You Have Declared War - Northern Leaders Warn Jonathan
Northern elders, under the umbrella of Northern Elders Forum, NEF, have finally broke their silence on the slamming of state of emergency on three states, describing the action of President Goodluck Jonathan as an indirect declaration of war on them.
“We hereby call on the President to immediately disband the so-called Boko Haram amnesty committee, as there is no need to continue to waste public funds on a matter, whose purpose has been deliberately truncated by the very person who initiated it."
The President’s action, which took the northern elders by surprise, came barely three weeks after Jonathan accepted a peaceful roadmap from them on how to end the Boko Haram insurgency.
Spokesman for the NEF, Prof Ango Abdullahi, who relayed the position of the group, said they were disappointed by the change of tactic by Jonathan on how to resolve the crisis in the north.
Abdullahi said: “It is very sad to see that the President has easily changed direction from dialogue and reconciliation to war in his bid to end the cycle of violence in the north.
“The volte-face by Jonathan amounts to undermining our agreement with him on peace and reconciliation and we are disturbed that he has opted for force rather than peace to end the violence.
“What the President has done has now justified the fear of those who rejected membership of the Boko Haram amnesty committee on the suspicion that he was not sincere in setting up the panel and that it was programmed to fail so as to justify military action against the north."
