Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti has called on Nigerians to rediscover the national genius in them to form a new compact between the states and the society to tackle insecurity.
Fayemi stated this in his keynote address, delivered on Monday, in Abuja at the 2022 Murtala Muhammed Foundation (MMF) Annual Lecture titled: “Beyond Boko Haram: Addressing Insurgency, Banditry and Kidnapping Across Nigeria”.
The annual lecture was instituted to uphold the ideals of late Gen. Murtala Muhammed who was assassinated in coup on Feb. 13, 1976.
Fayemi, who is also the Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, said that it was no longer news that for some time now, and across various administrations, Nigeria had been grappling with multiple challenges of insecurity.
He said that the insecurity had continued to take a huge and unacceptable toll in human life, in addition to creating various dislocations in economy, society, and the national psyche.
“For Boko Haram, everyone has been a fair game – including the abduction of school girls and boys – and nothing has been out of bounds including the bombing of worshippers in churches and mosques.
“It has also levied taxes on individuals and communities,” he said.
He added that the methods employed by Boko Haram marked a new and unaccustomed way for a group of unhappy Nigerians to fight a claim against the state or fellow citizens.
“ Looking beyond Boko Haram, the clarion call to us as Nigerians is clear.
“In the face of a broken socio-economic fabric that has generated so much anguish, despair, and distrust among us, we must step back and summon that Nigerian genius that is innate in us to reimagine our country and reinvent our vision of oneness.
“To do this, it is evident to me that the time has come, and it cannot be postponed, for a new compact to be forged between state and society,” he said.
According to him, a new compact, whose centerpiece, must be an inclusive and expansive project of human security in our land.
“From massive investments in public health, nutrition, and education to the promotion of partnerships for affordable housing, household food security, and efficient means of mass mobility.
“The supply of potable water and electrical power in our cities, towns, and villages, and the creation of enabling conditions for any and every citizen to acquire the civics and skills necessary for navigating life in dignity.
“There has to be renewed drive to ensure that there is a concrete and meaningful bargain in being a Nigerian,” he explained.
Fayemi commended the response of the leadership in the most affected state in the North East, Borno in forging a new compact between state and society.
He, however, said what was required was a comprehensive national response, not an isolated state strategy.
“I believe this must also include a whole of country sensitisation programme that understands and subliminally internalises the problem as one that will consume all if not addressed.
“And, not a challenge that is exclusively Borno or Kanuri-centric,” he added.
Fayemi said that discovering `innate national genius’’ to fire their imagination and will for a new social compact would not only be beneficial to the Nigeria and Nigerians.
He said that it would also benefit the entire African continent and the black world which scholars nowadays refer to as global Africa.
Fayemi urged Nigerians who believe in what late Muhammed stood for to rise up for the security of the country at this critical time.
“ It will be a historic betrayal to succumb to pressures and sentiments of division and dismemberment on account of the many difficulties that we have had to grapple associated with the Boko Haram.
“This is the time when the many Murtalas among us, that army of committed citizens who refuse to give up on the Nigerian idea and ideal so ably embodied by the late General must stand up.
“They must raise their voices in counterweight to the Boko Haram mentality of dismemberment and in defence of a Nigerian agenda built on a new and updated social compact,” Fayemi advised.
He said, “When it mattered, Murtala Muhammed stood up, along with his many colleagues to be counted.
“Forty six years after he left us, history presents all Nigerians of good faith an opportunity to take a stand too and become part of the detachment.
“Detachment of the bearers of a new national agenda who must come together to move us beyond the Boko Haram menace and restore popular faith in our unfinished march to greatness.’’
The MMF Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Aisha Mohammed-Oyebode, said the foundation for 20 years, which had been working with its partners, had impacted lives of many Nigerians.
Mohammed-Oyebode said that the foundation had done a lot through it thematic areas of interventions including education programmes, humanitarian supports and women initiatives.
She disclosed that MMF had provided over 500 scholarships while another 57,000 students were impacted on her computer for a school programme.
“MMF has reached over 300,000 in and out of school children across Nigeria especially in the conflict ridden North/East,” she said.
She added that presently, over 1,000,000 Nigerians had benefited from the foundation humanitarian supports across the country.
Mohammed-Oyebode, who said the target of the foundation in 2022 was to established technology lab for students, urged all stakeholders to partner with the foundation in reaching more children in its scholarship programme.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya, commended the efforts of MMF, called on other organisation to partner and support the Nigeria Armed Forces in curbing insecurity in the country.
Yahaya, represented by the Director of Civil Military Affairs, Nigeria Army, Maj.-Gen. Ahmed Taiwo, said with the partnership of MMF and other similar organisation, the Nigeria Army had been motivated in the fight against insurgency.(