BUILDING on his meeting with Berom leaders, President Goodluck Jonathan has continued his consultations with representatives of the Hausa/ Fulani groups in a bid to find an enduring solution to the Plateau crisis.

This development came as South-East leaders asked for reparation and support for their region to produce the nation’s president in 2015 as ways of alleviating their maginalisation in the polity.

Still on fairness and equity, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ayo Oritsejafor and the Prelate of the Methodist Church, his Eminence, Sunday Makinde, sought urgent actions on the parts of the Federal Government and other stakeholders to check the activities of Boko Haram.

Jonathan’ s meeting with the Hausa/Fulani leaders started at 10.00 p.m. on Wednesday and ended around 12.44 a.m. yesterday morning.

The representative of the Hausa/Fulani groups and former Minister of State for Information and Communications, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande, told journalists that he was confident that the new peace initiative launched by Jonathan would yield the desired peace in Plateau State especially within the Jos North and Jos South Local Councils of the state.

But unlike the Berom indigenous group, which met with the president and opted for a wholesome implementation of all past commissions of inquiry, Nakande said they gave qualified agreement to the adoption of the recommendations of past panels.

Nakande stated that the issue was discussed at the meeting with Jonathan, noting that his delegation “agreed to a large extent to most of the commissions of inquiry, especially those set up by the Plateau government. “We said all those commissions of inquiry have lost contemporary relevance. But we are confident of the ones set up by the Federal Government, especially the Maj.-Gen. Emmanuel Abisoye report as well as the advisory committee on Jos crisis headed by Solomon Lar. We are comfortable with them. But the rest are in fact subjudice and therefore cannot be implemented,” he said.

The former minister added: “We are here on the invitation of Mr. President. The president has taken so many initiatives. And again, this is another initiative towards finding a lasting solution to the protracted crisis in Plateau State but specifically within the Jos axis, that is, within Jos North and South Local Councils. The discussion was the way forward, how best to tackle the crisis in such a way to enhance tolerance, accommodation and respect for one another so that at the end of it all, the conflicts would have been put behind us. We also discussed mechanisms which will help government put in place ways and means of resolving conflicts amicably.”

On his part, representative of the Fulani cattle rearers and Protem National Secretary, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders of Nigeria, Alhaji Sale Bayari, said: “We have appealed to Mr. President to address the issue of the conflict between cattle rearers and farmers which some people said had been responsible for some of these crises. The cattle rearers in Plateau State, especially in problem areas like Jos South, Barkin Ladi and Bassa, and the Federal Government should try and ensure that the conflicts are resolved. It is because we have the grazing reserves in those areas and with the grazing reserves, there is conflict between cattle rearers and farmers. But with the intervention of government, it will be reduced to a minimum level.

“When that is done, we are sure that the issue of people alleging reprisal attack will be reduced also. Once those flashpoints are addressed, the issue of saying that some people are regarded as not belonging as if they just sprang from another planet and landed where they are, should also be looked into. We have given the history of the cattle rearers, it is not as if they came from somewhere else. They are as indigenous as any other people, only they have the occupational hazard of cattle rearing and they are nomadic and they have to move from one place to another. That does not mean that because he cannot stay in one place based on his occupational hazard, you say that he is a settler or he does not belong there.”

Asked to give the panacea for lasting peace in Plateau State, Bayari said: “We have tried to solve the problem like it was done in Benue State where there was a similar crisis because the governor took personal interest in the matter. We are appealing to the governor of Plateau State to copy from the governors of Benue, Nassarawa, Taraba, Bauchi and Kaduna States. They succeeded by calling the leadership of the two groups and at the end of the day, the matter was settled. In Plateau State, the problem has been that there is nobody forthcoming either from the traditional institution or the government to say, let’s sit and discuss.”

But he expressed the hope that the crisis would be resolved especially “with this presidential intervention, from the way the president has given us time and the way he listened to us like a father listening to his children. You know that when you see your father in a pensive mood, you know that the matter must have touched him so much.”

At an event organised by the Methodist Church Nigeria at Hoare’s Memorial Methodist Cathedral, Yaba, Lagos, yesterday, Oritsejafor said: “The president of this country must muster the political will to do what he has to do and what he has to do is to strengthen the security apparatus of this nation. There are problems there.

“There is a difference between Islam and Islamism. What we are looking at is a group of intolerant religious fanatics who are causing this problem. I am appealing that we reach out to some sheikhs and imams who understand what it means to live together in a country like Nigeria.”

According to him, “ it is impossible to Islamize Nigeria. If they have other problems, let them voice them out because to Islamize Nigeria is not possible.”

He condoled with those affected by the attacks of Boko Haram, saying to them that “do not be afraid of your tomorrow as it is taken care of by God.”

Also at the event, Makinde said that the insecurity in the nation should be tackled.

He said: “The menace of the Islamic Boko Haram has become unbearable and a big threat to national unity and cohesion. The government should exercise more political will to deal decisively with the sponsors and perpetrators so that we may have peace and stability in the North.”

Makinde identified the “convocation of a national conference where all the ethnic groups in Nigeria, religious and traditional rulers, intellectuals, business people, students and civil servants, women, men, farmers and artisans, the foolish and the wise will sit down and talk on how to live together peacefully in our diversity in religion, culture and ethnic background without any conflict.”

Besides, political and religiousleaders of South-East extraction yesterday in Enugu raised the alarm over an alleged grand design by other sections of the country to ensure that no Igbo person occupied the presidency.

They stressed that since the end of the civil war over 50 years ago, the Igbo had been schemed out in the power equation of the country.

Calling for Igbo presidency as reparation from other sections of the country for the neglect the zone had suffered since the end of the civil war, the leaders vowed that nothing short of producing the president of the country from an Igbo extraction in 2015 would be acceptable to it.

The leaders, under the aegis of the South-East Forum (SEF) recalled that the Igbo remained the only zone that had never had the presidency, stressing that other zones had continued to inflict injuries on the country in a bid to earn political power.

They noted that the onslaught by Boko Haram was aimed at returning political power to the north.

At the event, which was the formal launch of the constitution of the forum, were former National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo; former Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Prof. Elochukwu Amucheazi; former presidential aspirant, Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu; Senator Nnamdi Erobuna; Prof. Chinedu Nebo; Prof. Catherine Achalonu; Bishop Obi Onubugu, Bishop Nwodika; and Nwafor Orizu (SAN), among others.

(The Guardian Newspaper, August 10, 2012. By: From Madu Onuorah (Abuja), Lawrence Njoku (Enugu) and Beauty Edia (Lagos)