Lingering ethno-religious crisis inimical to national cohesion -NGO
NAN-H-64
Crisis
By Mohammed Lawal
Zaria (Kaduna State), Jan. 19, 2017 (NAN) An NGO, New Arewa Vision Initiative (NAVI), has appealed to government at all levels to adopt holistic approach to end lingering ethno-religious crisis, as it was inimical to national cohesion.
This is contained in a statement issued by National Coordinator of the NGO, Abdul Hassan, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Zaria on Thursday.
It said: “We must find lasting solutions to the lingering religious and ethnic crises in the North instigated by some unpatriotic politicians.
“This is really dangerous to our national integration and development as well.
“NAVI wish to recommend the enactment of laws that will punish and lead to the removal of any political office holder involve in violence.
“We also want to recommend the establishment of Dialogue, Conflict Mediation Commission in each state of the North to conduct research and mediate conflict whenever it arise,” it noted.
The NGO lamented that today’s Northern leaders had betrayed Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna by allowing his legacies to vanish without any attempt to revive or improve upon what he left behind.
Hassan stated that the vision of Sardauna was to produce a peaceful, harmonious society with rich socio-economic, cultural and political potentials as against corrupt, violence, economically and educationally backward society.
“It is sad indeed that successive Northern leaders could not effectively sustain any of the Sardauna’s legacy, talk-less of establishing new ones or even surpassing his feat.
“Typical example is the comatose Northern Industries, Textiles, Bank of the North, Arewa Hotels, New Nigerian Newspapers etc.
“Northern Nigeria is still lagging behind in terms of education, with teeming youths roaming the streets as Almajiri(beggars) and political thugs,” he said.
Hassan said that the present generation of leaders must identify and proffer solutions to the factors responsible for such backwardness. (NAN)
KLM/AK/OU
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Edited by Akin Makanjuola/Obike Ukoh
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