Obasanjo Wants Plateau to Decide Own Future
Wabara: There won't be emergency rule in Benue
FromKola Ologbondiyan in Abuja and Funmi Peter-Omale in Jos
President Olusegun Oba-sanjo has charged Plateaun State citizens and stakeholders to make the best use of the peace conference he inaugurated yesterday to fashion out the future and status of the state.
Plateau State, whose governor Joshua Dariye and legislature have been suspended for six months, has been under emergency rule since May following a prolonged ethno-communal clashes that killed hundreds of people and spilled to other states.
Obasanjo while inaugurating the "Plateau Peace Conference and Reconciliation" in Jos yesterday also disclosed that finding lasting and democratic answers to the problems in the state cannot be resolved in a matter of six months.
In his words: "The issues above are not for the administrator alone to deal with, they cannot be resolved in a matter of six months because they took so long to fester. The agenda and the future are in your hands. What you make of it (the conference) will determine where we all go from here. We must have the courage to tell ourselves the truth."
Obasanjo affirmed that the proclamation of a state of emergency was a "last resort", saying that the state government and political leadership had consistently failed over a three year period to contain festering crises, mediate conflicts, assure peace and focus on growth and development.
"The truth is that insensitivity to the deepening crisis and the implications it had for the country eroded the credibility and legitimacy of the leadership and thus exposed the state to opportunistic political options and tendencies," the President said.
He accused the leadership both at government and political levels of failure "to work together inspite of several interventions and pleas from the Federal Government."
"Here was a state that was blessed with all the good things of life, all that was needed beyond the blessings of Almighty God was the right leadership to unleash the creative and productive energies of the people to initiate a grand agenda for sustainable growth and development. The exact opposite happened," he said.
According to the President who was on a two-day working visit to the state, there are lessons to be drawn from the experience of Plateau. "The tragedy of the fact those that ought to have played a leadership role in stemming the tide of dislocation, discord and violence became partisan and therefore part of the problem. They thus forfeited the right of being accorded the distinguished and dignified respect as leaders of the people in a situation of factionalisation, suspicion, distrust and violence."
While lauding the various achievements of the administrator, Maj. Gen. Chris Alli (rtd) in the last three months, the President said the state still has a long way to go, noting that the conference was timely and necessary.
He expressed the confidence that the 1999 Constitution protects all citizens in every part of the country and deplored the segregation and discrimination occasioned by the "indigineship/settlership" syndrome.
He thus charged participants, stakeholders and citizens of the state to join hands in seeking and implementing permanent solutions to the problems of Plateau State.
"Perhaps one day, we could recommend same to another country like Sudan because what has happened in Plateau is not different from what is happening in Darfur region," he said.
Meanwhile Senate President Adolphus Wabara yesterday ruled out the possibility of imposing a state of emergency on Benue State on account of the political crises rocking Kwande local government area of the state.
"Going by what we have in the Senate, there can't be and there will not be a state of emergency in Benue State. The problem there is about crisis in a local government which does not have a religious or tribal colouration," Wabara told a delegation of Benue South Senatorial District led by Senator David Mark and Chief Baba Odangla, who paid a courtesy visit on him.
The group visited Wabara to request that Senate stood down the report of Senator Iyabo Anisulowo on the Kwande crisis.
According to Wabara, the Senate stood down the report of Anisulowo Joint Committee in respect for the Senate Rule 53 (5) which states that where a matter is before a court or judiciary, the Senate can not hold brief on such matters.
"We have received the report of the committee which is before the Senate but because we have to thread softly we invoked our Rule 53 (5) and we consider the Panel of Inquiry as a court and we can't act arbitrarily. That is why the report is kept in the cooler pending the outcome of the panel of enquiry," he said.
He commended the people for having the interest of their neighbours at heart, noting that this portrays them as a people who love peace adding that the Benue South people "should take our message to them in Kwande that they should sheathe their swords and wait for the law to take its course."
"It would be historical calamity if we have problem in Plateau State and Benue at the same time," he added.
Mark had described the delegation as "cutting across all the parties be it ANPP, UNPP, PDP or whatever who are united in seeking for peace in Benue State and finding a lasting solution to the Kwande problem."
Odangla, who read the group's address, said "the political crisis in Kwande which caught the attention of the Senate was politically masterminded by few individuals rather than government induced as you were made to believe. Since the political crisis occurred only in Kwande, we are of the view that solution to the crisis can be found internally by the government and the people of Benue State."
"In view of the judicial commission of inquiry put in place by the state government, it is our considered opinion that action be stayed on the report of the Senate Committee that looked into the Kwande crisis to enable the Judicial Commission look more indepth into the crisis," Odangla added.
|
