Former President
Goodluck Jonathan met with the United States Congress House Sub Committee on
Africa to speak on the Niger Delta issue and the challenges facing
Christians
in Nigeria.
His spokesperson,
Ikechukwu Eze, said the meeting was part of efforts of the Goodluck Jonathan
Foundation to fulfill its mission to promote peace and prosperity in Nigeria
and Africa.
The statement said
the former president, who was invited by the U.S. Congress subcommittee and
spoke in his capacity as Chairman of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation.
Jonathan, who left
office in 2015 after six years, said the implementation of the resolutions of
the 2014 National Conference is the panacea that will prevent ethnic and
religious tensions that lead to crises such as the recent Southern Kaduna
killings.
He also identified
impunity as a factor that contributes to the reoccurrence of such violence,
noting that if those behind previous violence were not prosecuted then
likeminded individuals and groups would be emboldened to repeat the same act.
Jonathan talked
about his efforts to end impunity, specifically citing the case of Kabiru
Sokoto, the mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing of Saint Theresa’s Catholic
Church in Madalla, Niger state who was arrested, prosecuted, convicted and
imprisoned by his administration and was the first successful prosecution of a
terrorist attack on a place of worship in Nigeria’s history.
He said: “That
promise was fulfilled on the 20th of December 2013 when Kabiru Umar, aka Kabiru
Sokoto, was sentenced to life imprisonment after my administration investigated
that crime, identified him as the mastermind, arrested him and diligently
prosecuted him and some of his associates.”
The former president
also noted that his administration’s prosecution of the perpetrators of the
deadly bombing of an office of the Independent National Electoral Commission
also in Madalla on April 8, 2011 was the first successful prosecution of
terrorists in Nigeria.
While supporting the
2014 National Conference’s recommendation for an independent Religious Equity
Commission to be set up to apprehend and arrest perpetrators of ethnic and
religious violence, Jonathan said that ending impunity will also mean ending
these tensions.
On the Niger Delta,
Jonathan said he fully aligned with the
views of the 2014 National Conference which called for True and Fiscal
Federalism as the way out of agitations in the region and in
other parts of
Nigeria.
The former President
also said interventionist agencies like Niger Delta Development Commission tend
not to be effective due to over politicization.
The former President
opined that the almost overnight development of a state like Akwa-Ibom proved
that what the region needed was resource control not interventionist agencies.
The meeting was
attended by Chairman of the U.S. House Sub-Committee on Africa, Global Health,
Global Human Rights and International Organizations, Congressman Christopher H
Smith and other influential staff of the Committee.
0 Comments