By Muhammad Nasir
Sokoto Dec. 14, 2021
The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), has urged Federal and state governments to increase their support for ongoing military operations in parts of the country.
The group made the call in a communique issued at the end of its recent stakeholders meeting with religious leaders, Civil Society Organisations, trade and youth associations in Sokoto.
It said federal and state authorities must take more decisive actions to stem recent security setbacks and killings of innocent Nigerians by terrorist groups.
The CNG said that controlling the security challenges was necessary as “the situation might lead to massive citizens action or outrage”.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr. Isah Usman, CNG Coordinator Sokoto State Chapter, read out the communique.
It said politicians must desist from sabotaging the ongoing military operations in order to restore normalcy particularly in northern states.
According to the communique, the security challenges have persisted because of leadership failure at all levels.
“This is by causing and promoting unnecessary divisions among local communities so as to manipulate them during elections.
“Also some community leaders, including retired security experts and the general public to some extent, share part of the blame.
“The blame is for not holistically treating the remote and immediate causes along with escalation of the situation, which started as a mere conflict between two inseparable professions.”
The CNG identified what it called an unholy alliance of village heads, who extort pastoralists, and refuse to arrest those who breach the peace.
It noted that the collective punishment meted out to herders for crimes committed by some of them, pushed a lot of them into taking up arms and engaging in indiscriminate killings and brutal vengeance against the society.
“We also observed an unchecked proliferation of arms to the point of mass production of local firearms,” it added.
