By Chimezie Godfrey
Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre(CISLAC), Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani has called on the President and Governors to be proactive, prompt, and decisive in dealing with the Pastoralists-farmers’ crisis, before it escalates to jeopardize Nigeria’s national unity, peace and security.Rafsanjani made this call while addressing journalists on the state of the nation, organized in Abuja.
He said, “CISLAC having observed the disturbing trends, events and occurrences in our dear nation, noting the responses from government, groups and different stakeholders in the Nigerian Project; worried that politics, ethno-religious sentiments which has greatly influenced the actions of various individuals could escalate and degenerate into anarchy.
“It could jeopardize the lives and property of innocent Nigerians and our collective aspiration for a peaceful and just society.”
He said being mindful of the ultimate effect of this in our national unity as we approach 2019 have found it necessary to address the issue of increasing threat to the nation’s peace and security, rising kidnapping, insurgency in the north-east, corruption, the gross violation of electoral processes, state of economy and lingering fuel crises, rising poverty level, dilapidated healthcare sector and delayed implementation of the SDS, and adoption of comprehensive IDPS policy.
The executive director recommended that there is need for a paradigm shift in policy making from conflict resolution to conflict prevention strategy. He called for collective understanding and acceptance of causes of conflict with inclusion of all resource users, and provision of legal assistance to conflicting parties, among others.
Mr. Anya Okeke, a CISLAC member urged the security agencies to deploy all the resources at their disposal to put an end to the kidnapping of Nigerians and other foreigners. He said the security agencies must be proactive and deploy intelligence to check this criminality to end the impunity.
Mr. Vaclav Prusa, a board member of CISLAC, decried the persistent shocking levels of corruption in Nigeria. He said conservative estimates indicate that 70% of the nation’s revenue is used to maintain less than 20% of the Nigerian population that are public servants and politicians.
“We urge government and security agencies to provide the “Whistle blowers with robust legal protection and assurances from the highest political level that their life is protected and their actions glorified while exposing corruption,” he said.
The Director Legal and a board member of CISLAC, Adesina Oke expressed serious concern over the gross violation of the provision of electoral Act arising from improper use of the released electoral time table by politicians and political parties.
He recommended appropriate sanctions by INEC against erring political parties or politician flouting existing legal provision, among other things.
Chioma Kalu, from CISLAC, decried non implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at national and sub-national levels. She called for the holistic implementation of SDGs to address the nation’s developmental challenges such as poverty, hunger, poor healthcare system, education, inequalities, instability, injustice, weak institutions, and corruption.
