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Go & Warn Your People ~Osinbajo Charges Northern, S/East Governors
That is a guarantee of our Constitution and that is the reason why the Federal and State Governments must be committed to ensuring that every Nigerian citizen lives and works wherever he pleases peacefully and securely.
It is the commitment by Federal Government being in charge of law enforcement agencies, not to tolerate a situation where there is any attempt to dislodge any Nigerian in any way or even intimidate any Nigerian.
The second is that Nigeria and our constitution clearly states that the country with the Federal Government and 36 States is sovereign and indissoluble under the Constitution. In other words, it is one united country. That is also an important and fundamental basis upon which we operate as Nigerians. Our Constitution states that our nation is one undivided and sovereign.
These fundamental principles are agreed by all of those we consulted and I think it is important because they may sound banal and ordinary but it’s important that we remind ourselves and we did remind ourselves in all of the consultations, all of the leadership we spoke to were quite united in all these principles.
We also agreed that prevention is better than cure; that it is ultimately easier to confront our grievances head on – however uncomfortable they might seem – and find lasting and acceptable solutions, rather than ignore those controversies and issues.
We agreed that it is important that whatever grievances and issue, we place them in the forefront and we discuss and debate them and do so in a manner that is not hateful or divisive in any way. This is one of the issues that emerged from our meetings. The meetings were frank as I expect our meeting today to be frank.
But we were able to agree on most of the critical issues that were discussed and in many cases change perceptions that may have been long embedded in the minds of many.
We also agreed that under no circumstances would we tolerate or should we condone hateful or divisive speech in any guise. Government should take every step necessary to bring to book all of those who preach violence in particular or the kinds of expressions of dissent that encourage violence. We must prevent this at all cost.
We also agreed that we need to do more to engage our youth productively, creation of jobs and multiplying the economic opportunities available to the young people.
And very importantly, we agreed on the need for leaders to speak out more forcefully to counter divisive speech or any kind of warmongering. We agreed that cultural leaders, religious leaders and political leaders should speak out forcibly against any kind of divisive speech and we expect that our political leaders would do so without waiting to be prompted.
Of all those we discussed with both religious and traditional leaders, they felt that sometimes when leaders do not speak up promptly, it always results in the degeneration of whatever the problem may be. Leaders need to speak up quickly whenever things go wrong.
This applied to both statements made by the young people in the Southeast as well as the youth in the Northern State. Although we did find several leaders speaking up, we felt the need for much greater resonance in the way that these things are done and for the leaders to speak up more forcibly.
If for any reason matters are allowed to degenerate, then not only do the leadership lose their legitimacy but we run the risk of things going completely out of control. Those are generally some of the issues discussed and the consensus that was reached.
I want to applaud very much both individually and collectively, the leadership that we met, leaders of Southeastern States, the traditional rulers, religious leaders and some of the social-cultural leaders and leaders of the Northern States. Yesterday, I met with the traditional rulers from the North.
I think it is so important that they all should be commended not only for their openness and willingness and I am sure that they made compromises wherever necessary, but also their determination to work together so that our nation is not divided in anyway and that we do not go down the way of any kind of civil conflict.
I think that they ought to be commended for being rational and responsible even in their criticisms of what they thought were issues that should have been better handled, and I want to openly commend them for their leadership and responsibility.
Another issue that came up and I am sure we will discuss this in greater detail is the issue around the farmers-herdsmen clashes and possibly even hold an expanded meeting where we would be able to take a closer look at it. It is actually important that we are able to reach satisfactory and lasting solution to this problem.
The problems are multidimensional but the States have very important roles to play especially because states are in control of lands and a lot of these disputes are over land aside from the other social cultural issues and the issues around security which involves the Federal Government.
All said, I trust that all of us appreciate the need to show greater unity of purpose and determination to work together to solve these challenges, for the benefit of all Nigerians, regardless of our partisan affiliations.
We must resist the temptation to play politics with matters of security, or to reach for simplistic narratives that might be momentarily expedient and satisfying but are false, misleading and unhelpful to a proper understanding of the issues.
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