Tuesday, 12 August 2014
Produce the Chibok girls by October or forget about 2015 – Northern Elders tell President Jonathan
The Northern Elders Forum have said that President
Goodluck Jonathan must produce the Chibok girls and
end insurgency in the country by a deadline of October
2014 or forget about vying for reelection come 2015.
“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.
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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