President Olusegun
Obasanjo yesterday
flagged off the peace conference blaming the elites and elders in Plateau State for plunging the state into crisis, leading to the declaration of a state of emergency.
Speaking to a cross-section of elites and elders at the Hill Station Hotel, venue of the conference, President Obasanjo said it was their inaction to stem the ethno religious crises in the state that led to the imposition of the state of emer-gency.
Although he was optim-istic that peace was returning to the state, he however said a lot still needed to be done, saying the success of the peace conference is impor-tant to the restoration of normalcy.
He said the process of attaining the goals has started but the state had a long way to go.
“The agenda and the fut-ure are in your hands. What you make of it will determine where we all go from here. We must have the courage to tell ourselves the truth.
“We must go beyond escapist, opportunistic, dive-rsionary and emotional or invented blames and explanations. We must have the courage to look for ward to the interest of fellow citizens, our families, communities, state and nation.
“We must seek to understand the remote and immediate causes of the conflict and violence in the state. We must consider, in a dialectical manner, how we can address the identified causes at the family, community, local government and state levels.
“We must also find last-ing and realistic answers to how every Nigerian citizen living in Plateau State can have a sense of belonging and participation in a process that enables him or her reach the highest levels of creativity.”
President Obasanjo as-ked for the full participation of the citizenry in the peace conference.
“This conference and discourses thereafter, must consider in a human way how we can move away from the unfortunate, undemocratic, unfair even discrimin-atory division between indig-enes and settlers to an embr-acing 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. That every person that comes to live and work in Plateau, even from other parts of Nigeria and indeed from other parts of the world believes in the state and its people, prefer this state to all the other 35 states including the federal capital territory and that such a person would not leave his skill, resources, energy and creativity behind elsewhere,” he said.
President Obasanjo poin-ted out that the path to last-ing peace was not the job of the administrator alone but that of all citizens of Plateau State.
According to him, “all the people of Plateau State must begin to map out new and eff-ective strategies for inclusion, accommodation, toler-ance participation in decision making and social justice.”
In his remarks, the Plat-eau State administrator, Gen-eral Chris Alli (rtd), recounted the circumstances that led to the peace conference saying that peace cannot be taken for granted.
“Since peace was shattered on the Plateau, an entity symbolic with the conservation of peace, things have never been the same. We have worked assiduously with the commitment of the people to identify our navigational hazards and set parameters for removing them. We have set structure for conflict management and resolution to forestall and re-position our Christianship.”
Also yesterday, the Traditional Rulers Forum was inaugurated where General Alli told them that “the only way we can live together in a peaceful and secured environment is to let go the past while offering each other the opportunity to make amens and embrace each other in penitence and humility.”
He explained that the traditional rulers peace forum was formed so that “the rural populace have to be carried along as most of these strifes and crises stem from the rural areas.
“Since this is the operational base of traditional rulers, deliberate efforts have to be made to identify the roles of these leaders in the maintenance of security at the local level.”
He advised the traditional rulers to “identify major causes of the inability, to promote reconciliation and look at the way forward.”
People, elite and elders in attendance include Chief Solomon D. Lar, retired General Jerry Useni, Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Nasir Mantu and other members of the National Assembly who attended the opening ceremony of the peace conference as well as Governor Abdullahi Adamu of Nasarawa State and Jolly Nyame of Taraba State who came in solidarity with the peoples of Plateau State.
