A TOP Plateau state elder and elite professor Dakun Shown
appealed for a conference of all political parties on the Plateau before
lifting the state of emergency in the state.
Professor Shown who spoke to Daily Triumph in Jos,
condemned the link between lifting the emergency rule with the suspended
governor, Chief Joshua Dariye.
He said the group of people who link the lifting of the
state of emergency with an individual, Dariye is "dangerous" he described
it.
He advised that after the peace step is for all the
political parties in the state to come together evaluate and sincerely
discuss what went wrong.
According to him that, the political parties should
discuss the future of the state before the state of emergency is lifted,
adding that it should be discussed thoroughly and place blames where
appropriate.
Professor Shown explained that it is easy to collect
people from different tribes to talk abouit the problem of Plateau and
forget the real political solutions attached to the issues, after all,
delegates would return to their homes and the affected by the politicians.
He said the central theme of the discussion should be
Plateau and not an individual, he said "Plateau first, discuss Plateau, how
do we move forward".
Professor Shown further said "the moment you begin to
discuss it based on an individual, you begin to factionalize the people, but
when we discuss Plateau, we will know that went wrong, and we must be able
to put blame where necessary".
According to him that were had the peace conference and
we've heard what our people said, what I am saying is that the next step is
to bring the political constituency together to look at the document of the
peace conference reports seriously and commit themselves to it instead of
setting up various committees.
He said the document does not tell us the quality of
leaders to lead us in Plateau at the level, we must decide the quality that
a Plateau man will look for in a senatorial, House of Representatives, House
of Assembly or local government chairmanship or governorship aspirants.
We must have a blue print for whoever aspires to contest
in any position in such a way that if I don't have the quality the people
want for a given position, I should go to sleep or go and build myself up to
fit into that quality.
"People who seek the return of democracy of Plateau with
suspended governor, annoys me when some Plateau people link up Dariye to be
synonymous with the state of emergency. I don't believe that, with or
without Dariye, this state can continues to exist," he said.
According to him lifting it or not lifting it does not
bother me, but the most dangerous people are those who link it with Dariye,
who is only an individual and has identified three groups on the state of
emergency in Plateau state calling for its termination after the official
six months, those agitating for its extension and those who link the lifting
of the state of emergency with Dariya, saying that such groups are very
dangerous.
