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The newsmen learnt that President Yar'Adua, on receipt of the offer of possible talks with Enahoro and Soyinka, directed aides and some of his close political associates to facilitate it, noting that he would be ready to meet with them anytime, anywhere.
The concerns of both parties may, however, differ. While the PRONACO leaders are keen to get Yar'Adua to consider its constitutional document, the President is said to be looking forward to the meeting as another opportunity of bringing the country behind his fledgling administration.
According to the sources, the idea of a meeting with the president was first broached from the PRONACO side as part of the movement's efforts to explain its proposed constitution to several stakeholders, both within and outside official government circles.
PRONACO had actually written to the presidency requesting a meeting with the president to present its constitution to him and exchange views with him on the matter. The meeting, which may hold sometimes this month, will feature between five and seven PRONACO leaders.
Yar'Adua is said to have consented to a meeting on principle which PRONACO leaders had said could hold this week in Abuja. But the date may have to be shifted due to the president's attendance at the African Union meeting in Ghana.
The PRONACO leaders hope the meeting with the President would include the National Assembly leaders, who have already indicated readiness to attend.
It was not clear as at press time whether Soyinka had finally signed up to the idea of the meeting, but the plan includes a private session between Enahoro and Yar'Adua.
Enahoro had called for the cancellation of the April elections and there are those who see the outcome of the elections as a vindication of the elder statesman's earlier warning that the exercise should be boycotted.
On his part, Soyinka recently joined other Nobel laureates across the world seeking to limit the tenure of the current presidency on the strength of the widely recognised irregularities of the elections Soyinka, at the U.S. Congressional hearing last month in Washington, DC described Yar'Adua administration as "an interim proceeding."
Soyinka had told the U.S. Congress: "It is taken for granted that there must be governance in the intervening period. Nigerians are political realists and are willing to put to the test the sincerity and political integrity of the individual (i.e. Yar'Adua) who happens to occupy the apex of the nation's governing structure."
But in that speech, Soyinka added that Yar'Adua is not without maneuvering options in-spite of his lack of legitimacy "and may be assisted if, to begin, his very conduct demonstrates the critical recognition that he occupies his present position on sufferance, as a holding arrangement, solely in the interest of national survival."
Sources said both Enahoro and Soyinka have agreed that PRONACO's proposed constitution should be the basis of Yar'Adua summoning an assembly to debate and adopt the proposal from the group to form the main plank of the proposed meeting.
Previous attempts by PRONACO to embark on an advocacy drive for its proposed constitution had indicated a preference for the group to meet the president and others like judges and state governors. For instance, the group's leaders had hoped to meet the president and Federal Government officials last week. But a source said a previous plan to meet with the president had fallen though.
According to sources, PRONACO leaders are confident that the process that led to its proposed constitutions represent a solid mandate of the Nigerian people, especially when compared to the previous processes that led to the promulgated Nigerian constitutions. Soyinka had actually raised the group's document by name last month at the U.S. congress saying it is a product of "over a year's series of conferences" and had been "widely disseminated and debated."
Another source added that the group is willing to engage with the president in the best interest of the nation.
The group has instituted a court action seeking to advance its proposed constitution through the courts. On Monday in a Federal High Court in Abuja, it urged the court to order a referendum to verify the acceptability of the group's constitution with the Nigerian people. The court has set a hearing date for September 20.
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