By Steven Atokolo
The Senator representing Delta North, Ned Nwoko has canvassed a national involving leaders of terrorist groups, youth and other interest groups organised by the National Assembly.
Senator Nwoko stated this while speaking with journalists at the National Assembly after the red chamber considered a motion on the “need to deploy adequate security personnel to endangered local government areas in Borno State”.
He said the popular thinking that empowering our security is the solution to insecurity is not true.
He canvassed for the convocation of national dialogue spare headed by the National Assembly that will afford all Nigerians including the youth, men, women, representatives of terrorist groups and ordinary Nigerians the opportunity to air their views.
“We need to have a nation where dialogue is encouraged”, adding that “attack helicopter alone won’t solve the problem”.
He said Nigeria needs to know why young Nigerians would like to carry guns to kill people or be killed.
Nwoko was of the view that something must be fundamentally wrong, which makes banditry and other crimes attractive to the youth.
According to him “at the bottom of this is the economy. If the economy were to be good, I’m sure many of these young ones won’t want to carry guns to be killed or to kill.
“Like I said on the floor of the Senate, we have the burial of Ifeanyi Uba coming up tomorrow and next tomorrow in the South East and yet many of our members are not happy to go because of threats of violence.
“Why do we have a part of the country that has become a no go area because people are scared? They are scared because they youth there are fighting because they feel neglected, they feel marginalized.
“So, I’m proposing that there should be a national conference that will involve the youths, all stakeholders, whether they are politicians, Churches, Mosques, media, everybody. This national conference should be convened by the National Assembly. At least you will hear from every person, every group, and you will find a permanent solution. That is the way forward.
“I gave the example of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in England many years ago. They were fighting because they were being occupied by the British government. They didn’t want it. They were killing the British Army and the British Army retaliated by killing them. It was when they agreed to sit down and talk that the whole thing stopped. We must learn from them”, he concluded.
