POLITICAL and opinion leaders of the oil-rich Niger Delta region were, at the weekend, unanimous in their call for the proper re-structuring of Nigeria along lines peculiar to the various beliefs, thoughts and aspirations of the nationalities of the country.
Besides, they contended that the uprising of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, has more to do with politics than religion.
Renowned professor of constitutional law, Itsey Sagay, pioneer National Secretary of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Chief Francis Williams, National Coordinator of the Niger-Delta Economic Monitoring Group (NDEMG), Comrade Joseph Evah, as well as chairman of the Ijaw Media Forum, Chief Asu Beks, both blamed the nation’s structural imbalance for the Boko Haram menace, saying, time has come to discuss the very essence of Nigeria’s unity.
While the duo of Evah and Beks accused a former National Security Adviser (NSA) as the unseen hand behind the spate of bombings in the country, former Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Festus Porbeni, called for caution, as the nation grapples with the insurgency of the dreaded Islamist sect.
Sagay said: “The insurgency of the Boko Haram menace has, again brought to the fore the inevitability of a national discourse that will discuss the myriad problems facing this nation; we cannot run away from this. Whether we like it or not, the group has made it clear that it wants the introduction of governments along Islamic injunctions across the nation. Fine, that is one of the cardinals of true federalism that some of us have fought for all the years but not the way they go about it, taking innocent lives. I think that is why some may rightly argue that their activities are more political than religion.
“But then, President Jonathan has a duty to help himself. He knows that the issue of Boko Haram is very much there with every possibility of political undertone; but is it not the same constituency, I mean the civil society, that made him president against all odds that he is fighting? He should help himself by being less controversial outside Boko Haram.”
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