Taylor’s extradition will trigger war in Liberia –Abdulsalami
Former military head of
state, General Abduls
alami Abubakar (rtd), has warned that war would erupt in Liberia again if that country’s former president, Charles Taylor, who is on as-ylum in Nigeria, was extra-dited to Sierra Leone to face a war crimes tribunal.
General Abdulsalami gave the warning in Lagos at the weekend while fielding questions with reporters at the third Senator Abraham Adesanya annual lecture held to mark the birthday of the Afenifere leader.Nigeria’s former head of state said that the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) was yet to be completely disarmed and its troops could take up arms again if the former Liberian leader was handed over to the war tribunal.
General Abdulsalami’s warning came after President Olusegun Obasanjo’s justification last Thu-rsday of the continued protection given Taylor by the country. President Obasanjo had insisted that since Nigeria promised Taylor security before taking him out of war-torn Liberia, the nation must keep its promise as a matter of honour, and that the bloodbath would have continued in Liberia were Taylor not brought here.
General Abdulsalami pleaded with those calling for Taylor’s head to wait until total peace and total disar-ming of rebels were achieved in Liberia. “People are calling for the head of Charles Taylor. I am begging people to understand the situation. Let us have peace first. There are people who are still holding guns, they are not disarmed, and these people are Charles Taylor’s supporters. If they are still having guns and we are asking for Charles Taylor’s head, I don’t think we are facing reality. I believe peace should come first and at any other time anything could be done. But for now, let us have complete peace in Liberia, let us finish disarm-ament before we talk of any other thing,” he warned
Presidency wades into
ethno-religious crises in the North
President Olusegun
Obasanjo and Vice
President Atiku Abub-akar will on Wednesday in Abuja join the governors of the 19 northern states, former presidents and heads of state and other political, religious and traditional leaders from across the country in a roundtable aimed at charting a new course for ending the recurrent ethno-religious hostilities in the North.
Solutions to the educational backwardness of the North are to be sought at the meeting to be held at the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja between Wednesday July 28 and Thursday 29, under the auspices of the Zumunta Association USA, Inc., a group of Northerners in the Diaspora, and experts in conflict resolution would rub minds with intellectuals and political leaders to devise a solution to the internecine killings in the region.
A statement signed by the association’s national president, Dr. Mohammed Ladan and general secretary, Dr. Ezekiel Macham, made available to Daily Trust in Abuja at the weekend, said: “The goal of this conference is to create a forum and opp-ortunity for the Northern states of Nigeria’s political leaders, education planners and other participants to int-eract in identifying a strategic implementation plan of act-ion of how partnerships sho-uld be forged to solve the problems for the execution of educational reform initiatives in Northern states of Nigeria.
“In addition to education we are deeply concerned with the continuous level of civil unrest in our commu-nities. The conflicts in states like Kano and Plateau in recent times, and other states previously in the past, are of deepest concern to us and we know they are to all well meaning Nigerians. We are also aware of the efforts the government is making to prevent future occurrences, however, we do believe that no contribution is too small for this problem that continues to reoccur.
“We have requested their excellencies, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obas-anjo, and the Vice President Atiku Abubakar to parti-cipate. We have also sent invitations to all the former heads of state, governors from the 19 Northern states, religious leaders, traditional rulers, experts in conflict resolution to participate in this dialogue.
“The conference is expe-cting hundreds of citizens from grassroots organi-sations, academia, the bus-iness sector, and of course, political leaders from across Nigeria to join educational planners, policy makers to find solutions to the educati-onal problems in Northern states of Nigeria.”
The statement said also that during the roundtable, funds would be raised for the association’s scholarship programme and a resource and technology centre to be based in Abuja.
The Washington-based Zumunta Association USA, Inc., a non-governmental organisation registered in the United States, has been running programmes for the benefit of Northern students in the past eight years. The group meets annually to review its progress, solicit for more funds, and fashion new programmes for the contin-uous success of the project. This year’s Abuja conference is expected to focus on educ-ation and conflict resolution in the North.
According to the conve-ntion outline attached to the statement, an educational conference would hold on Wednesday while a peace initiative dialogue, launching of the Zumunta Technology Resource Canter and merit awards would be held on Thursday.
FG, states meet over N400bn excess crude proceeds
Talks are currently going
on between the federal
government and the 36 state governments aimed at resolving the raging contr-oversy over the excess crude oil revenue that had accrued to the country estimated at over N400 billion.
While the federal govern-ment might be in support of saving the money for a rainy day, many state governors have spoken against this, arguing that the rainy day was already here as many state projects were crying for funds.
The National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC), headed by Professor Ibrahim Ayagi, had a fort-night ago urged the federal government to ignore calls by state governors to share the excess crude revenue. The committee advocated, in a report submitted to Presi-dent Obasanjo, that the mo-ney be saved for future dev-elopments.
State governors on the other hand, have argued that the money must be shared immediately in line with constitutional requirements.
Nasarawa State governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, confirmed to State House correspondents, at the week-end, that a final decision would be taken on the matter at the ongoing talks between the federal government and stakeholders at all tiers of government.
He expressed optimism that the stakeholders’ mee-ting would reach an amicable resolution on what to do with the money, and that as a member of the committee, it would be wrong of him to pre-empt the outcome of the meeting.
“There is a very impo-rtant discussion going on between the federal gover-nment and all other stakeh-olders in all tiers of govern-ment. I don’t want to pre-empt the efforts the gover-nment is making on this. I am involved in these efforts and I know the effort the federal government is making,” he said.
He however declined to speak on the membership of the committee and the time frame within which it was expected to submit its report.
Governors Bukola Saraki of Kwara State and Boni Haruna of Adamawa State had in separate interviews last week, faulted NEIC’s recommendations that the country’s economy would be adversely affected if too much money was injected into the system, saying the money should be shared and used for development proj-ects while relevant monetary agencies should tackle any problems that crop up.
|
