Immediate past Senator, who represented Kaduna central in the red chamber, Shehu Sani, has called on the federal government to as a matter of urgency renegotiate membership of ECOWAS and its protocol in view of the violence and killings as result of migration into Nigeria from neighbouring countries.
Senator Sani who queried reason why countries like Ghana, Togo Republic, Burkina Faso, Benin Republic and other neighbouring nations are not experiencing herdsmen crisis said Nigerian government must have a country first before a membership of ECOWAS.
The vocal former Senator, however made public a new organisation known as African Center for Freedom, Peace and Development (ACFPD) aimed at addressing some major challenges confronting the continent, which include; Democracy, insecurity, peace, rule of law, good governance and irregular migration among others.
Speaking at the inaugural press conference for the ACFPD, Thursday in Abuja, Comrade Sani, who is also the Executive Director of the center said his new organisation is all about unity, peace, development and good governance in the Africa continent.
He said the new center will be an advocacy center in partnership with other international organisations in helping to tackle some of the issues that bother the continent.
According to the Sani, about 60 senior academia across known Universities have shown interest to be part of the center.
He assured that his organisation will embark on research and provide solutions to most problems confronting the nations across the continent “whether it is banditry, kidnapping, bad governance, Boko Haram insurgency, irregular migration and so on.”
On the security challenge as a result of influx of foreigners into Nigeria and the existing relationship among ECOWAS nations, Sani said: “I think in view of the crisis that we are facing as a country especially at it concern the violence and the killings, we must renegotiate the ECOWAS protocol on issue of migration specifically as it affect our own security challenges in Nigeria. We must enforce laws to protect our own country. When helmsmen move from other nations to Nigeria in the name of free movement and we fold our hands they will end up destabilising our country.
Our concern is that why are there no helmsmen violence in Gana, in Guinea, in Burkina Faso, in Niger Republic? Why are there no herdsmen violence in Togo Republic? Why must it be Nigeria? These are issues we need to ask, if you are coming to our country with weapons, with arms, we cannot allow you to come in the name of protocol, that should not be accepted because allowing these herdsmen to come into our country and unleash mayhem and kill people has the capacity of igniting Civil War in Nigeria and we can’t allow such thing to happen in the name of protocol, we have to have the country first before we belong to a union. That is my view on that.”
He assured that the center will, henceforth provide necessary information to make sure that those issues are been checked.
When asked to comment on the rising debt in Nigeria, Sani said that there were lack of awareness in the part of citizenry, adding that most Nigerian governors are leveraging on the ignorance of people to pile up debts.
