North-West Regional Editor, Hassan Ibrahim, looks at the efforts of the northern governors to stop the Boko Haram crisis in the region by setting up a 41-member team to restore peace and orderliness in the region.SINCE the Boko Haram crisis as sumed catastrophic dimension in some northern states, the region has become unattractive for local and foreign investments. What started in Borno State, which many had hoped that soldiers and other security agents in the state would be able to contain, has now gradually spread to other parts of the North, turning it into a national problem which appears to have defied any solution for now.Governors from the North, however, have continued to brainstorm on how to tackle the crisis masterminded by the Islamic sect, Jama'atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda'awati Wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram. Thus, top on the agenda of their meetings in recent months had always been the issue of insecurity in the North. This is because bombings, explosions and gun attacks have become a recurring issue in many states in the region, leaving many dead and scores of others wounded.The North is no longer what it used to be, peaceful and vibrant, but a region enmeshed in a crisis of serious dimension. Although the news was greeted with mixed reactions when the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) recently inaugurated a 41-member Peace Committee on the Boko Haram, there were hopes in the region that it could be a prelude towards a lasting solution to the crisis. Members of the committee included traditional rulers, religious clergies, retired military men, businessmen and former public officers. At the inauguration of the committee, the Niger State governor and chairman of the NSGF, Alhaji Babangida Aliyu, charged the members to fashion out strategies to address the disturbing state of insecurity and proffer practical and enduring solutions to the problem. The main term of reference of the committee was to engender the restoration of the most desired peaceful coexistence, unity and development in the entire region.Those in the committee include the Lamido of Adamawa, Dr Barkindo Aliyu Mustapha; Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, Emir of Yauri, Alhaji Zayyanu Abdullahi; the Ngolong Nas in Plateau State, Nje Joshua Dimlong; Sheik Ahmed Lemu, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah; General Martin Luther Agwai; Justice Muhammed Uwais, Hajiya Maryam, Mrs Aisha Oyebode and former Police Commissioner, Mr. Abubakjar Tsav. However, keen observers were quick to fault the membership of the committee, saying that since the sect was operating from the foreground and most especially, living with common Nigerians, the failure to appoint a large number of commoners into the committee was a sign of failure. For instance, they pointed out that since the sect originated from Maiduguri in Borno State, there was the need to work closely with the close Muslim scholars and surviving relations of members of the sect who might still have secret contacts with key members, and even working or retired journalists in the state who the sect members relied on in the dissemination of information. Doing so, they reasoned, could be of immense assistance to the success of the committee.However, a report credited to the VOA where one Habu Mohammed who said he was deputy to the Boko Haram leader Shekau said they decided to go on with the peace moves due to wide public appeal for peace in the country, would go a long way in rekindling hope that the deadlocks experienced in previous peace talks might be a thing of the past this time around. According to the report, a senior government official who pleaded anonymity had also confirmed the peace talks. It is the hope of northerners and Nigerians in general that current development would bring an end to the crisis and regain the lost glory of the North, 'a region once known for innocence and tranquility but serially gang-raped through violent attacks. From Jos and other parts of Plateau State, to Niger, Borno, Yobe, Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Adamawa, Taraba and Gombe states, the story is the same. Daily, reports are filed where innocent souls are dispatched out of the earth by gun-wielding men yet to declare their grouse with the state.' Sometimes in March 2012 at their meeting in Kaduna, the governors of the 19 northern states resolved to work with emirs and chiefs in the region towards bringing an end to the guerilla warfare embarked upon by the Boko Haram sect and other terrorist groups against the nation. The governors, who met for several hours behind closed doors at the General Hassan Usman Katsina House Kaduna under the aegis of Northern States Governors' Forum (NSGF), said in a communiqu read by the Governor Aliyu that the alarming rate of insecurity in the region was extensively deliberated upon and they had resolved that an integrated approach should be adopted towards tackling the unfortunate situation. At the meeting, the chairman of the Northern Traditional Rulers' Council, His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar (CFR), recounted the unprecedented challenges, especially in the North, in terms of rising trends of insecurity which had deprived democratic liberty, freedom and economic prosperity in the region.The Sultan expressed the resolve and readiness of the Northern Traditional Rulers' Council to collaborate with the northern state governors, who should be the mouthpiece of the North to restore enduring peace and harmonious co-existence and development in the region for the benefit of all.The Emir of Gumel, Alhaji Najeeb Hussaini Adamu, had also, on behalf of the northern emirs and chiefs, assured the governors of the region, especially the crisis-ridden states, of assistance in tackling the security challenge confronting the region. But several months had passed without any positive development as even the Sultanate was not spared, having suffered series of attacks by members of the sect in recent times.Efforts by the Federal Government, using the security agencies to tame the monster, have also failed. A state of emergency in 15 local government areas on the last day of last year had not prevented mass murders and suicide bombings.Even armed robbers now have free reign in the region.After their last meeting in Kaduna, the governors could not take a definite stand on the issue even though, according to the Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, they discussed it extensively during the meeting. While not disclosing the steps being taken by the governors to address the situation, he said 'at the meeting, they seriously discussed the security challenges in the North and took very far-reaching decisions to address it. 'But you will agree with me that what is happening now is an emerging phenomenon in the North. We must look at where we have gone wrong, why we have moved from one extreme to another. It is very strange to see that people are bombing in the North; it is strange that we now have armed robbery and criminality in the North,' he said.Aliyu, on his part, said it was unfortunate that the security situation in the country had not abated, but was rather worsening and attaining very alarming dimensions with attendant negative implications for the economic growth, development and image of the nation. He was, however, more concerned about the security implication of the statement made by a former Head of State and cautioned leaders against unguarded utterances because inflammatory statements by eminent Nigerians were capable of affecting the nation's fragile unity and security.The Federal Government has continued to assure the people that it is doing everything to address the security challenges. Many have, however, faulted the intelligence gathering of the nation's security agencies, arguing that its failure has been largely responsible for the insecurity in the country. But Suswam was of the view that intelligence gathering could only work with the support and co-operation of the people and that the people must be prepared to provide credible information to security agents since those behind the bombings were not spirits, saying 'people must assist in intelligence gathering because these people are not spirits but live in homes and in the community. 'They do their trainings in homes. We need to have information at the level of leadership, otherwise, the North as it were, is being decapitated economically and there is nothing that we, as leaders alone, can do, except we collaborate,'he said. Although Governor Suswam was not comfortable with the call for dialogue and wondered on the possibility to dialogue with people who had remained faceless without defined leadership, he was of the belief that, to address the security challenges currently being experienced in the North, the government would need the support of the people to tackle security challenges occasioned by the activities of Boko Haram.The current 41'man committee is therefore advised to put that into consideration because earlier efforts at addressing the security situation in the region were being frustrated. It will be impossible to hold any discussions with the perpetrators unless they come out in the open and state their demands.
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