Former military Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar Former military Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar yesterday identified the insurgence of Boko Haram as the most visible security challenge confronting the North.
He spoke in Minna, the Niger State capital at the opening of a peace meeting which attracted elders of Northern extraction under the auspices of Abdulsalami Abubakar Institute for Peace and Sustainable Development Studies (AAIPSDS).
The meeting was attended by former military President Ibrahim Babangida, former Vice- President Atiku Abubakar, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alfa Belgore, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Alhaji Yayale Ahmed and former deputy governor of Plateau, Mrs. Pauline Tallen. It was chaired by Alhaji Adamu Chiroma.
Other elders at the meeting which lasted about three hours were the former President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Archbishop John Onayiekan, Sheik Ahmed Lemu, Prof Bawa Salka, Colonel Halilu Akilu, Senator Jubril Aminu and Alhaji Isa Funtua.
Abubakar said: ‘’The most visible security challenge today is of course the Boko Haram insurgency.
“At a period when other parts of the nation are articulating positions which should improve their interests in the manner the nation should be structured, the North is being torn by conflicts, violence and deep mistrust among its communities.
“In Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano and Plateau states, just to mention a few places, we have killed and are killing ourselves needlessly in thousands on grounds of ethnic and religious differences. We have become our worst and bitterest enemies”.
He said the forum would be taken to other parts of the country with a view to finding a lasting and effective solution to the various challenges facing the country.
According to him, the forum had to start from the North, because, “charity begins at home.”
He added: “We have started from the North because once there is peace in the North; it will rub off on the South. We extend the meeting to the South, but let’s get the home front sorted out first. You will bear with me that bombing and killings are very minimal in the South.”
Babangida said the meeting of the elders was their own contribution towards finding lasting solution to the various security challenges facing the country.
“This generation, I mean, my own generation, knows what this country means to us; so anytime we see little problems that can aggravate situations, we try to come around and find solutions and the way forward to these problems.”
Ciroma said the forum will forward its recommendations to the government.
He said: “Most of these problems require the instrumentality of the government, we only discuss and make recommendations to the government for implementation.”
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