The Northern Elders Forum have said that President Goodluck Jonathan must produce the Chibok girls and end insurgency in the country by a deadline of October 2014 or forget about vying for reelection come 2015.
“In the light of our firm conviction that the insurgency and related security challenges pose threats to the 2015 elections and the survival of our nation, we strongly advise President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to bring an end to the insurgency in all its manifestations and produce the Chibok girls before the end of October 2014,” Mr. Solomon Dalung, ex-Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, said at a press briefing in Kaduna on Monday.
Dalung said, “The security situation in our nation today represents the most serious threat to our individual and collective lives in our entire history. The reality is that the threats posed by what appears to be an insurgency that has many manifestations and defies a clear and consistent identity is growing due to the absence of a clear national consensus over its nature, and it solutions.
“The Northern Elders Forum does not believe that the Nigerian military cannot defeat these terrorists. We also reject the notion that multiple internal security challenges such as attacks on villages, ethno-religions conflicts and banditry springing up by the day in many parts of the North are all a coincidence.
“Indeed, we are convinced that most of these conflicts are being engineered to weaken the North politically and economically by interests which intend to exploit such weaknesses for electoral benefits.
“It is no secret that the vast majority of Northerners lament their marginalisation, insecurity and poverty, and blame it in large part on the inability of unwillingness of its past and present leaders to utilise all access to power which they enjoy, to bring us redress and relief.
“General Yakubu Gowon, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, General Muhammadu Buhari, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, General Abdussalami Abubakar, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Architect Namadi Sambo, General T.Y Danjuma and all retired Chief Justices of Nigeria from the North represent grossly under-utilised assets of the North. The NEF joins millions of Northerners in appealing to these leaders to raise their levels of involvement in the fortunes of our region.”