By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
The Northern States Christian Elders Forum of (NOSCEF), has expressed concerns over the high rate of insecurity in the country, particularly Kaduna State.
A statement issued by its state chairman, Elder Garba Asandu noted, “Current happenings in our great country Nigeria has forced us to come out with words of sympathy, empathy, encouragement, advice, and caution as elders and leaders in our communities.
“The high rate of insecurity in our country and particularly Kaduna State is very condemnable by all right thinking people in a civilized 21st century country like ours.
“The rampant cases of community attacks, kidnapping, bombing, raping etc with great impunity is making us feel there is no government or those in government do not know what to do or are just incapable of discharging their responsibilities to their fatherland.
“Whatever they claim to be doing is not good enough and it is not acceptable to our people since these bandits can bomb or attack our airports, railways, trains, barracks, roads, villages, towns or cities without much ado.”
The statement added, “While we sympathize with the government and people of Nigeria and Kaduna State in particular, our greatest sympathy and empathy goes to the victims of these wicked attacks and all their loved ones. We pray God Almighty heals the injured and comfort the bereaved amongst us. We Pray for the soon release of all those in captivity in Jesus name, amen.”
The forum appreciated Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State for his boldness and courage to publicly apologize to victims of these detestable acts and accepting failure and called on other political office holders to emulate him and even go further to do the needful, but, however, cautioned against the idea of bringing in mercenaries since the security men/women are able to defeat these ragtag bandits given enough resources and political will.
The forum advised the federal government to mobilize able and capable youth that are unemployed in their millions to crush these bandits/terrorists since the country right now is in a war, saying that further delay can be dangerous.
It said, “There can be demobilization or right/downsizing of our soldiers after winning this war.”
It called on all the citizens to pray and support all government efforts in restoring security and revamping the economy, believing that every problem has an expiry date, thus these banditry attacks will soon be forgotten.
On the 2023 elections, the forum congratulated INEC and all Nigerians on the new Electoral Act, advising INEC to embark on massive political education of the citizens to ensure a very peaceful, credible and successful elections come 2023 so that they should ensure and be seen to be very transparent in all aspects of next year’s elections.
“We advice all eligible citizens 18 years and above to ensure they obtain their voters cards. We advise all politicians and their supporters to always conduct themselves with decorum as patriotic Nigerians.
“They should avoid things that will further divide us such as Christian-Christian ticket or Muslim-Muslim ticket as it is an ill-wind that will someday break this country or bring serious crisis in a state,” the statement explained.
The statement added, “Our politicians should be seen to cement our cracks instead of enlarging them in view of our great religious, tribal or regional diversities. Our politicians should also avoid the temptation of carpet crossing on flimsy excuses to strengthen the roots of our democracy.
“On ASUU strike, we as elders and parents, call on the Federal Government to honour their earlier agreement(s) with ASUU in order to revamp our educational system particularly the tertiary level. To ASUU and other unions in our educational sector, we appeal to you deeply to endeavor to reach an agreement with the government in order to avoid the total collapse of our educational system.”
It appealed to all socialization agencies such as families, schools, churches, mosques, the media to wake up to their responsibilities to the children and youth by inculcating the right moral and spiritual values for a discipline and better Nigeria and should avoid the get-rich-quick syndrome and worshiping of money/riches that is pushing our children into occultism and ritual killings for money.
“As we salute our gallant security men and women that are paying the supreme sacrifice with their lives to secure us, let them be rest assured that our prayers are always with them as they go for operations or are out of operations each day/night,” the statement stated.
“Finally, we once more sympathize with all victims of these recent attacks particularly the Kagoro, Giwa, Birnin Gwari, Kaduna Airport, Abuja/Kaduna Train attacks among many others,” it said.
