By Chuks Okocha
Leaders of the National Conservative Forum (NcFront) yesterday urged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to take urgent steps to stem the dangerous tide of insecurity and tension in the country before they degenerate into full blown civil war and the irreversible corporate collapse of Nigeria.
Specifically, they called on former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), to call a meeting of former presidents, head of state, and their vice-presidents to rally round President Buhari “at this dark hour of Nigeria.”
Also, the political leaders, who met yesterday in Abuja, said former presidents should use their experience and wisdom to assist Buhari to stabilise Nigeria as the country needs them now to show leadership once again.
They also called on great men and women who have manned the three arms of government to once more come out to rescue the country, as they humbly requested President Buhari to convoke a Council of State meeting to further widen the scope “because this is not a time to apportion blames,” stating that it is time for conflict resolutions and engagements to avert possible disaster.
Reading the communique of their meeting, the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and former Corp Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), who was also a former Minister of Defence, Dr. Olu Agunloye, supported by Pat Utomi, Ghali Naabba, Buba Galadima, Hakeem Baba Ahmed, Chief Ralph Nwosu of the African Democratic Congress (ADC); Kingsley Moghalu, Oby Ezekwesili among other leaders of NcFront, called on the federal government to also stem the tide of widespread insecurity in the country.
According to Agunloye, “Nigerians have the responsibility to protect Nigeria from collapse, and create a platform to bring all warring parties to a peace table.”
The communique of the meeting said attacks on individuals, groups and public facilities must stop immediately, and that Nigerians must note that they are not enemies of one another, “and must protect on another in the light of seeming failure of elected leaders and state agencies to protect us.”
Also, the communique called on Nigerians to stop the dangerous practice of ethnic and religious profiling, “as all of Nigerians could fall victims in their own country where they are all hosts and guests.
“Nigerian leaders and political elites must stop patronising the Igbo people or blackmailing the elites or leadership of the Igbo nation.”
Ncfront called for urgent intervention in the proliferation of arms in the hands of non-state actors, which they said must be curtailed urgently, and that the national security architecture must be urgently reorganised, and security enforcement and maintenance should be decentralised.
