Governor Turaki, Okogie meet on peace, national unity
By Wole Shadare
FOR Governor Ibrahim Saminu Turaki of Jigawa State, no effort is to be spared in securing national cohesion and checking recurrent crises in some parts of the country.
His quest for peace yesterday took him to Lagos where he visited the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie.
Turaki who was accompanied on the visit by a former Military Administrator of Katsina State, Col. Yohanna Yahaya Madaki (rtd), sought the support of the cleric on efforts for the attainment of enduring peace.
Piqued by ethnic and religious violence in the country, Turaki charged all the northern governors to foster national integration as a means of development.
His words: "Nigerians need to forge ahead and foster unity. We urge all to eschew political violence and ethnicism. I call on my counterparts in the northern parts of the country to foster national integration as basis for moving the nation forward."
The governor supported a bill to the National Assembly to remove the disparity between settlers and indigenes and praised both President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubukar for working "tirelessly" to promote peace.
Turaki, the initiator of "Peace Initiative", explained that when the project was being started, there was suspicion, stressing that the scheme would prove a lot of people wrong as he had garnered a lot of support from stakeholders.
He reiterated that the peace project which started about three months ago helped to calm frayed nerves during the Jos mayhem, which left many people killed and thousands displaced.
Turaki expressed his gratitude to the Cardinal who, he said, had contributed immensely to the preaching of co-existence amongst Nigerians. He said that he had come to see him because of the respect he had for him. Thanking the governor for the visit, the Cardinal said the masses had lost confidence in the government, stressing that the country belonged to Nigerians and would do everything to keep it united.
He extolled the virtues of the country's founding founders who he said toiled to keep Nigeria together.
To Okogie, most crises in Nigeria are personality inclined, arguing that politicians had been found fuelling violence to satisfy personal motives.
He said: "Why will there not be hoodlums Government must live up to its social responsibility. The money is there, why not provide food and job for the people He lauded the hand-over of schools to the missions, stressing that this move would really inculcate values into the pupils and students.
"Now, the schools are okay, a fresh lease of life has been injected. Except somebody wants to play foul, God is always on the side of the just. It has been revealed that violence in Nigeria is personally motivated. Gen. Sani Abacha was my friend, what destroyed him were those sycophants who destroy leaders. A leader who wants to succeed must place his life in the hands of God. Leaders should learn to be selfless. We all know what to do, but those who are supposed to act are not living up to expectation."
He said that Nigeria needed a lot of courageous men to move the country forward, stating however, that there would be criticism for such leaders who preach peace.
Okogie added: "I am an optimist, I believe no matter what, Nigeria will move forward someday."
