Delegates to the National Conference on Monday observed a minute silence for victims of insurgency across Nigeria.
The minute silence was observed following a motion by a delegate from Zamfara State, Mande Balla, who drew attention to the killings of over 150 persons during the weekend.
He lamented that a lot of people have lost their lives through the violence that has been unleashed on them by other Nigerians.
Mr. Bala noted that if urgent steps are not taken to curb the increasing restiveness and insecurity in the country, the situation could worsen. He called on delegates to work together to address the root causes of insecurity in the country.
Majority of delegates, who spoke on the floor of the Conference, called for measures to check the growing level of insecurity in the country.
Delegates also lamented the killings and destruction of property that have occurred in many parts of the country, especially in the North.
They called for equity, justice and fair-play in business of governance so that Nigerians will have a sense of belonging wherever they find themselves in the country.
Ledum Mitee, a Federal Government delegate, said he came to the Conference with an agenda to defend the rights of the people of Nigeria.
While every delegate and even the President claimed that they have no agenda, he said he has one on behalf of the Ogonis.
Mr. Mitee said, “I came here with an agenda. I am from Ogoni and we have come to represent a metaphor in Nigeria. We drink water that is poisoned beyond what is allowed by the relevant international bodies.
“Let me say, Mr. Chairman, beneath all the arms that are seen in the North and Southern part of the country, there was a voice that called for attention and justice but which we failed to heed.”
He said he encountered youths who were vandalizing pipelines while serving as Chairman of the Niger Delta Technical Committee.
When he sought to know why the youth were cutting the oil pipelines, one of them said they were looking for all that has been promised them in the past and not delivered.
He noted that as a young man, he had opportunity to go to school through scholarship provided for by the government of the day.
Mr. Mitee, however, noted that such opportunities were no longer available for young Nigerians but instead, those, who benefited from the largesse, were those who owned private schools in the country.
He said, “We delude ourselves that by sending our children to this privileged schools they will have good opportunities in the future. But we are deceiving ourselves. Many people now know that it is only by being political thugs, they can become something.
“If we want to succeed as a people, we must try to build a nation where no one is oppressed. When the oppressed is not sleeping, it means that the oppressor will not sleep too.”
But in different twist, a delegate from Ondo state, Femi Mimiko, called for a law that would empower Nigerians to bear arms for self defence.
Mr. Mimiko said the current level of insecurity in the country would be reversed if Nigerians are allowed to bear arms.
He said the reason people were being killed indiscriminately by the insurgents was because citizens are defenseless.
“Mr. Chairman, we should create a Constitution that would allow for citizens to bear arms. People are killed and property destroyed because Nigerians are not armed,” Mr. Mimiko said.
He said there was so much inequality in the country that there was an urgent need to do something urgently to reverse the trend.
In a similar vein, Isa Aliyu, Nigerian Ambassador to Libya, warned that the situation in the country was gradually approaching a breaking point.
Mr. Aliyu said the Arab Spring started with a young man in Tunisia who set himself ablaze out of frustration and warned that the difficult situation in Nigeria was driving young people to the point of revolt.
He berated political office holders for bastardizing the political process in the country by amassing more powers than what is good for the political system.
He said, “We have political parties that are worst than the five leprous fingers of the Second Republic and the two parastatals of the Ibrahim Babangida’s administration.
“We have seen a situation where somebody becomes a president on the platform of a political party and he becomes bigger than all those, who got him there. It is like a child who is put to birth to by a mother and when she grows up, claims to be the mother to the woman who gave birth to her
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