As FG okays White Paper on Boko Haram committee

Posted by admin Boko Haram, Latest Politics Thursday, March 8th, 2012

From JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE, Abuja
Thursday, March 08, 2012

The Federal Government yesterday approved the White Paper on the report of the Presidential Committee on Security Challenges in the North East Zone of Nigeria set up by President Goodluck Jonathan and chaired by Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the Boko Haram crisis, keeping open the option for dialogue with the Islamic radical sect.

This follows a very extentive discussion at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) which lasted over seven hours and with the resolution to pass it to the Federal Ministry of Justice for gazetting. The Council also discussed the report on Public Private Partnership (PPP) presented by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory commission (ICRC), which harped on the need for all MDAs to set up PPP Units.

This he said would enable the MDAs to build technical and managerial capacities, taking cognisance of viable projects that could attract investors to key sectors. The report of the Galtimari committee was submitted to the President last September, recommending at the time that the federal government should consider the option of dialogue once the Boko Haram sect renounced all forms of violence.

Addressing State House correspondents the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku alongside his Interior counterpart, Abba Moro, said that the content of the White Paper would not be disclosed until it has been gazetted by the Ministry of Ministry. Both ministers pointed out that the White Paper covered most of the areas the committee had touched in the report and most of its recommendations have been accepted by government.
The committee had recommended the renunciation of all forms of violence by the Islamic sect to enable the federal government to commence negotiation with it. It had also recommended that “the federal Government should fundamentally, consider the option of dialogue and negotiation which should be contingent upon the renunciation of all forms of violence and surrender of arms to be followed by a rehabilitation programme on the side of government.

“The federal government should create an informal forum at the highest level, where Mr. President will discuss national security issues with governors and other stakeholders from time to time. Again, there is an urgent need for arranging an informal forum where Mr. President will grant audience to each state governor on one-to-one basis where issues on security, could be addressed.

“The federal government should diversify and strengthen its means of creating avenues for international intelligence sharing and inter-agency cooperation through diplomatic channels/pacts. “The federal government and Borno State government should ensure that human and organizational victims, most especially, churches and mosques including schools, which were destroyed during the religious crisis in the past and even in the recent past, should be compensated monetarily and by way of resuscitating and reconstructing their properties. Survivors of the deceased victims should be compensated appropriately.”

The committee also urged government to consider the scope of the present assignment to cover all security challenges facing the nation, saying that this view was informed by comments, suggestions and counsel made by many concerned individuals to the committee in the course of interactions with stakeholders including the governors of Borno, Bauchi, Kano, Niger and Sokoto States.

“Therefore government may consider constituting another committee with wider power and with an increased membership to handle the assignment within a reasonable timeframe but not weeks as was given to this committee. The committee’s power should include dialogue and negotiation with the Ja’amatus Ahlus Sunnah Lid Daawatis Wal Jihad (Boko Haram) who have to our understanding, indicated their desire to have the sultan of Sokoto or his representatives as well as the Emir of Bauchi and Sheik Abubakar Gero Argungu as part of any such new committee,” the committee posited.

The committee had also recommended that government at all levels should, as a matter of priority initiate and design appropriate programmes to address the issue of unemployment in the zone, saying that it was of the view that the ongoing trial of police officers linked to the murder of Mohammed Yusuf, the sect leader and some of his followers should be expedited and publicized to convince the public of government’s sincerity on the matter.
According to Maku, “we discussed the Presidential panel on the continued crisi and violence in the North East of Nigerai. You will recall a comittee was set up by the federal government which looked not the crisis in the North East and submitted the report in September last year. The federal government also set up a white paper committee which was chaired by the Minster of Interior Abba Moro to look into the recommendations of the panel and to come up with the government recommendation on the report of the panel.

“Today the report was extensively discussed in council particularly the white paper which spells out government views on the recommendation that was made by the white paper committee. Mr. President attaches strong importance to the need for peace not only in the North East but indeed in other parts of the federation and that was why today we took such a long time to discuss this report. Suffice it to say at this point that government has discussed all, the recommendations of the Gaitemeri report and we have come up with government positions on those recommendations on the white paper.

“The report is extensive it covers the remote causes of the crisis in the North East and other parts of the North, it also covers various levels of responsibilities from community to local government to state and to federal government in tacklin the menace of violence and terror in the North East and other parts of the federation.
The report also covers the responsibilities and operations of security agencies in bringing tis about as well as the political aspects of the report which we believe must be addressed paripasu with the security measures that the federal government has taken to bring this crisis under control and eventually bring it to an end.

We’ve discussed, we have taken decisions on them but we cannt go into details because it is a white paper. And so the decision of the Federal Executive Council will have to go to the ministry of justice where the final paper will be gazetted and issued centrally and when the gazetted white paper comes out we will be able to unveil the details to members of the public, but suffice it to say at this stage that government is doing everything that is necessary to ensure thAt we defeat this violence, we bring bout peace and security not only in the Northern state but in the entire federation”.

Also throwing more light on the committee’s report Moro said, “As a white paper on government position on some of the issues raised, his paper will be passed appropriately to the ministry of justice that will gazett it gazette no make it public in the near future. In the immediacy I think it is only proper to let you know that government accepted most of the recommendations of the committee that are intended essentially to bring about peace and address some of the issues raised by the members of the sect that have been perpetrating violence in parts of Nigeria. Government in consideration of the white paper also realizes that some of the issues raised cuts across Nigeria and so the measures that will be applied in these areas of the North East zone will certanly also apply to other parts of the country.

“For instance on the issue of indegeneship and settlership the recommendation of the committee was to the effect that government ahould emulate the situation in Sokoto state where there is no discrimination in terms of education and employment. And so these are issues that affect the lives of Nigerians, issues and recommendation of creation of employment opportunities were raised and government has accepted to encourage state government and local government to collaborate with the federal government on that across the country. So bye and bye it is our hope that by the time these issues are documented and presented and address the very basic issues that create agitation in Nigeria that we would have peace then economic and political development can take place.

“He also gave an example of the Sokoto state government which does not discriminate against non indigenes in its various programmes, a development that could be repeated in other zones”.

-Sunwp_posts

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Posted by admin on Mar 8 2012. Filed under Boko Haram, Latest Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry