President Goodluck Jonathan got yesterday an ultimatum from the North – bring back the Chibok girls and stop Boko Haram or forget 2015.
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) issued a deadline – October- for the conditions to be met.
For over three months, more than 200 girls abducted by the fundamentalist Boko Haram sect have been in captivity. Eleven of their parents have died, following the trauma. The government says it knows where the girls are, but it is being careful not to do anything that will put their lives at risk.
The thinking of the elders is that the military can defeat the Boko Haram terrorists – if, indeed, the government wants to subdue to sect.
“We are convinced that most of these conflicts are being engineered to weaken the North politically and economically by interests which intend to exploit such weaknesses for electoral benefits,” the NEF said yesterday.
The forum spoke in Kaduna through two of the members, Solomon Dalung, a lawyer and Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed.
THE NEF said it had just concluded a major review of the state of the nation. It resolved to speak to help resolve current political, economic and security challenges facing the nation, and facilitate the emergence of a more united, secure and prosperous nation out of its present limitations.
Said the elders: “The security situation in our nation today represents the most serious threat to our individual and collective lives in our entire history. The reality is that the threats posed by what appears to be an insurgency that has many manifestations and defies a clear and consistent identity is growing due to the absence of a clear national consensus over its nature, and it solutions.
“The lack of a strong will at the level of the Presidency to fight it, as well as deep-seated corruption and incompetence in governments and in the management of our security challenges, has allowed a band of terrorists to take and hold vast parts of our land and populations hostage while every citizen lives in fear that they will be its next victim.
“We also reject the notion that multiple internal security challenges such as attacks on villages, ethno-religions conflicts
and banditry springing up by the day in many parts of the North are all a coincidence. Indeed, we are convinced that most of these conflicts are being engineered to weaken the North politically and economically by interests which intend to exploit such weaknesses for electoral benefits.
“In the light of our firm conviction that the insurgency and related security challenges pose threats to the 2015 elections and the survival of our nation, we strongly advise President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to bring an end to the insurgency in all its manifestations and produce the Chibok girls before the end of October, 2014.
“The circumstances under which our fellow citizens in and around Gwoza in Borno State in particular live and die will not be tolerated by any people who have a government and a leader sworn to defend them, and they must be reversed immediately.”
If President Jonathan fails to end the insurgency, Nigerians will be left with the only conclusion that he has forfeited his right to ask for their mandate beyond 2015.
Said the NEF: “The Forum notes that the state of security and economic challenges of the North are deteriorating, in spite of its wealth of leaders and elders who should use their God-given privileges, power and influence to affect a reversal of these dangerous trends. It is no secret that the vast majority of Northerners lament their marginalisation, insecurity and poverty, and blame it in large part on the inability or unwillingness of its past and present leaders to utilise all access to power which they enjoy, to bring us redress and relief. General Yakubu Gowon, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, General Muhammadu Buhari, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, General Abdussalami Abubakar, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Architect Namadi Sambo, General T.Y Danjuma and all retired Chief Justices of Nigeria from the North represent grossly under-utilised assets of the North.
“The NEF joins millions of Northerners in appealing to these leaders to raise their levels of involvement in the fortunes of our region in every endeavour or fora they are involved. In these difficult days when every hand must be on deck, if these leaders cannot visibly help to transform the fortunes of the North in the next few months, they will leave northerners with the damaging impression that they have abandoned the region and the people to its seemingly irreversible decline and ultimate destruction.”
The forum also called on all leaders and political parties to demonstrate highest levels of commitment to the rule of law and the demands of the electoral process. “At all cost, the 2015 elections must be free and fair. This means that any threat which may provide a cover for militarising the electoral process must be eliminated before the elections. Every part of Nigeria must participate in these elections, and no citizen should be deprived of his right to vote under any excuse,” the forum said.
On the alleged clash between soldiers and Shite members in Zaria, Kaduna State, the NEF called on President Jonathan to set up a Judicial Panel to investigate the incident where over 30 members of the group, including three sons of its leader, were allegedly killed.
The forum said: “The internal investigations by the military in an event in which soldiers are involved will not meet the minimum standards of fairness and acceptability. The Forum reminds the nation that it was the murder of Muhammad Yusuf by the Nigeria Police in 2009 that formed the major point of escalation in the activities of the group(s) known today under the generic term of Boko Haram.
“We also call for a thorough investigation into the attempted assassination of General Muhammadu Buhari and Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, and the publication of the outcome of these investigations.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Do not vote for Jonathan in 2015. Jona must go.
ReplyDeleteEBOLA AFFECTED YOUR BRAIN?
DeleteNorth’s elders should go to hell
ReplyDeleteFoolishness
ReplyDeleteThese "Nothern Elders" are completely delusional. There is so much stupidity in their statements, I feel that I have lost a couple of IQ points just reading them. How can they be giving ultimatums to the president over issues that are happening in their own regions? What millions of notherners do they represent, because I certainly am not one of them.
ReplyDeleteConfounded buffoons.
Instead of calling your thugs to order, na Jona kidnap your children? BH members are your children so call dem to order.
ReplyDeleteThese delusional Northern elders do not know they are constantly alienating the northern minorities with these their provocative statements and the minorities constitute about 40% of the north in the real sense. What have they done to curtail Boko Haram apart from accusing the presidency of a deliberate policy against them. Are the NSA and the Minister Of Defence not from the core north and you open your mouth to give an October ultimatum? Kindly take your ethnic jingoism elsewhere: adults grumbling like children.
ReplyDeleteNigeria does not belong to North alone and Jonathan is not a terrorist. Northerners are killing their fellow Northerners and kidnapping their school children which means that Northerners engineered all the conflicts to weaken Jonathan the Southern president but the reverse became the case.
ReplyDeleteNorthern elders please hold governor kashim shettima who promise to provide security for the school girls and letter fail his promise to get back your children
ReplyDeleteUseless people,when you guys told them to make Jonathan's Government ungovernable,you never knew it will get to this level.....God don punish una naa........Dey have been killing Christians and Igbos....Law of CAMA is working on you idoits Terrorist.......We are talking about 2019 and not 2015 bcos 2015 is already settled.....
ReplyDeleteI don't know what is wrong with these Northern elders, If the soldiers start killing the BH, they will say it is a massacre and when the soldiers slow down, they will say that Jona is weak. They said that they will make Nigeria ungovernable and it is working for them in North. Stop blaming Jonathan, if not your terrorism you plan and execute in North, he must have taken Nigeria to another level. You guy are anti prosperity and you Northern Muslim elders and clerics who train the BH are the people to blame.
ReplyDelete