By Rapheal Izokpu
Some Northern elders have accepted responsibility for the worsening Insecurity in the country especially in the North East and North West region.
In a statement on Friday, the elders under the aegis of Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development said some of them applied religious and regional considerations in dealing with the crisis.
They said President Muhammadu Buhari was misled into picking security chiefs only from the North, thereby weakening the war against terrorists and other criminals in the region.
The statement signed by the group’s National Coordinator, Engr. Goni Zana noted that little consideration for professionalism and proven competence was applied in the earlier appointments.
“As difficult as it is in speaking the truth, we feel constrained to admit that our quick resort to religious, ethnic and regional considerations led us to advise the president in wrong directions.
“The war against insecurity could have been a thing of the past if we had made good and informed decisions. We believe the complete consideration of our interest in making appointments into security agencies among other things led us to this present situation. Our decision resulted in deep drop in the pursuit of the war against terrorists thus emboldened the adversaries on the other hand.
“Many lives and property have been lost and destroyed. Frontline troops were falling every day to a more determined group of insurgents and bandits but our decision to remain quiet and not say the truth as things were happening, led us to this present situation,” the elders said in the statement.
As a way out, the coalition asked the president to henceforth stop adhering to advice from people of narrow interest and begin to take only decisions that are pro-Nigeria with a view to correcting the many ills of his administration towards a better country.
To them, such decisions should be immediately reviewed. For instance the appointment of service chiefs in particular should reflect the various geopolitical zones as well as other appointments in other areas of our national life. This will to a large extent encourage patriotism and commitment of our forces and the citizens at large.
“We wish to once again raise alarm over the deteriorating state of security in the North, we have been crying and will continue to cry until the situation gets better.
“We are loosing it as a country and Mr President needs to take extra steps before we are consumed as the rate at which we are going now if nothing is done within the shortest possible time, we may not have a country to call our own. The era of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is over. We can’t continue to dwell in the past. It’s time to move forward now,”the statement added.
According to them, “Mr President must ignore every sectional, regional, tribal and religious sentiments and go for the best hands that can do this job of securing our country.”
“As northern elders who are concerned about the peace, security and stability of our dear nation, we wish to appeal to those people of influence in the North who have access to the president to always speak the truth to him especially in appointments or reforms in the security sectors and others even if it does not favour our region and religion provided such appointments will bring lasting peace and unify Nigeria,” they advised. According to Nelson Mandela “ it does not matter if the cat is black or white provided it can catch mice”.
The elders added that, “The idea of always putting first religion and geopolitical sentiments without looking out for professionalism and competence is the reason why we are at this cross road today.”
“And until we put an end to these sentiments we may be in for a serious problem. Our highly respected traditional and religious leaders must give Mr President a pro-Nigeria advice and not personal advice,” they insisted.
Noting that, “We are in this mess in the North today because some people refused to speak the truth”.
The elders tasked President Buhari not to look back in correcting his mistakes in appointments into security sector, saying various geopolitical zones should be involved in the management of the tensed security situation.
“If we continue to make security appointments based on religious and ethnic sentiments, we won’t get it right,” it reiterated.
The group, however, urged Nigerians to believe in their country and work for its betterment “because we have just one country and nobody will build our nation for us.”
According to the group, “We all have equal stake in the Nigerian project.”
