Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State yesterday told President Goodluck Jonathan that it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to unmask the brains behind the Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
He had the support of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and a former Minister of Police Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Lame.
They are unimpressed by the President’s claim that government is not disposed to granting the sect members amnesty because they are faceless and are not different from ghosts.
The President spoke in Damaturu, Yobe State on Thursday at the start of his visit to Yobe and Borno states, the hotbed of Boko Haram’s insurgency.
However, Governor Shetimma at a meeting with President Jonathan in Maiduguri yesterday insisted that government owes it a responsibility to find who the sect members are.
He said this is not a time to be stiff or go down to the distraction on the Boko Haram crisis.Only a political solution, according to him, can solve the Boko Haram crisis, adding that without negotiation with Boko Haram leaders, the nation risks facing an endless war of attrition.
His words: ”We must know and accept that peace is not something we just wish for; it’s something we have to make ourselves. It is a gift we offer to ourselves; we do not do a favour to anyone by charting the course of peace because trouble is mobile. It steadily comes to our safe homes when we fail to share efforts to stop it from breathing in the very far.
“Life is a continuum for the resolution of conflicts. As John F. Kennedy rightly posited, ‘Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate’.
“Unless we want to engage in an endless war of attrition, it would be defeatist to foreclose any discussion with the sect, especially with the moderate elements of Boko Haram.” The governor asked Jonathan to consider a political solution to the Boko Haram menace.
He added: “We are convinced beyond any doubt, like I had said, that the ultimate resolution of this crisis lies in the resort to a political solution.
“ Without prejudice to the use of other solutions, we must be ready to embrace the spirit of dialogue and negotiation to end this dark phase of our life as a nation in general and Borno State in particular.”
He also suggested change of tactics through the use of technology to tackle insecurity in Borno and other places.
Shettima said: “While we thank the Federal Government as we look forward to the continued intervention to contain the insurgency in our state and other affected states across the country, I wish to appeal that more efforts should be geared towards the deployment of cutting edge technology so that rapid success may be attained.
“The widespread deployment and use of CCTV cameras, devices for the detection of arms, ammunitions, bombs and explosives will go a long way in ameliorating the situation.”
The governor asked the Federal Government to initiate a Marshall Plan for the North-East, like it did for Niger Delta, to address the scourge of poverty fueling insecurity in the region.
He said: ”Pursuant to this partnership, we call on the Federal Government to immediately engage all stakeholders and initiate the process of articulating a comprehensive blueprint for addressing the scourge of poverty and deprivation in Nigeria.
“I specifically enjoin the Federal Government to come up with a Marshall Plan for the North-East geo-political zone in the same way it did for the Niger Delta to tackle the twin menace of poverty and insecurity. Integral to that Marshall Plan should be the recharging of the dwindling Lake Chad, the water resource which has the potential of positively transforming the lives of more than 30 million people spread on the shores of the region.
“As you are no doubt aware, the challenge of insecurity of the scale we have been confronted with in the last three years or so can constitute a huge distraction to governance. The unfortunate insurgency spearheaded by the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, a.k.a Boko Haram has left in its wake a heavy toll of death and destruction.
“Hundreds of human lives have been lost while hundreds of millions of naira worth of property have been destroyed, not to mention the unquantifiable loss occasioned by the crippling of businesses and other economic activities.”
The governor’s view is shared by former Minister of Police Affairs, Dr Ibrahim Lema,who says President Jonathan’s dismissal of Boko Haram and its members as ghosts is nothing short of failure of leadership.
Dr.Lame, responding to the President’s statement, told The Nation on Thursday night that it is the responsibility of those leading the country to find out the brains behind the destruction of lives and property in various parts of the North and deal with the problems they are creating.
“Do not say this people are faceless; they are not faceless. They live among us and, therefore, it is the responsibility of leadership to find out who they are and try to see what solution it can provide,” he said.
He added: “I don’t know why Nigerians want to believe that they are faceless. Are they not Nigerians like us? How can people in government say that the people who are killing and destroying lives and property are faceless? I cant understand it.
“To me, that is failure in leadership. Anybody who commits crime must be identified and brought to justice. It is abdication of responsibility for anybody to say this people are faceless; they are not. They are Nigerians; they live in Nigeria; they don’t live in the moon. So, find them, listen to them and address the problem. That, to me is leadership.”
He is in support of the calls by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar 111, and the Committee of Northern Elders for amnesty to Boko Haram members as part of the efforts to restore peace to the North.
His words: ”I support the idea of amnesty for Boko Haram. It is a wonderful suggestion. When you are losing over 3000 people in a single area, you need to understand that amnesty can help to stop it. It doesn’t matter whoever is being killed.Whether Muslims or Christians, we are all Nigerians.We must protect the lives and property of Nigerians and if amnesty will help, I think we should encourage it.
“ Leadership must identify itself with the issues at stake. Leadership must not claim it will not do anything; leadership must be able to sit down and understand what the problem is. And I believe that dialogue is necessary . We have to dialogue with the people. I believe in that and I also believe that some of the remote and immediate causes of the issues that brought about the situation must be addressed.
“The issue of inequality, the issue of youth unemployment, the issue of the economy and the issue of transparency in leadership must be addressed because what is happening is people see their leaders living in affluence, abusing the privileges given to them without anything happening to them. It is a serious issue and people don’t seem to have anywhere or anybody to address this issue.”
He praised the 10 All Progressives Party ( APC) governors for identifying with the people of the Northeast, saying their recent visit to Maiduguri is what the people want from their leaders.
“ I think this is what the APC governors are trying to say: that look we want to assure you that we are going to be accountable, we are gong to listen to you and put ourselves in your position. If you look at other societies, that’s is what they do. Immediately there is a crisis or problem like that, the leadership will quickly enter there and solve it,” he said.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) asked government not only to find the sect members, but should bring all the warring parties in the land to the negotiation table.
It welcomed the call by the Sultan for amnesty for Boko Haram suspects.
Spokesman for the ACF, Mr. Anthony Sani, said: ”I do not think the Sultan meant amnesty without conditions.
“Considering the fact that this is not a conventional war on which type the use of force has not been successful and because leaders anywhere in the world have not succeded in the use of force, hence the clamor for dialogue.
“And because leaders of Boko Haram may be afraid to show themselves for dialogue out of fear, the Sultan may be suggesting an offer of amnesty in the hope of encouraging the leaders of Boko Haram to come out for the dialogue without fear for their lives.
“That is to say, the Sultan may be saying in his own way that the government needs to go beyond rhetorics and do something practical in order to make the leaders of the sect show their faces.
“Mr. President may be right when he says the government cannot dialogue with a faceless group. Yet he cannot say it is not the responsibility of the government to find a way of bringing leaders of the sect into the negotiation table, however difficult.
#culled from nigerian news update
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