Obasanjo, Gumi, Others Proffer Solutions To Insecurity

The Kaduna-based popular Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, yesterday, had a closed-door meeting with former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, at his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
A source present at the meeting told newsmen that the choice of Obasanjo by Gumi was based on the fact that the former president was a critical stakeholder and a respected elder statesman to discuss with.
Gumi briefed Obasanjo on his recent peace advocacy visits to the Fulani bandits in the North with the hope that government would understand the situation better and adopt his suggestions as the best possible way of ending the current insecurity crisis.
In a 21-page communique jointly signed by Obasanjo and Gumi at the end of the meeting, they both agreed that the menace of banditry, kidnapping, other crimes and atrocities leading to general insecurity was a nationwide phenomenon.
The statement read, “We acknowledge that people from different parts of the country and outside the country are involved although some people are more predominantly involved than others.
“We must not advertently or inadvertently, in words, action or inaction encourage or support criminality.
“We acknowledge that the security situation has gone beyond tolerance; hence Sheik Gumi’s coming to Abeokuta to confer with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
“We identified the crisis as micro ethnic conflict between the Fulani and many host communities mainly in the North-West”.
They identified the remote causes of insecurity in Nigeria as educational and economic disparities, and the negative use of religion and ethnicity by unscrupulous politicians.
They added that, “Solutions must be seen and provided on short, medium, and long-term bases, and must be composed of ‘stick and carrot’ for the offender and the vulnerable.
“All well-meaning Nigerians have to be involved in finding solutions to the crises by: desisting from blame game; desisting from ethnicising these crimes; desisting from religionising these crimes; desisting from regionalising these crimes; respecting one another individually, community-wise, locally, ethnically, religiously and socially; showing tolerance and accommodation where necessary; condemning criminal acts no matter where it is committed and by whom it is committed in Nigeria; encouraging more of carrot solution as may be found necessary; sharing information at all levels; not accepting criminality as a way of life for any individual or group in our nation.”