The National Consultative Front, (NCFront) has appeal to former heads of state, former Presidents and other stakeholders to take a break from their rest and work together to rescue Nigeria from imminent civil war.
The group which gathered in Abuja to discuss what they described as “pervasive killings, kidnappings, wanton destructions of public assets and general insecurity in Nigeria” said in a communique issued at the end of the meeting which was read by a former Minister of Defence Olu Agunloye, that all former Presidents, former heads of state, all the former service chiefs and so on, should be coopted into a National Elders Committee.
“We are calling on elder statemen to temporarily halt their well deserved rest and take the task of saving Nigeria from complete destruction.”
Other members of the group in attendance include former Minister of Education Dr. Oby Ezejwesili, Engr Buba Galadima, Naijatu Usman, among others.
They requested the former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon to call a meeting of the former Presidents and Heads of States and their vice so that the serving President may call for an enlarged Council of States meeting which will also include former Military Governors and State Governors both serving and retired.
“This will also be with the representation of the Youths. The purpose is to correct the leadership structure failure in Nigeria itself.”
The communique also challenged the people of Nigeria to take responsibility to protect Nigeria from collapse, and to create a platform to bring all warring parties to a peace table.
“Attack on individuals, group and public facilities must stop immediately. Nigerians must stop the dangerous practice of Ethnic and religious profiling as all of us could fall victims in our own country where we are both hosts and guests.
“That the recent events in Nigeria resulting in very violent conflicts and killings have put the citizens of Nigeria on what can be called emotional lockdown which invariably does not admit or allow any form of moderate views or moderation.
The communique called for urgent intervention on the proliferation of arms in the hands of non-state actors adding that it should be curtailed immediately and that the national security architecture should be urgently reorganised and discentralised.
“We call on all political parties to suspend all political events or keep them at backstage to give room for activities that would bring Nigeria back from the brink.
“That we are calling on Nigerians to resist the outrageous cost of contesting election and insist on electoral reform. The details have also been given, with electronics voting and electronic transfer of information.
“That the Initiative that we have set up will also pursue Popular Democratic Constitutional Resetting which will lead to the impute in the amending of new constitution of Nigeria for safe national legal framework.
“To safe Nigeria, we must interrogate the ideological content of our conversation, for instance the Almajiri system, the notion of open grazing and we must resolve the conflict of vision that is prevalent in Nigeria. For instance do we want an Islamic State or a secular one.
“To save Nigeria we must save the identity conflict between the leadership who have plundered our resources and mismanaged our diversity and the people who have perpetually remained victim who bear the brunt of poverty, illiteracy, lack of heakthcare, food insecurity and now are paying with their lives.
“To save Nigeria we must fight for the independence of the judiciary and the legislature soon that the Executive arm, especially the Governors can confine themselves to their basic function and all the arms of government can do their job efficiently.
“To save Nigeria we must unit as Nigerians and we must be able to negotiate. To save Nigeria we must go back to the people, with people centered programs, activities that are operated based on the principles of social justice.
“That we see the youths as veritable group that can not and should not be ignored and therefore all efforts should be made to incorporate them into discussions that involves the eminent leaders of conscience.
“We will engage in a vigorous way and demand the federal Government and all stake holders should commit to peaceful progress and dialogue to enable a partway to conflict resolution and intitute justice.”
