Tambuwal Wants FG, Boko Haram Dialogue

President Goodluck Jonathan (left), receiving the reports of three Petroleum Special Committees from the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Deziani Allison-Madueke at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, last Friday. With them are, Chairman, Special Task Force on Governance and Control, Mr Dotun Suleiman (3rd right), Chairman, Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, Malam Nuhu Ribadu( 2nd right), and the Alternate Chairman, Refineries Special Task Force, Alhaji Yusuf Alli.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, says the House will encourage the Federal Government to engage in dialogue with the Boko Haram sect.

Speaking with newsmen, Tambuwal said the move would assist in ending the wave of terrorist acts by the group.

The sect had already named a former military Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), to lead its five-member negotiation team.

“I will encourage our leadership to engage the leadership of the sect in dialogue. Whatever will bring peace to this country, we should go for it. “We have had more than enough bloodshed of innocent Nigerians and government should do everything possible, including dialoguing with the Boko Haram sect, to bring the killings to an end,’’ Tambuwal said.

Commenting on the call by the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) for a referendum on the proposed amendment of the 1999 Constitution, Tambuwal described it as unconstitutional.

“We are expecting that we will incorporate the views of Nigerians in the amendment, but the call by NBA for a referendum is unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, the former  General Secretary of defunct National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Mr Ayo Opadokun, has urged the Federal Government not to allow the Boko Haram group to dictate the pace of peace talks.

Speaking in Lagos during the 11th Annual Leadership Lecture and Role Model Awards, organised by Leadership Watch, a non-governmental organisation, last Friday. Opadokun said that the demand by Boko Haram for peace talks in Saudi Arabia, among other demands, “is a curious demand’’ and an attempt by the “tail to wag the head’’.

The NADECO scribe said that it was a “total absurdity’’ for a violent group, which had caused a lot of mayhem in the country, to dictate to Nigerians, urging the Federal Government to live up to expectations.

Opadokun, who was the chairman of the occasion, said that even though he did not disapprove of dialogue with the group, such talks should be held on the right terms and conditions.

“The government must tread softly,’’ he said.

He said that if the government acceded to the demands of Boko Haram, it could serve as a precedent which could propel other aggrieved groups to employ the same tactics.

Opadokun, however, said that the level of insecurity in the country portended a bleak future.

He called for innovative strategies to tackle the menace of insecurity effectively.

The guest lecturer, Prof. Anya O Anya, the Chairman of the Alpha Institute for Research in Science, Economics and Development (AISED) traced the origin of terrorism and the Nigerian experience.

He said that the 9/11 attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001 brought about a new consciousness and perception of terror and violence globally.

According to him, Nigeria had not been isolated from the development. Anya said that violence and insecurity in Nigeria had its root in the pre-colonial era, as violence was then used as instrument of social control.

He said that violence and insecurity went through various stages until the emergence of the Boko Haram sect, whose activities became more political than religious or ethnic as they were being painted.

He said that Boko Haram had provided an avenue for the coming of foreign jihadist movements into the country.

Anya stressed that the current state of insecurity was not conducive to the evolution of the kind of economic transformation which the nation needed.

He, however, said that Nigerians should not think that no good leaders could emerge in the country, saying: “The Nigeria of our dream could not be built in the climate of negativity and depreciation of all leaders.’’

Anya said that pragmatic nation building efforts involved “patient and cumulative brick-by-brick construction and some degree of myth-making and even symbolism, founded on the ability to select and amplify desirable elements’’.

Tambuwai told newsmen at Ila-Orangun, Osun state, that the House would support any step that could bring peace to the country.

“The House of Representatives is the House of the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and any step that can bring peace to the country will be welcomed.

“If the sect is now accepting that there should be a kind of peace path with the Federal Government, I am sure the House will encourage that,’’ he said.

On the demands of the sect, Tambuwal said: “there will be a dialogue and it may not necessarily have to be all the conditions that they have given that will be met.

“I think government should be engaged and see how best the issues can be resolved.’’

On the constitutional review, the speaker promised that the House would make the process highly participatory.

“We will do this by asking each and every one of our colleagues to go back to his or her constituency to organise a people’s parley.

“Members will then come and address all the issues raised and then we will get the aggregate position of Nigerians on virtually all the issues before taking positions.’’

Tambuwal said that the second reading of the bill on autonomy of local governments had passed the second reading.

He expressed the hope that the amendments would see the light of the  day during the constitutional amendment.