The Senate President, David Mark, has warned that the nation risks breaking-up if the bombings by members of Boko Haram sect are not halted in good time.
Mr Mark made this known on Monday at the beginning of 2012 Senators Retreat in Uyo, the Akwa-Ibom state capital.
“At the moment, we cannot just go with the rule of law,” he said, adding that “the way Boko Haram is going, if nothing drastic is done to halt it, God forbid, it may result in the break-up of the country,” Mr. Mark warned.
The Senate President called on leaders of the northern states to think properly before they allow what he called “a few selected cabals in Boko Haram” bring the north to its knees with what they are doing.
Limit to patience
Noting that there is a limit to which Christian leaders will continue to appeal against vengeance, with the targeted attacks on churches, Mr Mark said, “if allowed to go on (attacks on Churches in the north), it will encourage disunity and religious war, because there is a limit to patience.”
“Christian leaders have been appealing against vengeance. But, for how long would the people continue to listen, while they are being killed?” he asked.
Senator Mark also rejected the excuses of poverty, unemployment and illiteracy as reasons for the current spate of violence by members of the sect, insisting that it was a problem of ideology and religious fundamentalism.
Predicting an economic forlorn for the northern region where the sect rages unabated, the Senate president stated that “other regions are not going to wait for the North to develop before they carry on their development programmes.”
“The same people who are crying about under-development in the North are responsible for the current situation, because no investor would risk investing his money in any part of the North when his life is in danger.” “The investor who comes into Nigeria would look at the safe areas of the country to do business, and the safe areas in the country today are the Southern states.”
He further said there is an urgent need to investigate the source of funding and training of the group as he proposed an immediate comprehensive review of existing laws on terrorism, to give more powers to security agents to tackle the insecurity.
Jonathan’s warning
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has again promised that the federal government will not relent in taking very serious and decisive actions to put an end to the wanton killings and bombings by the Boko Haram sect.
Speaking at the 2012 Senate Retreat, President Jonathan warned Nigerians not to play politics with the present terrorist acts of members of the Boko Haram sect.
Calling Boko Haram, a ‘faceless group of enemies of our democracy and prosperity of our nation’, President Jonathan claimed that “terrorism, which has become a global phenomenon, is now unfortunately a direct experience in this country,” as the group “continued to carry out terrorist attacks on innocent people in our nation.”
“This development is one that particularly concerns me as the President, and is one I will continue to decisively deal with. It is one on which I seek the support and cooperation of the Senate and the House of Representatives. We must work together under a new social and political contract, to safeguard our nation.”
The president also called for the support of the national assembly to enact laws which will give government the drive to fight terrorism in the country and enjoined politicians across the country not to play “politics without bitterness”.
Noting that the nation’s unity is the will of God and our diversity is the binding ligament of our strength, the president called on Nigerians to ‘unite to prosper’, saying, “those who want to weaken us use axes of hate to cut the tree of our strength. We refuse to be weakened. Let us unite to defeat the forces of darkness.”
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