DIALOGUE WITH GOVT, AKANBI URGES BOKO HARAM
The pioneer chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi, has urged members of the Boko Haram sect to open dialogue with government.
He said they should use the period of Ramadan to come to the open and explain why they were engaging in wanton killing and destruction of property.
Justice Akanbi who made the charge at the inauguration of Kutashi Centre for Peace and Development (KUCPED), an NGO in Ilorin, saying that youth restiveness in the Niger Delta and in the recent Boko Haram could be put in abeyance if those with means would see the need to help the less priviledged in the society.
He urged all to emulate the founder of the NGO, Alhaji Abdullahi Kutashi.
The erstwhile president of the Court of Appeal said, 'we don't all have to go into politics where it is believed when you are there you can make money by all means. You can do something for the society so that it can be better than we met it. This is exactly what Kutashi has done.'
The guest lecturer who is a lecturer in Peace Studies, Institute of African Studies, Universityy of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac Albert said Nigeria was currently bedeviled with different kinds of violent crises of which Boko Haram was one.
Other kinds of crises, according to him, were youth militancy and restiveness in the Niger Delta, Fulani/farmers crises; value-based-like religious crises in northern Nigeria and activities of street gangs. He added that it had become a divine assignment for all Nigerians to work together for the peace of the country.
The university teacher, defined 'peace as the absence of physical, psychological and structural violence and presence of justice,' listing resources, values, psychological needs and communication as some of the causes of conflicts and violence in the society.
'Basic peace concepts are peace-making, peace-building, peace-keeping, preventive diplomacy and early warning systems. In its broadest sense, peace building refers to those initiatives which foster and support sustainable structures and processes which strengthen the prospects for peaceful coexistence and decrease the likelihood of the outbreak, re -occurrence or continuation of violent conflict.'
In his goodwill message, the Federal Commissioner, National Population Commission (NPC) in the state, Alhaji Saidu Ahmed said the originators of the NGO were in the right direction 'considering the desire for peace, love, care and good governance at this point in time. These concepts are in dire need for the much sought national transformation. I want to believe that peaceful coexistence among the various ethnic and religious groups in Nigeria can be achieved through love and care.
'The inauguration of KUCPED has come at a time when every Nigerian of good conscience is yearning for peace, love and good governance,' the NPC commissioner noted. Founder of the NGO, Kutashi said the organisation was borne out of the increasing global insecurity and poverty ravaging parts of the world.
According to him, develpoment could not take place in the abscence of peace and promised to use the centre to promte peace and development through its porgarmmes and projects.