OVER 200 youth ethnic nationalities groups across Nigeria and in the Diaspora, including Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), Yoruba Youth Council (YYC), Ethnic Nationalities of Niger Delta (ENND), among others have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to liaise with critical stakeholders in the country and convene a Security Summit within two weeks to address decisively the ongoing insecurity situation pervading the land.
Bands of killers, including Fulani herdsmen, moving freely and armed with sophisticated weaponry, are believed to have killed more men, women and children in 2015, 2016 and 2017 than Boko Haram had done in the 12 years of its violent campaign, with AYCF, OYC, YYC and others declaring that Buhari’s administration had failed in the discharge of its primary responsibility of securing citizen’s lives and properties.
The groups made this call in a communiqué issued at the end of their meeting in Lagos and signed by Mallam Shettima Usman Yerima, President, AYCF (Convener), Nazi Okechukwu Iziogosoro, National President, OYC, Eric Olawale for YYC and Barrister Pereotubo R. Oweilaemi, President, IYC who is also heads Ethnic Nationalities of Niger Delta (ENND).
The meeting, according to the convener, was called to discuss the rising spate of killings across the country, especially the communal clashes, farmers/herders conflicts and attacks by bandits in Zamfara, Taraba, Adamawa, Kaduna, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, Plateau and across at least eight other states of the country.
“Clearly, the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed in the discharge of its primary responsibility of securing citizen’s lives and properties.
“Consequently, we urge that the President as the Chief Security Officer of the country to liaise with critical stakeholders in the country to convene a Security Summit within two weeks to address decisively the ugly situation,” the communiqué demanded.
“The current dangerous situation which places the younger generation of Nigerians at the receiving end of all the violent incidences is unacceptable and must be halted,” it added, warning that should nothing be done to address the ugly trend, “Nigeria, Africa and indeed the entire world may not be able to cope with the consequences of a full-blown religious or ethnic war in Nigeria in which the current dangerous trend portends.”
According to the communique, the situation also portends the immediate danger of scuttling the nation’s democratic order with the dire consequences of a drift to anarchy, calling on elders, leaders of thought, theological and cultural leaders in the country as well as all international friends of Nigeria to step in quickly and save the situation as any further delay could be dangerous.
“The situation also portends the immediate danger of scuttling the nation’s democratic order with the dire consequences of a drift to anarchy. We, therefore, call on Nigerian elders, leaders of thought, theological and cultural leaders and all our international friends to step in quickly and save the situation as any further delay could be dangerous.
“Failure of the authorities to halt the trend has already given rise to speculations suggesting that the bloodbath is deliberately orchestrated by those holding power in order to service occultic demands, or that government is manipulating the situation to split the nation along religious or ethnic fault lines in order to gain the sympathy of certain sections in the forthcoming general elections,” the communiqué concluded,” the communique said.
Speaking further, the youth groups said they were alarmed by the scary figures quoted by various national and international bodies that had been lost to the series of violent situations in the last few years and the need for the Security Summit being demanded to be called by President Buhari.
“The situation is so disturbing that the UK House of Lords for instance, recently expressed worry about the inability of the Nigerian authorities to end the excessive killings, warning that ethno-religious violence in the country may escalate to the Rwanda type genocide if the federal government remained complacent about it.
“On its part, Amnesty International, on June 27, 2018, quoted 1,813 violence-related deaths based on reported cases since January 2018 alone, with many more killings during the period which were either denied by the government or were never reported at all.
“In a separate report, the United States Council on Foreign Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker says it has documented at least 19,890 deaths in Nigeria since June 2015, just after the current administration assumed office on May 29, 2015.
“The CFR, an independent body of experts dedicated to providing advice on policy options facing countries, put the cumulative deaths from May 2011 to May 2018 at 53,595 in violence that is both casual and symptomatic of weakness of Nigeria’s political institutions and citizen alienation.
“They also included violent incidents related to political, economic, and social grievances directed at the state or other affiliated groups (or conversely the state employing violence to respond to those incidents.
“Armed with sophisticated weaponry, bands of killers moving freely, are believed to have killed more men, women and children in 2015, 2016 and 2017 than Boko Haram has done in the 12 years of its violent campaign,” the youth group recalled.
“And these untamed bandits and armed ethnic militias who have killed thousands with impunity, are most likely to kill more in the absence of prosecution or deterrent, with government appearing helpless or unwilling to act decisively,” the communique warned.
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