POLITICAL leaders in the North yesterday rose from a peace meeting in Minna, the Niger State capital with a resolve to intensify the search for solutions to threat to the security of the region and Nigeria.
The meeting is coming barely one week after a similar one was held in Abuja by some prominent citizens from the north to discuss a way out of the current insecurity situation in the region and the country, which is almost crippling both economic and social activities in the region.
The peace forum was conveyed by the former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, under the auspices of Abdulsalami Abubakar Institute for Peace and Sustainable Development Studies (AAIPSDS) to find solutions to the security challenges confronting the country especially the north occasioned by the activities of the Boko Haram sect .
In a statement at the end forum, the leaders also resolved to engage leadership at all levels in search for better governance and in the fight corruption in order to improve the responsiveness of leaders to the basic needs of citizens.
The statement , jointly signed by Abubakar, and Hakeem Baba Ahmed, resolved to encourage Northern governors to improve on the management of the economy of the region and expand investment into the search for more economic resources which abound in the zone .
The forum while calling for improved inter-faith and inter-ethnic relations in the region as a way of curbing insecurity in the north, pledged to assist in the search for better state-community relations, including improvements in community involvement in intelligence gathering and peace-building.
Abubakar in an interview said among the issues discussed by the forum include the alarming levels of threat of violence in the nation and the appearance of possibility that violence as political expression could assume a permanent role in relations between groups.
He further pointed out that the deteriorating economy of the north and raising level of poverty and insecurity, which all these had generated and also the negative impacts of ethno-religious conflicts in the region were also discussed.
The Guardian