Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has expressed concerns over increasing insecurity affecting Northern Nigeria. At a meeting, presided over by the Chairman of its Board of Trustees, Alhaji Bashir Mohammed Dalhatu, the region’s apex sociocultural body said: “Whatever it takes, the security crisis in Northern Nigeria must end and end quickly. Our survival depends on it”.
According to a communique, was read by ACF’s National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Muhammad Tukur Baba, ACF said: “The meeting was called in response to and against the background of the ever increasing crisis of insecurity, sky rocketing cost of living, destitution, unemployment and other calamities plaguing Nigeria in general and Northern Nigeria in particular.
“Members agreed that at the moment, there is nothing troubling Northern Nigeria more than the lack of security of lives and property. The North is today ravaged by elevated forms of banditry, Boko Haram and other insurgencies.
“The menace of drug trafficking and abuse is steadily rising.Not surprisingly, food production is becoming increasingly difficult as farmlands are abandoned and the farmers are getting either killed or fleeing to the Internally Displaced Persons’ camps.
“There does not appear to be an end on sight to these crisis as the mitigation measures taken by the authorities have so far failed to yield the desired results.
“The current approaches to fighting the insurgents and bandits are not yielding the desired results. Other measures, even unconventional ones, need to be considered and tried.
“Nigeria is indeed facing a moral crisis for failing to protect its citizens who cannot bear arms but are left at the mercy of well armed, cruel and blood thirsty renegades and barbarians that continue to have free access to deadly arms. This is a matter that requires very urgent thoughts and review.
“Community driven models of defence, such as the civilian Joint Task Force, are already in operation in several parts of the country, including in the Boko Haram-ravaged Northeast of Nigeria. Similar or modified models of security management should be authorised in other parts of the country”.
ACF lamented that the unprecedented cost of living crisis is driven by severe food shortages, continuously rising prices of electricity and fuel energy. It said that, in turn, these problems had compounded the challenges of insecurity and violent crimes, adding that government must do all within its powers to mitigate the impact.
“The meeting identified corruption at all levels to be the key driver of bad governance in Nigeria. It also agreed that bad governance is the root cause of most of the social and economic crisis plaguing the country; including distortion of moral values; nepotism, injustice, misplacement of priorities, etc. It therefore called on the authorities to wage an all-out war against corruption without further delay” the communique further read.
After reviewing current agitations and calls for a review of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution as well as the restructuring of the administrative structure of the country, the meeting resolved to dispel any impression that the North was shy, afraid of or averse to any such proposals.
The meeting further resolved to put all and sundry on notice that Northern Nigeria is willing to consider all proposals on constitutional review, now or in the future. “If and when the occasion arises, the North will surely use whatever is available to it in pursuit of its legitimate interests”, the group said.
