convocation of a security summit in the country.
Afenifere said there was the need to bring the leaders and stakeholders together to brainstorm on the nation’s security.
The group stated this in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Yinka Odunmakin.
It said the summit should be a prelude to a national conference that would address the nation’s structures in a way that the constituent units could live peacefully based on justice, equity and fair play.
Afenifere said, “This is the irreducible minimum to stop the drift going on. We are convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that any attempt to continue to treat the insecurity situation in the country as if it provides a good distraction from people asking for good governance is bound to backfire as a full maturation of what is going on will consume all.
“The deteriorating security situation in Nigeria and the seeming official indifference by the leadership is quite worrying to Afenifere.
“Former Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. Theophillus Danjuma (retd.), on Saturday raised the alarm that the northern part of Nigeria was in the ‘middle of a civil war’.
“Danjuma said, ‘… the nation is in total anarchy. Human life is very cheap and impunity has become the norm … We are in the middle of a civil war in northern Nigeria. There is no defined front in this particular war and worse still; the enemy is faceless and unknown. There is no immunity for anyone’. The war is highly contagious and regrettably, we have no ‘suggested solution’.”
Afenifere said within 48 hours after Danjuma’s comment, many Nigerians, including the Kwara State Police Commissioner, Mr. Chinwike Asadu, had lost their lives.
The group said despite those calamities, the Presidency only said, “We shall fish out the culprits.”
It added, “There is no hazarding any guess that strategising for 2015 is of greater priority at the moment than paying attention to the state of insecurity in the country.
“While bombs are flying like bangers, guns booming in every nook, kidnappers daily nabbing their victims and assassins shooting without missing; the battle for control of Governors Forum and such mundane tussles have taken all the attention of the Presidency.”
According to Afenifere, it takes a demented political class to pretend that all is well within the country.
It said the culture of fear spreading across the country might affect the conduct of the 2015 general elections.
