PRESS
STATEMENT BY THE CIVIL SOCIETY DELEGATION TO THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN NIGERIA
The Civil Society
Delegation to the National Conference, and the entire pro democracy civil
society movement in Nigeria continues to be alarmed at the deteriorating
security situation in the country, boosted by the failure of governance at all
levels, and amplified by the collective irresponsible actions and inactions of
the political elite.
We are worried that
two weeks after the abduction of 234 teenage school children, and days after
nearly 44 of them, through their own efforts escaped from their abductors, not
only has the entire security architecture failed to locate let alone rescue the
pupils but also the leadership of the political elite has continued to engage
in a shameless blame game, competing to make political gains out of our
collective misery.
In country with more
than 10 million out of school children, with a majority of them being girls, it
is a shame that the political elite, its regime, and the security and armed
forces over which it superintends are unable to assure our collective security,
and ensure that we not only keep enrolled school pupils in school, but that we
make the school environment safe enough to encourage and attract out of school
children and their parents.
Furthermore, just
over 14 days after the dastardly bomb blast in Nyanya Abuja, which left over 75
people killed and hundreds wounded and or missing, the nation has continued to
be subjected to wanton acts of terrorism and criminalities that continue to
leave scores of our compatriots dead, wounded, maimed, orphaned, widowed and
traumatized among other things.
Yet in the face of
these deepening monumental crises of existential proportions confronting our nation
and people, the political leadership continues to be incapable of rising to the
occasion, while the military and security forces along with the intelligence
services continue to be dithering, as if overwhelmed by the challenge.
At such a critical
moment such as this, it is incumbent on ordinary Nigerians to rise to the
occasion, make their voices heard, and call the leadership to order.
This is such a
moment, and we the civil society delegation to the ongoing National Conference,
convened in part as a result of these existential challenges, rise up to
collectively assert as follows:
·
We demand that
as a measure of the seriousness of the current situation that all political
parties cease their premature and illegal campaigns for the 2015 general
elections, and thus stop mocking our collective loss, dancing on the graves of
our murdered compatriots, as well as trivializing the trauma of our collective
grief.
·
We call on the
political leadership of all the parties to come together and take a common
stand on the deteriorating security situation in our country. We insist that
just this once they prioritise the collective interests of our people over
their individual greed.
·
We call on the
security and intelligence services as well as the Police and Armed Forces to
not only take practical steps to ensure the immediate rescue of the abducted
school girls along with others languishing in the various detention dens of
terrorist and criminal gangs across the country. We demand the establishment of
a crisis center on this issue, open and accessible to the families and the
public, and through which daily updates on the rescue efforts are given to
affected families and the nation at large.
·
Weeks after
both the bomb blast in Abuja and the abduction of hundreds of school girls, there
are no leads on what happened, how it happened, why it happened, etc; a
demonstration of the failure of the security architecture in spite of the
yearly trillion naira security vote in the country’s federal budget over the
last few years. We therefore urge a complete and thorough overall of the
security architecture in the country; and demand that immediate steps be taken
towards ensuring mandatory and improved coordination among security services
and agencies.
Signed for the Civil Society Delegation:
1.
Femi Falana
2.
Jaye Gaskia
3.
Abiola Akiode
4.
Ezenwa Nwagwu
5.
Auwal Musa
Rafsanjani
6.
Joe Okei
Odumakin
7.
Kyauta Giwa
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