zambia

Before the conference, the Nigerian people yearned for one. Now that it's being held, some Nigerians are complaining. We need this conference! It will bring elite Nigerians together to deal with the problems facing the country. Of course, out of these 400 delegates you still have some bad eggs. However, most are going to Abuja to try and change our country for the better.
Seyi B. Adu, Nigerian in the U.S

The same people that have battered the economy are coming together under a different name to find a solution to the problems they have created. It's funny indeed. How can they select old politicians as delegates without even thinking about tomorrow, our children and the unity of our country? They are only interested in the money they will make from this new talk show.
Stephen Oke, Delta State, Nigeria

Nigeria ought to be one of the richest countries in the world but we are among the poorest! Mr President, please tackle corruption first. When Nigerians are happy then there will be no need for a national conference.
Hadi Koko, Newcastle, UK

Dialogue with people who have entrenched views is a waste of time. Kwame Agbodza, London, UK

I think the most civilised way of consensus building is probably by dialogue. However, dialogue with people who have entrenched views is a waste of time and resources. I remember the various conferences which took place to draw up Ghana's current constitution in 1992. Although the opposition largely boycotted the conferences, the nation had a vision which was to return to constitutional rule and so it worked. If we Africans find solutions to massive corruption and get realistic about our goals and aspirations, we can reduce the number of useless conferences.
Kwame Agbodza, London, UK

There is nothing bad in holding a national conference if the majority of the population sees it as a way of solving the religious and tribal crisis in Nigeria.
Zakariyah Agboola Yusuf , Japan

A national conference is very good for any nation if the delegates' resolutions are implemented. In my country Liberia, we saw a big conference with delegates coming from all over the country and overseas, but former President Charles Taylor refused to implement the resolutions and the conference was therefore useless.
Armah Comehn, Dakar, Senegal/Liberia

All of the political big wigs in Nigeria seem to agree that the Vision 2010 confab held under the Abacha regime produced all the necessary recommendations to resolve the crisis in Nigeria. So why can't the document be adopted? This new conference is just a waste of tax payers' money and is all about Obasanjo's third-term bid.
Juliana Taiwo, Abuja, Nigeria

Discussions in these conferences must be free, sincere and honest, with no red or 'no go' areas. Hamid Alsharief, Khartoum, Sudan

The call for a national dialogue is very loud in my country, Sudan. The peace accord signed between the warring parties in Sudan aims at restructuring the country based only on the vision of the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. I support national conferences because they give the people a chance to contribute. Justice demands that the selection of people for such national conferences must reflect all the different components of the country and all views. Discussions in these conferences must be free, sincere and honest, with no red or 'no go' areas. And the outcome of these conferences must be binding on all. I think national conferences can be the panacea for Africa's wars.
Hamid Alsharief, Khartoum, Sudan

Yes, they can work. But it depends on the ruling government. For a conference to be successful it needs the government to implement its recommendations.
Okpala Odilichukwu Ralueke, Nigeria/Ghana

National conferences work but let the people decide who should participate. I worry that the Nigerian conference may be a way of deceiving the people. We want a sovereign national conference not a government-sponsored conference. I also fear that the outcome will be treated like that of the Oputa Panel, which investigated human rights abuses and whose recommendations have still not been implemented. Overall, I doubt this conference will bring the required solution to political agitations in Nigeria.
Ndukwe Okechukwu, Sweden/Nigeria

National conferences may work if delegates focus on real problems such as corruption and how a few wealthy individuals dominate the whole political landscape. They must NOT be distracted by the amount they personally expect to gain as participants at the conference.
Fabian Anyanwu, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

A conference of this nature is long overdue in Nigeria, the representation issues notwithstanding. There are certain imbalances that a few Nigerians have been exploiting to the detriment of the majority. We must discuss this.
Ezekiel Saje, Kaduna, Nigeria

My country Ghana is excellent at organising such platforms but nothing is ever achieved. Robert Opoku, Ghanaian in Sweden

The rationale behind such conferences is solid. However, many are just talking shops and nothing gets implemented. My country Ghana is excellent at organising such platforms but nothing is ever achieved. Some people merely use such conferences to enrich themselves, so I think it is better we do NOT organise such conferences because the money wasted could provide social infrastructure like schools, toilets and water for my village. We are tired of conferences.
Robert Opoku, Ghanaian in Sweden

In 1992, my country the DRC experienced the longest national conference in Africa. It was really good for the Zairian people to discuss the future of their country. The current transitional government in the DRC is also the outcome of what I would call a national conference, as it gathered delegates from almost all the political parties and civil society. Unfortunately, because of a lack of political will, the resolutions of both national conferences were not implemented as agreed and the problems remained unresolved. I personally believe that with the many recycled politicians we have in the DRC, a national conference is not the best way to improve democracy. Politicians do not work for the interests of the nation; instead they prolong the conferences to get more allowances.
Kapinga Ntumba, Harare, Zimbabwe

The national conference in Nigeria will not change the lives of Nigerians because those nominated to 'talk the talk' are the ones that caused the problems. They do not represent the average man on the street who feels the pain of everyday life in Nigeria.
Yommi, Lagos, Nigeria

Nigerians should be applauded for attempting to find their way out of the country's political morass. The country did not jump into its current political mess overnight, it took years of bad decisions and it will also probably take years of informed decisions to improve things. So, while the national conference may not be a perfect step, it is nonetheless, an important first step.
Charles Okeke, Nevada, USA

I think if IBB (retired general Ibrahim Babangida) is the best political "dribbler" in Nigeria, then OBJ (President Olusegun Obasanjo) is the best political "goalkeeper" in the country. The conference is a dangerous "storm" that could be good for Nigeria.
Kolawole Raheem, Finland

Yes, a national conference can make change. For instance, southern Sudan had been in crisis from 1990 to 2002 when many conferences were held to reconcile not only the political groups but also clans and tribes. The New Sudan Council of Churches - the umbrella body of all churches sponsored those conferences with the support of USAID, World Council of Churches and other agencies to reconcile the Nuer and Dinka, the two large ethnic groups in Southern Sudan. The last conference was held in Kisumu, Kenya in 2001. It saw the SPLM/A led by John Garang and former rival Riek Machar re-unite a year later.
Peter Tuach, Sudanese in USA

Such conferences can succeed if they allow for a genuine debate and the conclusions duly implemented. Mataka Mposa, USA

There is nothing wrong with national conferences. The problem at times is when such noble debates are used to silence critics. Such conferences can succeed if they allow for a genuine debate and the conclusions duly implemented.
Mataka Mposa, USA

Over the past 14 years the Liberian people have had two national conferences, and none of the resolutions coming out these conferences have ever been implemented. In my view, national conferences don't work. There is an unnoticed gain from national conferences though. They quite often serve as a promotional point and financial gain for the organisers and prominent individuals who serve as speakers.
E. Julu Swen, Monrovia, Liberia

National dialogue is not the remedy to the nagging problem of ethnic violence in Nigeria and Africa at large. It stings my ear fiercely when I hear that Africans and Nigerians in particular still kill themselves in the name of tribalism. I want mother Africa to go to bed happier than she is today and wake up prettier than she was yesterday. A society that lacks peace is akin to a tree that lost its root.
Victor Nwokocha, New York, USA.

The national conference is a right step in the wrong direction - that is, how do you invite old politicians and some elder statesmen, who in the past have contributed to what we experience today - bad economy? Can they offer good advice to the country? The national conference in Abuja is not the best way to improve democracy and the political situation in the country.
Amadi Ikechukwu, Lagos, Nigeria

There is no harm in trying a national conference in a country that is plagued by corruption, ethnic and religious violence. There is no doubt in my mind that it will have some impact on how the country is governed if it is successful. Critics have to realise that Nigerians have been under military dictatorship for so long and implementing a new system of government cannot be successful overnight.
Omorodion Osula, Boston, U.S.A.

President Obasanjo can have 400 conferences with 4000 delegates if he wants to, but nothing good will come out of them. Ibrahim, Kaduna, Nigeria

We all know that the major problem facing Nigeria is CORRUPTION! President Obasanjo can have 400 conferences with 4000 delegates if he wants to, but nothing good will come out of them. Mr. President, tackle the real issue at hand first. Corruption.
Ibrahim, Kaduna, Nigeria