Efemena Edherigho
Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, has explained why some Northern governors attended last Thursday’s press conference where the coalition of Arewa youth groups announced the withdrawal of the quit notice it issued to Igbos living in northern Nigeria, stating that their presence was meant to ensure that the agreement the group reached with the Northern Governors’ Forum was implemented to the letter. The Governor said he attended the press conference to monitor and ensure that the coalition withdrew the quit notice as agreed in his series of meetings with them because of their belief in the unity of Nigeria. The withdrawal of the quit notice had come as a result of series of consultations and pressure from different groups particularly from the Northern Governors’ Forum, which Shettima is the chairman.
The Borno Governor explained that the series of dialogue he had with the group was based on the mandate given to him by majority of Northern governors who wanted a peaceful resolution of the issue.
Shettima, who has demonstrated his faith in the unity of the country through the appointment of some of his key aides from the South, said: “Some people might ask, why should we be interested in these Arewa coalition withdrawing the quit notice. We simply want to prevent a situation where some hoodlums would take advantage of the quit notice to go after the lives or property of any Nigerian living in any of the 19 northern states. We also don’t want to create room for reactions in any of the 17 states in southern part of the country. The entire country could explode. The fact is that the coalition only has control over their own ultimatum before it expires,” Shettima said.
He added: “In this country, issues of religion and ethnicity are usually catalysts of violent crisis. As governors, we are close to the grassroots through local government and ward systems. We know the extent of sentiments and followership generated by both the ultimatum issued by the Arewa youths and the agitation in South-east; we know this country could boil when the ultimatum expires and this is why we insisted on political solution.
“The Northern governors were initially of the view that they should be arrested soon after they issued that ultimatum but after very careful analysis, after putting our ears to the ground and monitoring the sentiments built especially from the social media, we changed tactics to deploying a political solution because even if we had resorted to coercion, we probably would have still ended up on the negotiating table.”
Shettima advised that the country should always explore peaceful ways of settling disputes before adopting force.
He noted: “The bloody crisis of the Niger Delta which recorded high toll of deaths and destructions of national assets for years ended on the negotiating table. Even the Biafran civil war ended on the negotiating table. If we could negotiate before blood is shed, before property is destroyed, before millions of people are displaced, why must we wait till after the situation gets out of hand?
“As we speak, the military has what they call operation safe corridor which gives room for a sort of amnesty of moderate elements of the Boko Haram who took up arms against the people of Borno State and the country. It is a strategy of reducing fighters of the insurgents. So, in leadership, every situation is handled with the appropriate measure. Unless attempts for peaceful resolution fails, there will be no option than to use force.”