By Ojo Shola Olusegun
Participants at a two-day conference on Security and human Rights in Northern Nigeria organised by Arewa Research and Development Project (ARDP) as at the day two of the conference, said the federal government lacked the political will to prosecute the lingering insurgency in the country.
One of the lead discussants, Barrister Abdul Muhammed, while feeding questions from attendees, said first and foremost, the federal government should look at the issue of Boko Haram as national issue and not as if the North was using it to fight President Goodluck Jonathan.
Using the Uganda as a case study, the Barrister disclosed that it was when the Ugandan government understood and accepted that the insurgency was not the issue of the north or the south that they were able to made law that eventually helped the country at that time, urging Nigeria to apply same.
He said: “We must take the issue of Boko Haram as national issue. We should not see it as the north is using it to fight the President who is from the south.
“I think we should try what the Uganda government did because we should all come together to have the kidnapped girls back no matter the slogan.
“So, once we look at the issue that the problem is Nigeria problem and we should have people who are ready to genuinely champion the course.”
Earlier, in a remark, an elder statesman, Dr Wanterem Paul Unongo, said there was no Nigeria without the North and as such, all hands must be on deck to nip the menace of insecurity ravaging the nation in the bud.
Meanwhile, the communiqué issued at the end of the conference resolved that the federal government should take initiative to be friendly with its neighbouring countries “so that they would know that whatever affects Nigeria also affects them.”
The communiqué also urged governors from the north to come together and come up with workable plans to end insurgency in the region, because of their peculiarity in governance.
