The presidency has planned a summit of the nation’s politicians from the various political parties with a view to forging a common goal in the fight against Boko Haram and other forms of insecurity in the country.
The Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Affairs, Senator Ben Obi, disclosed this at a press conference, in Abuja, Monday.
The ruling Peoples’ Democratic party, PDP, and the main opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, have been at each other’s throat with accusations and counter-accusations on who is sponsoring the Boko Haram and other forms of insecurity in the nation.
For instance, General Muhammadu Buhari has been severally accused of threatening to make the nation ungovernable after losing the 2011 presidential elections and only on Sunday, President Jonathan told the inter-denominational service in Abuja that Boko Haram’s sponsors aimed to stop his government.
The late National Security Adviser, NSA, Gen Owoye Azazi, had at a point alleged that PDP was a problem to the efforts at addressing the insurgency.
According to Chief Obi, the leadership and stakeholders in all political parties have agreed to participate in the summit to be jointly hosted by his office and that of the National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, rtd.
The June 12 summit is expected to be chaired by the nation’s last military Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) who handed over power to former president Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999.
The presidential aide revealed that the decision to convene the summit was borne out of the realization that all politicians and indeed all well-meaning members of the Nigerian public must work together if the current insecurity in the country and all anti-democratic forces were to be defeated.
His words, “while Nigeria’s Fourth Democratic Republic has witnessed unbroken political transitions and power successions from 1999 to the present date, there are still very powerful anti-democratic forces operating in the political system that are ever ready to exploit lapses in the management of the political and electoral processes to wage a bitter struggle against the democratic state.
“The Boko Haram terrorist insurgency is one such detestable force. Political parties play a key role in the evolution and consolidation of Nigeria’s democratic enterprise and, by their acts and conducts, can either advance the cause and course of the democratic system or endanger it.”
“The current national political outlook with regard to inter-party collaboration is less than salutary. Indeed, the conduct, behaviour and utterances of leading politicians, at home and abroad, are rapidly spreading unnecessary tension in the country, stoking the embers of discord, bitterness and rancour, and obviously playing into the hands of extremist elements that are waging a vicious terror war against the Nigerian state.
“If these enemies perceive the political class to be in disarray, it will further embolden them in the crimes they are daily committing against the Nigerian people.”
“If the collaboration between existing political parties is sufficiently reinforced, the national political climate will wear a positive outlook, social stability will be guaranteed, national security will be deepened and democratic consolidation will be effectuated”.
President Jonathan would declare open the summit which would also be attended by deplomats and civil society organizations, especially those dealing with democracy and good governance.
