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Women leaders give Buhari two months to convene national security conference

By Azimazi Momoh Jimoh (Abuja) and Agosi Todo (Calabar)
12 May 2021   |   4:05 am
The Nigeria Women Elders’ Council (NWEC) has given President Muhammad Buhari two months to convene a national conference to address the country’s security challenges.

Buhari. Photo: TWITTER/NIGERIAGOV

•NAWOJ, others supplicate over insecurity

The Nigeria Women Elders’ Council (NWEC) has given President Muhammad Buhari two months to convene a national conference to address the country’s security challenges.

Threatening a ‘a sit-at-home’ protest in the event of failure, the women, at a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, warned that the most populous risked imminent implosion if urgent measures were not taken by government to address the situation.

They expressed their frustration over the continued killing of their children by non-state actors. The group lamented what it called the helplessness of security agencies in the face of serious havoc on the country.

The council, which has President of Market Women Association, Chief Felicia Sani as leader and former Minister of Education, Prof. Chinwe Obaje as member, said the gender would embark on a two-week fast and supplication for divine intervention and guidance.

Addressing journalists, erstwhile Commissioner for Works in Anambra State, Mrs. Chika Ibeleme, noted: “The conference will afford Nigerians from all walks of life the opportunity to ventilate their grievances or express their views on the situation of the country.

“It will also afford the government the opportunity to bring every section together towards a lasting solution to the myriad of problems confronting the nation.”

She stressed that the confab had become imperative because the “security crisis has never been like this. We have to come together to find a solution. We need him to come and speak to us.”

The council noted that the country’s fault lines had never been this visible. She added that all the geo-political zones were engulfed in one crisis or the other, with life and property threatened daily.

The council charged Buhari to address the nation, maintaining that the era of surrogacy was over. SIMILARLY, the Cross River State chapter of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) and other women groups have joined the national body to seek divine intervention over the insecurity in a two-hour national solemn assembly.

Speaking at the prayer session, the Vice President, Zone F, Mrs. Uduak Obeten, added that exercise was holding across the 36 states on order of their National President, Ladi Bala.

She said: “Due to the unrest going on everywhere in the country, the National President of NAWOJ came up with the call to all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for women to rise up to cry to God in prayer for peace in our society, for our children that have been kidnapped severally, banditry and insecurity.”

In her remarks, the chapter chairperson, Mrs. Umoh Bassey, observed that women must pray for restoration of peace in the country, insisting that the leadership and security personnel had been overwhelmed.

Also speaking, the NUJ chairman, Victor Odu, represented by his deputy, Mrs. Florence Kanu, commended the organisers for the initiative.

The officiating pastors, Rt. Rev. Okonawan and Pastor (Mrs.) Olaitan Uwem, called on religious and political leaders to join the women in praying for the country. The women group present at the programme was the Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers Union of Nigeria (RATTAWU).

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