The Bayelsa State Government on Wednesday called on the Federal Government to ensure justice for victims of killings across the country especially those who lost their lives and properties in armed herdsmen’ attacks.
The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said justice would ensure national integration, peace and curb other challenges facing the country.
Iworiso-Markson spoke in Yenagoa while delivering a keynote address at the 8th Executive Committee of the Supreme Council for Non-Indigenes (SCN) in the state and the investiture of the organisation’s patrons.
He commended the leadership of SCN for its efforts in contributing to the social discourse to bring about development and peace.
He said: “Justice is key to achieving, assuring and perpetuating peace in the country. When we seek peace and exclude justice from the picture we are just paying lip service to achieving peace.
“To put it graphically, each time justice is missing in the foundation of our search for peace, it will be as if we place the cart before the horse. Certainly, we wont be able to achieve any serious movement towards our objective.
“What is missing in the country today is justice. One precursor that will bring justice and ultimately guarantee peace is restructuring. The time has come to restructure the country in line with advance federation of the world.
“I do not want to propose anything different from what our leaders in the South-South and our governors, especially my boss, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson have proposed.
“Suffice to say that President Muhamadu Buhari must quickly set machinery in motion to ensure that the issue of restructuring is addressed once and for all.
“Incidentally, his party, the APC has also agreed that restructuring will be doing justice to every sector and region of our country. For the avoidance of doubt, the restructuring that the South-South envisaged will include fiscal federalism.
“The issue of peace in the crisis-ridden North Central Nigeria where suspected Fulani Herdsmen have been accused of complicity in mass murder and expansionist tendencies, and myriad of other challenges facing the country could be resolved faster if everybody is served justice. Justice, to me, is one drug that cures all”.
The commissioner said that Bayelsa State enjoyed sustained peace in the last six years because of the commitment of the government to ensure peace and social justice to all, regardless of creeds and tongues.
He said Dickson was conscious that lack of accountability, transparency and commitment to social welfare of the citizenry were also variants of injustice.
He thanked the non-indigenes for their roles in boosting local economy and living in peace with indigenes assuring them of a safer and more conducive environment for their businesses.
In his lecture titled, Peace-Building and National Integration in a Pluralistic Nigeria: the role of non-indigenes, The Guest Speaker, Raimi Lasisi said the threat to social integration came from persons, who provided incentives for violence, conflict and war in many parts of the country.
He said: “Needless to say that when violent conflicts persist, the drums of disintegration become easily echoed in any society and this is particularly true of pluralistic or multiethnic countries like Nigeria.
“Globally, there are several indicators that threaten peace and integration of nations. These indices all revolve around the balance of power issue which determines the level with which a nation lords over another especially for political, economic and social (ethnic and religious) reasons.
“However, amongst the most pressing of these indicators that threaten peace building and social integration; negative ethnicity as well as religious extremism are the most vicious”.
In their separate remarks, the Chairman of the occasion and Special Adviser to the Governor on non-Indigenes, Alex Dumbo and the President, SCN, Alhaji Ade Bakare thanked the government for giving them a sense of belonging in the state.
They said about nine non-indigenes in the state were serving as political appointees of the government, describing it as a clear indication of their acceptability by the government.
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