The Nigerian Working Group on Peacebuilding and Governance is asking President Muhammadu Buhari and state governors to commence a dialogue process to address the rising security challenges in the country.
The group said in a statement that Nigerians are suffering from the double menace of insecurity, as well as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their standards of living.
Signees of the statement include a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, the former Catholic Archbishop of Abuja; John Onaiyekan, and a former Chief of Army Staff, retired general Martin Luther Agwai.
According to the group, “Nigeria, like the rest of the world is battling the coronavirus pandemic. However, citizens in Nigeria are facing double the suffering because they also have to contend with rising insecurity and violence across the country.
“The Nigerian government must immediately address the rising insecurity if it is to succeed in the fight against the pandemic.”
Their position comes on the heels of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s accusation suggesting that the Buhari administration is driving Nigeria into becoming a failed and divided state.
“Today, Nigeria is fast drifting to a failed and badly divided state; economically our country is becoming a basket case and poverty capital of the world, and socially, we are firming up as an unwholesome and insecure country.
“And these manifestations are the products of recent mismanagement of diversity and socio-economic development of our country. Old fault lines that were disappearing have opened up in greater fissures and with drums of hatred, disintegration, and separation and accompanying choruses being heard loud and clear almost everywhere,” Obasanjo stated in a speech titled ‘Moving Nigeria Away from Tipping Over’ at a consultative dialogue attended by various socio-cultural groups in Abuja.
