A former Minister of Foreign Affairs and renowned scholar, Ibrahim Gambari, has said the Boko Haram problem should not be taken as a problem of the North East, but rather, that of the entire country.
This is because “the future of Nigeria is tied to the future of every part of the country”.
The diplomat, who spoke at the weekend during the 80th birthday celebration of former Minister of Defence, General Domkat Bali in Abuja, noted that the nation was at present going through the most difficult time in her history since independence in 1960.
But notwithstanding, he said this was not a time to despair but to find a way out of the man made problems Nigeria was mired in.
He posited that majority of the problem confronting the nation were as a result of the structure, adding that if a structure was not working, “we have a responsibility to make adjustment to that structure”.
Gambari wondered why the country would not adjust a system that was not working “to meet the demands of the time and the aspirations of our people.”
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He pointed out that the United States which has longer years of practicing democracy has amended their constitution, and queried why Nigeria can’t, even when the system has become a source of grief.
The former Minister re-echoed the call of “national dialogue and national conversation” as one of the ways to make headway in fixing the country.
He stressed that now was the time “to begin to talk to one another and not to talk at each other, “ insisting “there is no way there can be national consensus except there is national dialogue and national conversation.”
According to him, “there is no nation without challenges and no leadership without challenges but what distinguishes leadership are those ones that accept responsibilities, who inspire confidence at the time of great distress of the people, a leader that inspires not just physical security but human security that makes the people feel sense of belonging.”
He spoke further: “We all know what the problem is and it is time to move from diagnosis to action and we cannot leave the action to others, the issue of our security problems remain on all of taking responsibilities. For instance it is wrong to think that the problem of Boko Haram is the problem of the North East because the future of Nigeria is tied to the future of every part of the country”.
“We have serious reasons to be worried as a country, our country is not in good shape, the countries we were at par with at independence are far ahead of us in terms of national cohesion and physical infrastructure so we must identify and analyse the problems that are bedevilling us.”
