President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday maintained that terrorists’ activities in the north, kidnapping and militancy in the south and other forms of crises have worked against development in the country.
He made the remark while receiving the 2013 Africa Peace Award from the United Religions Initiatives (URI) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to him, no one can talk of economic development where there is crisis as there must be internal democracy and internal stability before economic stability could be attained.
He stressed that differences can never be resolved through the barrels of the gun.
He said: “Even when countries are fighting at the end of the day they will still come to the dialogue table to resolve the conflicts. They have hardly solved them through the barrel of the gun, even if you had the most sophisticated weapon to fight, they will still come to negotiate otherwise you can never live in peace.
“So let me call on all Nigerians especially the young people, if you come to the South part of this country you hear about militancy, kidnapping and if you go to the North you have this issue of Boko Haram. For us to develop our country we must all embrace peace.
“There is no way the government can perform magic when the people are shooting guns, because economic growth and development is in the hands of the private sector.”
He specifically pointed out that Muslims, Christians and Jews are living peacefully in Israel and Palestine except for the territorial conflict in the area.
Faulting the past resolution of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) where the continent could not deliberate as a body on crisis in any particular member state, he said that the disposition of the African Union (AU) to intervene in crisis in any nation in the continent is aimed at promoting peace in the continent.
He said: “There cannot be economic development without peace. For you to develop economically there must be peace and political stability. So the leadership of African Union and ECOWAS have changed and we believe that we must help ourselves and help our states and govern our states the way it should be governed. If there are crisis we should intervene and that has been helping us significantly.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting did not hold on Wednesday and no official statement has been issued for the cancellation.
President Jonathan flew into Abuja from Palestine on Tuesday midnight while Vice President, Namadi Sambo was in Lagos for an official function on Tuesday. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
kai, don't go there. Is it the crises in the not that prevented you from persecuting corrupt governnent official or the power refoerm project or that is keeping ASUU from work when you sign an agreement with them. Think, don't blame anybody for your woeful performance but agree that you are not competent to govern Nigeria, maybe you need to go back to Bayelsa so you can gain more experience!
ReplyDeleteur empty-headedness is our problem
ReplyDeleteGeJo GeJo,
ReplyDeleteLagos,Oyo,Ogun,Ekiti,Kogi,Delta,Ondo,Kaduna,X Rivers, among others are peaceful. Yet ur impacts are Awaiting Results.
Only a shameless and iDiotic Father blames the unprogressiveness of his family on the rascality of one of his children.
BabaPupa!!!!