KENYA Presidential candidate in the forthcoming poll, Professor George Luchiri Wajackoyah, has warned President Goodluck Jonathan against seeking foreign assistance in tackling the security challenge posed by the Boko Haram sect.
He said doing such might not be good for the country in the long run as most western countries usually have ulterior motives.
Wajackoyah, however, charged leaders like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari to support President Jonathan in his fight against insurgents and terrorism in the country.
Speaking with airport correspondents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, at the weekend, Wajackoyah decried the situation where Nigeria, which used to be a symbol of security and economic activities, has gradually turned to a war-torn country.
Wajackoyah insisted that the only way was for all former presidents and heads of state in the country to sit together with the governors and Jonathan to discuss the issue and bring an end to incessant bombings orchestrated by the Boko Haram sect.
He believed that if all parties were involved and sincere in tackling the issue, the spate of bombings in the country could be resolved, adding that any country with serious insecurity would lose its values and image in the comity of nations and potential investors would also desert it.
‘I feel so bad that Nigeria, which was once a beacon of security in Africa, which was a beacon of economic activities in Africa is going that way. It’s my prayers that God intervenes and solve the situation.
‘Also, it is my prayer that the president and the former presidents like Obasanjo, Babangida and Buhari come into one room and find out how they can fight the situation because President Goodluck Jonathan cannot do it alone.
‘He needs the former Head of States to sit down with governors and find out the cause of this conflict. It is a conflict that can be resolved. I feel so bad when a brother is killing another brother. It is irrational to say ‘people are bombing, so, let’s go and bomb them.’
‘Who is losing at the end of the day? The economies go down, the country’s name goes down, the people themselves also go down and foreign investors also run away,’ he explained.
Wajackoyah said seeking for foreign assistance could only be taken as a last resort, adding that during the apartheid challenge in South Africa, the country did not invite foreign forces to resolve it, rather, it settled it internally.
He recalled that despite the fact that the white government in South Africa jailed Dr. Nelson Mandela for 27 years, later as a president, he still had a round table discussion with them on how to move the country forward, which, he said, yielded the expected fruit.
‘If South Africa could solve their problems, what is wrong with Nigeria’s ex-presidents sitting together with the current president and call in people like Mandela and people from the Arab countries that are willing to change to come and sit down with these people.
‘These are Muslims from the North, they must be fighting for a reason; we don’t know that reason. But if there is any kind of hooliganism, then, let the law of this country take its due.
Source-http://www.momentng.com/en/news/6501/kenyan-politician-cautions-against-us-assistance.html