You’re unpatriotic – Amnesty panel tells Northern leaders The Presidential Committee on Dialogue, Peace and Resolution of Crisis in the North, also called Amnesty Committee, has branded the Northern elite who claimed to have a roadmap to ending the Boko Haram insurgency and have refused to join hands to eliminate the crisis as unpatriotic elements and enemies of Nigeria. The committee insisted that the northern elite should lead the charge against the insurgency. Reacting to comments from some elite in the north, the committee said those people with a solution to Nigeria’s problem should rather come out and help, instead of speaking from the sidelines. Chairman of the Committee and Minister of Special Duties, Tanimu Turaki, said this when he led members of his committee to a meeting with the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in Kaduna yesterday. Turaki said, “Some people have been making noise that they have a roadmap to the solution to the insurgency in Nigeria, and these are people who have been given the opportunity to come and serve Nigeria in this committee and they have refused to serve the committee and their father land. “Any person who is a patriotic Nigeria, anybody who is concerned with what is happening in Nigeria today, particularly in the Northern part of Nigeria and they think they have the roadmap, they have necessary contact to end this insurgency and refused to do so is an enemy of Nigeria and the people of Nigeria and their progress. They should rather come out with the roadmap or shut their mouth forever.” He said, “Now that we have gotten to a very critical stage, we need advice. We must appreciate that even though this is a Nigerian problem, except we, as northerners, take a very proactive position, except we northerners come out and tell the world that we, as responsible stakeholders, as the highest political leadership in the north, that enough is enough and then lend our voices collectively, we will not be seen as northerners who show more concern, and we must show more concern than other citizens in this country.” On the alleged killing of the Boko Haram Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, the committee said it cannot categorically confirm the report of the Joint Task Force (JTF), insisting that it was still in dialogue with the Boko Haram top commanders. Turaki posited that, “Like I told you, dialogue is going on and will continue to go on until we get to the level where all parties will come to agreement on surrender and the issue of disarmament and ceasefire will then follow. Let me add that we are dealing with people who matter. “In a matter of this nature, sometimes you have to start from the known to the unknown. Sometimes, you have to start testing water. These people are people that are very intelligent, they are people that are well organised. There is no way you can start talking to them one day, and you get to talk with the highest leadership.” He, however, asked Nigerians to continue to pray, adding that with the committed efforts of the government and the committee, in particular, there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Addressing ACF members, Turaki said, “We would have been here much earlier, but we felt that we should do a remarkable homework before coming to have this dialogue with you. For us in the committee, what we are doing is a precursor to efforts that has been made individually and collectively by members of the ACF in conjunction with members of the Northern Elders Forum and other notable eminent Nigerian leaders who have sat down and felt that enough is enough and have examined the situation and are of the view that the situation should not be allowed to continue the way it is. “Leaders who are concerned, who, even though they come from areas where the present state of insurgency is not happening, they feel that in a matter of this nature, once a part of the whole is affected, the whole is also affected. We believe that once there is insecurity in any part of Nigeria, then the whole Nigerian nation should be concerned, must be concerned and is, indeed, concerned just as Nigerians have come out to show concern on the issue of insurgency arising from the activities of members of the Boko Haram, particularly in the north eastern part of this country, and its breakaway faction known as Ansaru.” Turaki said, “At the beginning, we felt that it was important to interact with the security chiefs which we did; after which we moved to the states on visitation. In the course of these visitations, we had interactions with government, political leaders, the clergy, elders’ group and critical interaction with the victims.”
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 07:33:45 +0000
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