Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the Federal Government’s White Paper on the final report of the Presidential Committee on Security Challenges in the North-East of Nigeria chaired by Amb. Usman Galtimari.
A White Paper Drafting Committee headed by the Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, was set up following the presentation of the Galtimari’s report to Vice-President Namadi Sambo on September 26, 2011.
The committee was inaugurated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Pius Anyim, on July 2, 2011 with a mandate to unmask the faces behind the activities of Boko Haram and their grievances.
Briefing State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting, Moro said the government accepted almost all the recommendations made by the committee.
He said, “The report is extensive; it covers the remote causes of the crisis in the North-East and other parts of the North. It also covers various levels of responsibilities from community to local government to state and to Federal Government in tackling the menace of violence and terror in the North-East and other parts of the federation.
“The report also covers the responsibilities and operations of security agencies in bringing this about as well as the political aspects of the report which we believe must be addressed alongside with the security measures that the Federal Government has taken to bring this crisis under control and eventually bring it to an end.
“We have discussed, we have taken decisions on them but we cannot go into details because it is a White Paper.
“And so the decision of the Federal Executive Council will have to go to the Ministry of Justice where the final paper will be gazetted and issued centrally and when the gazetted White Paper comes out, we will be able to unveil the details to members of the public. Suffice it to say at this stage that government is doing everything that is necessary to ensure that we defeat this violence, we bring about peace and security not only in the northern states but in the entire federation.”
Among the recommendations in the report of the Galtimari committee is that the FG should consider the option of dialogue and negotiation should be contingent upon the renunciation of all forms of violence and surrender of arms followed by a rehabilitation programme on the side of government.
Moro said a position was taken on the issue of indigeneship with the FG calling on state governments to borrow a leaf from Sokoto State where there are no cases of discrimination.
Although the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, said the decisions taken in the White Paper would not be unfolded until it was gazetted, he said the government, as part of the decisions taken, had resolved to take a second look at all previous reports of committees on violence in every part of the country.
When asked whether the government accepted the committee’s first recommendation that suggested a dialogue with the members of Boko Haram if they renounced violence, Maku said, “Don’t forget that in the comment the President made, he said that as bad and as ugly the method the group takes, the government is never averse to dialogue as a principle. All those elements are contained in the White Paper.”
He said the provisions of the White Paper cut across economic and political sectors, including thugs that were armed by politicians for elections and abandoned thereafter.
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