Concerned Nigerians, both serving and retired leaders, has yesterday brainstormed on the multi-faceted problems facing the country and proffered solutions to them.
Vehemently criticise against those beating the drums of war and pushing for the nation’s disintegration. The leaders warned that the break-up of the country would not help the cause of any part of Nigeria.
Speaking on behalf of the leaders, Abdulsalami Abubakar, at Institute for Peace and Sustainable Development in Minna, Niger State ,said, ‘this roundtable is the centre’s contribution to the search for solutions to some of the problems we are currently experiencing as a nation, particularly issues and matters around co-existence and security.
Instead of overheating the polity, the leaders drawn from the southern and northern part of the country, they called for dialogue and peaceful coexistence in addressing the current security challenges, which they agreed demand urgent attention.
Former head of state, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) and chairman of the institute, who inaugurated the two-day roundtable, said dialogue among the people, regions and interest groups, was the most feasible option to resolving the problems.
“Nigeria is going through a period of trial amidst growing tension and resentment all over the country. There is anger in the land and the voices of reason are drowning very rapidly,” he said.
Abdulsalami added that the situation in the country required the leaders to live up to the people’s expectations and promised that the outcome of the meeting would be made available to the federal and state governments as well as other institutions for consideration and action.
The former head of state clarified that the roundtable was not a mini-national conference or a forum to review the country’s constitution.
The chairman of the occasion, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, said that disintegration would not solve Nigeria’s problems.
Gambari, a former under-secretary-general of the United Nations for the Department of Political Affairs (DPA), like Abdulsalami, said that the problems “we face as a nation can only be resolved through dialogue. There can be no genuine military solution to conflicts except dialogue. We have to realise the vision of our founding fathers which is a prosperous and peaceful Nigeria.”
In his address, Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State, who was the special guest, said that the challenges confronting Nigeria are surmountable and requires the sincerity of stakeholders.
Bello, who was represented by the secretary to the state government (SSG), Alhaji Ahmed Matane, lauded the institute for initiating the roundtable to move the country forward.
Other dignitaries at the occasion included the chairman of the Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council, Alfred Diete Spiff, the Emir of Minna, Alhaji Umar Bahago, and the Emir of Kazaure, Alhaji Najib Adamu.
Others were Gen. Alani Akirinnade, Gen. IBM Haruna, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, Mrs. Josephine Anenih, and Ambassador Zubairu Dada, a ministerial nominee.
The conference came a few weeks after former President Olusegun Obasanjo, wrote a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari to address the worsening insecurity situation in the country.
In the letter which he titled: “Open Letter to the President”, Obasanjo warned that the citizens could take recourse in anything and everything that can guarantee their security, “individually and collectively” should the federal government failed to act appropriately.
Obasajo, who warned that Nigeria was heading for the precipice if urgent steps were not taken by the federal government, especially against armed herdsmen, said: “Since the issue is of momentous concern to all well-meaning and all right-thinking Nigerians, it must be of great concern to you, and collective thinking and dialoguing is the best way of finding an appropriate and adequate solution to the problem.
“The content of this letter, therefore, should be available to all those who can help in proffering effective solutions for the problem of insecurity in the land. One of the spinoffs and accelerants is the misinformation and disinformation through the use of fake news. A number of articles, in recent days, have been attributed to me by some people who I believe may be seeking added credence and an attentive audience for their opinions and view-points,” he said.
With particular reference to the killing of Funke Olakunrin, daughter of the leader of the pan-Yoruba social-culture group, Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranri, Obasanjo said that he was seriously worried over four “avoidable calamities” which the federal government needs to work on.
“To be explicit and without equivocation, Mr. President and General, I am deeply worried about four avoidable calamities: abandoning Nigeria into the hands of criminals who are all being suspected, rightly or wrongly, as Fulanis and terrorists of Boko Haram type,” he said.
Thereafter, a section of Yoruba youths asked Fulani herdsmen to leave the region because they were no longer wanted because of their alleged heinous activities.
Consequently, the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) led by Prof. Ango Abdullahi and some northern youths ordered all Fulani herdsmen living in the southern part of the country to return home.
Abdullahi said: “The reactions we are getting from some sections of the country, especially from leaders who ought to be more restrained; concerning the sensitive nature of the issue. We also want to assure them that the NEF will take up this issue, to find solution.
“We are worried about their well-being (herdsmen). If it is true that their safety can no longer be, we rather have them back in areas where their safety is guaranteed. The bottom line is that their safety is far more important than their stay there. This is a country we all wish to keep together and not at the expense of other section,” he said.
It took the intervention of the presidency for the tension generated by the NEF order to die down.
President Buhari who took a swipe at the call by NEF on Fulani herders to leave the southern part of the country, declared that Nigeria belongs to all and enjoined all citizens to ignore the “infamous and unwarranted order by the northern elders.
Buhari said: “In line with our country’s constitution, the government of Nigeria, my administration will protect citizens of Nigeria wherever they find themselves.
“No one has the right to ask anyone or group to depart from any part of the country, whether north, south, east or west,” he said.
Similarly, the Fulani umbrella group, Miyetti Allah Kauta Hore, asked its members across the country not to leave where they are in the southern part.
The group said that NEF did not consult its leaders before asking cattle rearers to leave the southern part of the country, adding that there was no cogent security report to warrant their returning home.
To address these divergent positions and the security challenges, Obasanjo advocated a national dialogue on the way forward.
The Abdulsalami two-day dialogue, which ends today, is seen as rising to the challenge as leaders from all parts of the country are attending it.