17th October, 2014
PRESS RELEASE:
CEASEFIRE BETWEEN FG & BOKO HARAM:
A LAUNCHING PAD FOR PEACE
The Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff, General Alex Badeh today
confirmed reports that the Federal Government (FG) and Boko Haram insurgents
have signed a ceasefire agreement. Consequently, he has directed all field
officers in the troubled areas to comply immediately.
The Muslim
Rights Concern (MURIC) warmly welcomes this development. Boko Haram
insurgency has cost Nigeria most dearly. Over 3,000 lives have been lost while
properties worth billions of naira have been destroyed. The country’s image has
also suffered worldwide while individual Nigerian citizens in diaspora have
paid one price or the other.
MURIC
congratulates the FG for achieving this historical feat. We affirm that no price is too high to
bring peace to the North East and consequently to the entire country. We
therefore urge the Nigerian authorities to build on this achievement by going
beyond a ceasefire.
In particular, FG must push for the
release of the Chibok girls from captivity. This will definitely put smiles on the
lips of the suffering parents once again. The release of the Chibok girls
should be followed by serious dialogue with Boko Haram aimed at discontinuing
the orgy of violence in the North East.
In view of the fact that the casus belli of the
insurgence has been traced to ignorance, idleness and joblessness, the next task should be to develop impoverished areas where extremism takes root and to extend
the tentacles of education to all nooks and cranies of the North East. Thereafter,
the youths of the sub-region must be engaged by giving them economic
opportunities. It must be a total overhaul
necessitating the creation of a North East development board as well as a ministry
of North Eastern Nigeria.
MURIC charges the Federal Government to rigorously pursue these
objectives knowing very well that it is always better to build peace because no
matter how expensive the exercise, war is far more expensive, more painful,
more destructive.
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)
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