THE  Nigerian Permanent Representative at the United Nations, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, has called on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to examine the report of the recent national conference and implement some of its recommendations.

 

He said, contrary to insinuations in some quarters, the conference was not a waste of time, adding  that  such dialogue by representatives of various ethnic nationalities in Nigeria should always be encouraged.

 

While speaking in Ilorin, Gambari who participated in the conference, noted that some people had the impression that former president, Goodluck Jonathan, had a hidden agenda.He said it was unfortunate that Jonathan did not implement part of the recommendations that did not require legislative authority. “Part one, we have those recommendations that the executive can implement within their own authority, they don’t have to go to the National Assembly.

 

Secondly, the category of recommendations of those things that require a change in our laws which require National Assembly and there is a small number of issues which require constitutional amendment which require both the National Assembly and the state assemblies.

 

There is nothing stopping even Jonathan from implementing those first set of recommendations. What should be done in my view is that the government should look at the report critically”, he said.He also advocated a three-dimensional approach to  addressing the Boko Haram insurgency. These approaches, he noted, include degrading the sect’s capacity through force, regional collaborative efforts and the socio-economic approach which would involve tackling youth unemployment to prevent the youth from being recruited as terrorists.

 

The former Foreign Affairs Minister commended the recent steps taken by President Muhammadu Buhari aimed at addressing the Boko Haram menace. He said the regional collaboration through the involvement of Niger, Chad, Cameron and other neighbouring countries had ensured there was no hiding place for the terrorists.

 

“Clearly, Buhari is taking this extremely serious for three reasons.

 

First, insecurity is one of the things he campaigned on and one of the things people gave him the mandate is to do something about insecurity in Nigeria, not just about Boko Haram but all these kidnappings and insecurity.

 “The second is his background. He was a General Officer Commanding (GOC) of one of Nigerian Army Divisions in Jos.

 

He had commanded troops before, he had dealt with insurgency before. He had been governor of what is now known as North East before being a minister and Head of State. With that background, his leadership gives one confidence that he understands the issues, he has the capacity and background to deal with it.And above all is the tremendous goodwill at home and abroad”, he said.