Deliberations on the speech by President Goodluck Jonathan as a road-map
\nfor the on-going National Conference continued on Monday with delegates
\ndwelling on hair-raising issues that were either controversial or of
\nnational significance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For instance, a delegate on the platform of the Supreme Council for
\nIslamic Affairs, Alhaji Nurudeen Lemu, pulled the hall to its feet in a
\nstanding ovation (which was a breach of the Conference Standing Rules)
\nwhen he combined sound logic and eloquence to deliver a message that
\ntouched the need for religious harmony in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lemu told the delegates that God Almighty is neither a religious nor
\nethnic bigot and that the problem with Nigerians is that both Muslims and
\nChristians always over-estimate their virtues while down-playing the
\ngoodness in others.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He almost drew tears in the hall when he condemned both the murdering and
\nthe murderers of Christians and Muslims in the country under the cover of
\nreligion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here is a part of what he said, \u201cas a delegate and as a people
\nrepresenting people of faith in God from Islamic perspective, one thing we
\nbelieve is that God will protect the community that stands for justice
\neven if they are not Muslims and God will not protect the community that
\ngoes contrary to justice even if they call themselves Muslims.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cGod is not a religious bigot. He is not a male chauvinist. He is not an
\nethno-centric tribalist. God is not the oppressor of anyone. God is with
\nthose who care, those who want for others those things they want for
\nthemselves.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cOne tendency for people who claim to follow a religion is to slide into
\nthe position of believing that they are better than the others. We
\nover-estimate our virtues and under-estimate the goodness in others.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tendency is for us to be spiritually arrogant and forget that others
\nare people like us. And if you are in other person\u2019s position, you
\nprobably will be like someone else.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAs delegates from the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, we condemn the
\nmurder and the murderers of all Christians; we condemn the murder and the
\nmurderers of all Muslims; not because they are Christians or Muslims but
\nbecause they are all human beings\u2014creatures of God.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no compulsion in religion. We all own Nigeria. We all belong
\nhere. And we all have rights to self-determination. We should respect that
\nright and do onto others what we will do onto ourselves.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery ethnic group is an oppressed minority somewhere. Every majority or
\nsettlers is an indigene somewhere. In one way or the other, we are all
\nsettlers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just don\u2019t remember where we came from and why we came. But
\nultimately, we are all visitors to this planet; from God we came and to
\nHim we will return.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Muslim delegates, we come against the exploitation of religion and
\nreligious sentiments; we come against stereotyping, stigmatizing and
\ndehumanization of each other. We come against the use of religion as a
\npolitical decoy and distraction from the critical things that bedevil our
\nnation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI pray that at the end of this conference, we will all grow in our
\nhumanity and respect for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On a seemingly controversial note, Mrs. Yemi Mahmoud-Fasominu called for
\nthe establishment of a special court where issues of rape and other
\ncriminal acts against women would be addressed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She went further to demand that a law setting up such a court must specify
\nthat convicted perpetrators of such a crime should be castrated to serve
\nas deterrence to others.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At this point, the hall exploded either in cheers or in jeers. It was
\ndifficult to determine.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Zamani Lekwot, a retired general, said beyond the courage and wisdom by
\nJonathan to convoke the conference, selection of delegates has accorded
\nevery section of the society an opportunity to be represented.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He did a quick analysis of the security situation in Nigeria especially
\nregarding the murderous insurgency in northern Nigeria and concluded that
\nthe creation needed what he called a standing frontier force to protect
\nthe Nigerian borders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lekwot said the functions of the force should include curbing illegal
\nmovements in and out of the country and most importantly halting with
\nmilitary precision any infiltration by insurgents and other criminals.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ambassador Yusuf Mamman said the violence in the north that has led to
\nseveral deaths and loss of property presents an ideological challenge that
\nhas defied the use of military force and that the conference must find a
\nway out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On education, he said beautiful as the issue of the Almajari school
\nconcept may sound, government should de-secularise education by bringing
\nthe Almajari education in the mainstream curriculum instead of giving it a
\nspecial treatment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ambasador Hassan Adamu in his comments said the Conference presents a good
\nopportunity to talk rather than to fight and declared his belief that
\nsomething positive will emerge from the Conference.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said the Conference should focus on job creation; peace and security;
\nelimination of corruption at all levels; justice for all, patriotism,
\nqualitative education; and security of residents in every part of the
\ncountry; adding, \u201cNigeria is waiting for us to offer solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Another delegate, Adeniyi Akintola, said it was pathetic that whenever the
\nissue of corruption was being discussed, those who should be in jail for
\ncorrupt practices are the most vocal.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Akintola disclosed that if government were to compare the assets of public
\noffice holders between when they entered public service and at the time of
\ndeparture, all of them, including former state governors, would be in
\njail.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said sometimes, public officers declared in their assets form what they
\ndo not have and on entering public office would begin stealing desperately
\nto meet the target earlier declared. He said there should be a way where
\nassets and tax payments should be put side by side as a way of checking
\nfraudulent declarations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wednesday session however started with a motion by Dr Bello Mohammed
\nasking the Federal Government to take drastic action against people
\nengaged in the act of kidnapping and other violence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He drew the attention of the Conference to last week\u2019s abduction of Chief
\nEdwin Clark\u2019s son and prayed that the Conference should send a letter of
\nfelicitation to the 86 year-old delegate after the release of the son last
\nweekend.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Engineer Adefemi Kila, who seconded the motion, said the ineffectiveness
\nof the local government administration in the country is to be blamed for
\nthe high rise in crime rate nationwide.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cThese kidnappers, these Boko Haram members, they are not
\nspirits; they live with us. They can be identified.\u201d He called on the
\nfederal government to do more in the area of security, adding, \u201cour lives
\nalso are not safe.\u201d While contributing later, Kila described Nigeria as
\nbeing very sick in abject poverty; sick in the spiritual sense \u201cand that
\nis why we have problems of how to serve our God; it is a terrible
\nspiritual poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Still on the issue of local government status, Nasiru Ibrahim Jinju said
\nit was high time government ensured in practical terms, the autonomy of
\nlocal government councils.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So far, he said, state governors have held council areas by the neck by
\nnot allowing them to function independently. He explained that most of the
\nsecurity problems faced by the nation could be traced to non-functionality
\nof local government councils.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Professor Sambo Junaido from Sokoto described the President\u2019s speech as
\ncomprehensive and that it touched on several aspects of the lives of
\nNigerians. He appealed for speedy implementation of the resolutions that
\nwould be arrived at in the course of the Conference.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Is\u2019haq Modibbo Kawu of the Nigerian Guild of Editors told the Conference
\nthat poor economic management is the main cause of Nigeria\u2019s problem; he
\ndescribed a situation where a state governor is richer than the state
\nbased on his ability to steal.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ibrahim Khaleel was of the opinion that insurgency is a product of the
\nbastardisation of the local government structure which has made it
\nimpossible for people at the grassroots to feel the impact of governance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Remi Kuku called on every Nigerian to repent. She said if Nigerians were
\nto love one another as their religions teach them, there would be no room
\nfor bickering and religious enmity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mohammed Kumalia reminded the delegates that the spirit of the speech made
\nby Jonathan was for everyone to put aside their prejudices and parochial
\nfeelings and talk Nigeria instead of their ethnic groups.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said if representations at the Conference were through election, it
\nwould have been impossible for most of the delegates to have been there to
\ndiscuss issues of national importance as they affect their different
\ngroups.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ledum Mitee from Rivers State reminded the conference of the need to
\nattach practical solutions to issues raised at the Conference and for
\ngovernment to act in accordance with the wish of the people.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He told a story of how he met some Niger Delta youths during an awareness
\ncampaign and confronted them on why they were breaking pipelines only to
\nbe told that since all government plans are always in the pipeline, they
\nwere breaking the pipelines to bring them out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bello Mohammed in his contribution said there was nobody in the north who
\ndoes not know about the environmental problems faced by the Niger Delta
\npeople; and that no southerner could claim ignorance of existing poverty
\nand illiteracy in the north.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said what is required is for both groups to agree on solution to the
\nexisting problems both in the north and in the south instead of behaving
\nas though only one part of the country has problems.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A 24 year old girl, Yadomah Bukar Mandara, who said her father died
\nexactly one year ago, moved the hall with her presentation when she spoke
\nconcerning the rise of insurgency in the country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She said, \u201cso many children have turned orphans. So many women have turned
\nwidows. We must unite to fight our common enemies. Our common enemies know
\nno Christian. Our common enemies know no Muslim. Let us unite against
\nthem.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deliberations on the speech by President Goodluck Jonathan as a road-map for the on-going National Conference continued on Monday with delegates dwelling on hair-raising issues that were either controversial or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n