…Urges ‘painstaking dialogue’
The United States (U.S.) yesterday urged Nigeria to look beyond a military option in resolving internal conflicts.
The appeal was made under the auspices of the United States Institute of Peace, (USIP), in Washington DC when the agency convened a gathering of U.S. officials, diplomats and Nigerian leaders.
The conference focused on “Peace in Nigeria: How to build it, and America’s role” and explored possible options beyond military operations.
The symposium agreed on the need for the Nigerian government to strengthen the responsiveness of state institutions, address grievances and perceptions “before they become reality and improve accountability and transparency”.
The Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilisation Operations, U.S. Department of State, Thomas Hushek, in his concluding remarks said, “durable peace” in Nigeria “will require a painstaking dialogue”.
Apart from the 15-year Boko Haram issue in the North-East, Nigeria’s military is grappling with widespread conflicts within the country’s borders, the most current being the second phase of its “Operation Python Dance” in the Southeast that has put soldiers in direct confrontation with the proscribed self-determinist Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB).
Military authorities have also proscribed IPOB and declared it a terrorist organisation following which they announced imminent operations in South-West and South-South regions — a decision that has drawn the ire of civil society groups and human rights activists.
Re-echoing General Martin-Luther Agwai’s introductory remarks on centrality of the country to potential peace in Africa, Hushek described Nigeria as a vey critical U.S. partner on the continent, but added that the President Muhammadu Buhari government must in its pursuit of peace first identify the options that citizens want implemented.
The country is warming up to charged elections in two years and the U.S. assistant secretary believes the “2019 election will be critical to Nigeria’s continued prosperity and stability.
Former Nigerian Chief of Army Staff and former commander of the combined United Nations-African Union peace-keeping force in Darfur, Sudan, General Agwai, is one of the members of the Nigeria Senior Working Group that participated in the conference on peace in Nigeria.
