JOS — PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo said yesterday that much of the responsibility for lifting the state of emergency in Plateau State rested with the people, charging them to resolve the native-settler issue in a manner consistent with the provisions of the country’s constitution. The president on the last day of his two-day visit to the state said he would be back when the six months emergency period is about to lapse to see if peace had been fully restored.
Declaring open the Plateau Peace Conference as part of the activities marking his visit to the state, the president said the success of the current peace efforts would determine what next step to take.
Said he: “The agenda and the future are in your hands. What you make of it will determine where we go from here. We must have the courage to tell ourselves the truth. We must go beyond escapist, opportunistic, diversionary and emotional or invented excuses and explanations. We must have the courage to look forward in the interest of fellow citizens, our families, communities, state and nation. We must seek to understand the remote and immediate causes of conflict and violence in the state.”
President Obasanjo acknowledged the gradual return of peace to the state following the declaration of the state of emergency but admitted that “we have a long way to go.”
He described the conference as timely and necessary, adding that it should proffer ways to address causes of crises among various groups especially the native-settler issue. “This conference and discourses thereafter must consider in a sober and humane way how we can moveaway from the unfortunate, undemocratic and unfair, even discriminatory division between indigenes and settlers to an all-embracing and unifying appreciation of Nigerian citizenship. We must come to the point where we realise that we are one people under one God; and that this nation belongs to all of us,” he stressed.
President Obasanjo had on Wednesday harped on the same issue during a visit to Yelwa and Kadarko, two crisis-torn communities, commending the return of some of those who fled the areas in the wake of the crises and urging those yet to return to do so. He said peace-building was a cumulative process, hence all should join hands to see that normalcy returned. He said only the devil could have made people who had co-habited peacefully for centuries to kill and maim one another in such a manner.
According to him, “If you believe in peace, work for peace and live peacefully. All I want is peace and security and when six months is about to go, I will still come and see where we are.” In Yelwa, the president said “my joy knows no bounds today because of the way I have seen you, the way I have met you dancing together, holding hands, working together and already living together in peace.”
Speaking at the peace conference, administrator of the state, Major-General Chris Alli (rtd.), said it was designed to inspire cooperation and consensus on issues breeding division among the people. He said the experience of Plateau State had shown clearly that peace was not something to be taken for granted but something that must be consciously worked upon and sustained. He commended President Obasanjo for his concern for the state and the people as demonstrated by his various efforts to see that peace returned to the state. He promised that the recommendations of the conference would be harmonised with the inputs from the various consultations already made and implemented.
