INSECURITY: NSGF SETS TO BREAK THE MYTH OF PEACE
The wave of security challenges in the Northern region of Nigeria has made Nigerians especially northerners have sleepless nights and people oriented leaders restless in recent times. Hundreds of innocent lives have been lost and properties worth millions have wasted on account of recurring fracas fast engulfing the once peaceful region.
The Northern State Governors Forum (NSGF) has plunged itself deeper into the process of restoring peace and returning socio-economic activities back to the once thriving region. Top on the earmarked roadmap to peace is how to restore the present economic back turn in the region, reduce poverty and provide for the teaming unemployed youths.
Alas the forum is set to break the myth of peace in the region. The end of the road seems to be coming for a thriving regime of violence in the north. The elusive peace in recent times is set to be restored and the NSGF is leaving no stone unturned in that direction.
According to the chairman of the forum and Governor of Niger state, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu, a group of respectable elites from the region with remarkable contribution to service to humanity will be saddled with the responsibility of coming up with workable solutions within 90 days on the ongoing violence in the region.
The NSGF which has been playing a leading role in stabilizing the nation socio-politically seeks to be looking out for ways to tackle all areas conceived to be injurious to the peace of Nigeria. The constitution which serves as a working document for coexistence among the diverse ethnic groups also forms a basic part of the forums agenda. The leadership of the NSGF also believe a well define constitution that has taken into cognisance all areas that affects the Nigerians according to their peculiarities aims at engendering peace and development for all.
Nigerians must therefore wake up to the realisation that some of their leaders are up to no good. They are not done with siphoning public treasury but interested in perpetuating a political dynasty even if it will cost two-third of the lives of their subjects. They dazzle few amounts of naira to induce their gullible errand boys to kill and plunder. This is a very unfortunate episode in our political history today. Some elites have concluded plans to make a larger majority of Nigerians poor so they can be ready tools in executing their macabre wishes. The constant spill of human blood therefore satisfies capricious desires of these despicable elites on the prowl.
It is sad that after successive military administrations and its attendant turbulent years one would expect a democracy to encourage brotherhood cemented on mutual understanding under the umbrella of collective bargaining. It is therefore painful that the experience of democratic rule in Nigeria has been characterised by political jobbers interested in siphoning public funds and perpetrating political dynasties to the detriment of peace and development.
The issue of poverty a phenomenon that has become part of the daily life of Nigerians has blinded people making them ready tools in the hands of self seeking politicians who are on the prowl to waste lives to satisfy their greed. The poverty index is soaring in the region and that may have accounted for the decline in moral chastity, loss of commitment to serving fatherland and fiendish approach to neighbours. All these therefore make the vision of a peaceful society a mirage.
The quest for materialism and official corruption causing systemic rot in all sector of the economy has left a good majority of Nigerians deprived and leadership class mistrusted leading to circles of violence anchored on dissenting voices in parts of the country.
As part of its cardinal objective, the NSGF pledging to combat the burgeoning security mire in the region from the perspective of providing basic dividends of democracy anchored from all 19 states of the region and collectively pooled for the advantage of the region generally. The people therefore must change attitude for the best by reintegrating, reconciling and reappraising commitment to fellow citizens and fatherland. Government must however ensure provision of basic social and infrastructural security for the people as panacea to peace and harmony.
The level of commitment to father land however functions what the fatherland has provided for the people. Sometime it is what the country did for you in providing all forms of security and not what you do for your country. The reason for the reversal in John F Kennedys, former president of United States of America submission on service to fatherland is based on the fact that the circumstance is quite different between today Nigeria and then America. The US has at that time provided all forms of social security’s for its people and what is left is for the people to give back. Nigeria, Nigerians will soar in plenitude, peace and development if the wave of pillage is ended and funds made available for the common masses at the grass roots.
In the 1940’s during the Second World War, young pilots of the Royal Air force of Great Britain are known to jump into their aircraft with freshly amputated limbs to save their country from capitulating to the Germans. The Japanese love for fatherland was even legendary in the war effort of making Japan win in all its battle theatres. Young men under a suicide division of the air force use their aircrafts as missile in desperate effort to defend fatherland. In Nigeria none would want to lift a muscle in defence of fatherland especially knowing that only a few monopolise resources and their deaths or sacrifice will be in vain.
It is therefore sad to note the barrages of unsavoury comments doctored by a misguided few against the NSGF as it is capable of conflagrating the already volatile tuff. The forum has never rested on its oars in paddling the affairs of the region to safer haven of peace and development. It is therefore important to state that the NSGF is top among concerned regional cleavage in Nigeria with the interest of the people at heart.
Obviously it’s not a particularly good time for the forum now that misguided politicians have leveraged on the security challenges in the region to whittle its political will and smear its political achievements. Recently the forum and its leadership have been an object of attack by persons perceived as profiting from the wave of violence in the region.
These individuals have saturated the media with petty issues so minute and inconsequential with the aim of spreading the orgy of killings by whipping up religious sentiments instead of working with well meaning Nigeria’s in the direction of finding peace that has eluded the region in recent time. Top on the agenda of these groups of people is to incapacitate the wailing region politically and economically to suit their financial and power game.
The recent plea by the leadership of the NSGF to handle the 48 hours relocation order handed down the Hausa/Fulani ethnic group after the plateau genocide was given a wrong interpretation. Some people maintained the forum is characterised by persons with ethnic and religious affiliation with the Fulanis, making it all have a feel that the NSGF is having a sectional interest within its regional cleavage.
The statement by the chairman of the NSGF is consistent with the core mandate of the forum to protect lives and property of the region by exploring all possible limits of safety no matter the ethnic or religious group involved. Mischief makers however leveraged on the sensitivity of the plateau fracas to demarcate the forum along ethnic and religious lines to suit their self seeking interests.
It is therefore important to properly situate the position of the NSGF in the matter especially to silence enemies of well meaning Nigerians seeking true reconciliation among warring ethnic groups on the Plateau. This truly is a sensitive period that even silence from the forum on the ongoing melee will in no small ways generate condemnation. What is therefore important to note is the need to be tolerant, accommodating and less suspicious of comments or actions by leadership of the forum that are detribalised and have no reason to present religion in volatile circumstance as the genocide in parts of Plateau state.
It is therefore a sad reality that some elites savour with relish the genocide on the plateau and other bloodletting tactics in the region, profiting from the heavy shower of human blood with no regards to sanctity of life. These groups of individuals prepare all the environmental factors to satisfy their political interest not minding the quantum of human lives wasted. It is therefore heartwarming the resolve of the NSGF to start off the process of healing all parties involved in the Plateau debacle and the challenges in other parts of the region.
The NSGF is therefore working hard to achieve the lost glory of a northern Nigeria that was once peaceful where everyone watched the backs of others. The forum is set to make Nigeria a model for nations with multiplicity and diversity. The magic of one Nigeria is well on the way and it will require collective contribution of all irrespective of regional cleavage of religious views towards making Nigeria work within the context of peace, development and brotherhood. NSGF is therefore on the path to breaking the myth of peace in the region.
Written By Ayegba Israel Ebije