Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:

Jonathan says national confab report, solution to religious crisis

By Alifa Daniel (Abuja Bureau Chief) and Karls Tsokar (Abuja)
03 February 2017   |   3:17 am
Amid growing religious intolerance, former President Goodluck Jonathan has explained that only the recommendations by the 2014 National Conference could solve the country’s crises.

Goodluck Jonathan. PHOTO: bloomberg.com

• CAN, JNI urge El-Rufai to prosecute culprits
• Police parade 17 armed bandits over killings

Amid growing religious intolerance, former President Goodluck Jonathan has explained that only the recommendations by the 2014 National Conference could solve the country’s crises.

He made the disclosure on Tuesday in Washington when he met the United States’ Congress House Sub Committee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organisations.

According to him, adopting the confab’s resolutions could have prevented the ethnic and religious tension that led to the killings in Southern Kaduna.He said he had visited some former leaders in Nigeria to canvass unity to prevent some of these challenges.

Jonathan urged the “body and the new American administration of President Donald Trump to work with the government and people of Nigeria on capacity building and intelligence gathering to bring an end to religious extremism in Nigeria.”

The ex-president also said the confab’s recommendations on true fiscal federalism was a solution to the recurring crisis in the Niger Delta. He said what was needed in the country was resource control and not interventionist policies.

He stressed an agency like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) had not been effective because of over politicisation of its activities.A statement by his spokesman, Ikechukwu Eze, said the ex-leader spoke in his capacity as the Chairman of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation.

He said the body was set up to promote peace and prosperity in Nigeria and Africa, adding that the culture of impunity in the country often contributed to the reoccurrence of violence.

Meanwhile, the Kaduna State chapters of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Jama’atu Nasrul Islam (JNI) yesterday urged Governor Nasir El’Rufai to ensure that those behind the Kaduna crises were punished.

The two groups made the call when state government officials visited their offices in Kaduna. The CAN’s state Secretary Rev. Sunday Ibrahim urged Nigerians to make efforts to restore peace in the area.

On his part, the state JNI Secretary, Ibrahim Kufaina, appealed to clerics to be responsible in their preaching.Also, the police have paraded 17 arm bandits suspected to be involved in the Southern Kaduna killings. One Nelson Paul confessed that he was the supplier of the arms which he sold to them for N30, 000 to N40, 000 each.

Parading the suspects yesterday at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Jimoh Moshood, said the suspects were arrested following discreet investigation by a joint team of personnel of the police mobile force and counter terrorism unit.

In this article

2 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    And why did the Jonathan not implement the recommendations of the confab while he was in power?

    • Author’s gravatar

      The man said NDDC has not been effective because of “over politicisation of its activities”. Not corruption, ..” over politicisation”.

      He also said his confab report which includes duch “asinine ideas” as having forty-something states will “solve the Southern Kaduna crisis” .

      And of course , resource control which he had the power to implement will solve all of Nigerias problems.

      The man is confirmed clueless