The Northern Elders Forum today gave President Goodluck
Jonathan up to October to produce the more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted
by the Boko Haram sect or forget his 2015 presidential re-election bid.
The Alhaji Sule Maitama-led NEF noted that the warning
became imperative because they were in firm conviction that the insurgency
occasioned by the activities of the sect and other related security challenges
posed a threat to the 2015 elections and the survival of the nation.
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| Abducted Chibok girls |
“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,” Mr. Solomon Dalung, ex-Speaker of the Plateau
State House of Assembly, said at a press briefing in Kaduna on Monday.
The former Speaker, who spoke on behalf of the Northern
Elders Forum said failure of the president to produce the Chibok girls and
tackle other security challenges in the land, amounts to the forfeiture of his
rights to ask for another mandate to lead Nigeria beyond 2015.
According to him, circumstances under which the people of
Gwoza in Borno State live as if there is no government was unacceptable.
He said the trend must be reversed immediately, pointing out
that “in the event that President Jonathan fails to do this, Nigerians will be
left with the only conclusion that he has forfeited his right to ask for our
mandate beyond 2015.”
He said the lack of strong will by the president to fight,
coupled with the thriving corruption in his government, as well as incompetence
had allowed the insurgency in the north to continue unabated.
The development, had forced the Forum to resolve that most
of the security challenges in some parts of the region were being carried out
to weaken the North politically.
At the press briefing which was also attended by former INEC
Secretary, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Said Dalung said, “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 Northern Elders Forum does not believe that the
Nigerian military cannot defeat these terrorists. 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.
“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 of 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.”
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