Bala Mohammed Call for Govt of National Unity

·   Says National Defence Apparatus Must be Representative

Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has made a strong case for the formation of a government of national unity, even as he also advocated for an inclusive government of shared power and positions at all levels of government in the country.

He was also emphatic on the need to have all segments of the country to be “represented in the command of national defense and the security apparatus where equity and social justice must be the guiding terms of engagement”.

The Bauchi State Governor made the case in Abuja, when he spoke at a book launch, Scents of Power, written by one of Nigeria’s finest journalists, Dr. Amanze Obi. He regretted that the “prevailing destructive zero-sum politics of exclusion and alienation (that) has brought out the worst in all of us and threatens the very fabric of our existence”.

Bala Mohammed therefore canvassed for the “return to the politics of accommodation and shared values, as the only way to build the future we desire for our children”.

His words: “there has to be a return to the politics of shared values and common grounds; a politics that is defined by the inter-party amity and mutual conversation that heralded the unity ushered in by the creative political engineering of the immediate post-1999 era.

“It may not be a sufficient condition but as past experiments such as the NPC-NCNC coalition of the sixties or the NPN-NPP Accord of the Second Republic showed, such efforts at inclusion staved off imminent implosion while giving time for more permanent solutions”, he stated. 

According to the governor, “despite some differences which are natural, our founding fathers and mothers grasped this idea well, built our collective identity around it, fought the colonial imperialists with the logic and weapon of that same national aspiration and birthed an independent nation in 1960”.

He posited that as the present administration approaches its tenure end, it is clear that Nigeria as a country is at a crossroads, where “violence, terrorism, banditry and secessionist agitations have tried their very best to define us”.

Bala Mohammed regretted that “leadership has failed Nigeria; the great promise of a potential super power premised on rich diversity, inestimable human and natural resources, clement weather and the near complete absence of natural disasters has been squandered on the later of self-serving and egotistic leadership”.

He was however very optimistic that despite the setbacks, Nigeria’s “national promise remains indisputable and cannot be destroyed by one administration”, pointing out that the diverse audience drawn across party lines that converged for the book launch “shows that even in the midst of our debased aspirations, there is still hope in the horizon”.

Proffering solutions to the insecurity plaguing the country, he said: “As a way out, we need to develop a national early warning centre and parallel mechanism with which to co-ordinate strategies at the national, zonal, State, LGA and community levels as essential desiderata for eliminating the unwholesome scenario whereby our people are left to fend for themselves, cannot be overemphasized”.

Continuing, he said: “In our response to these warnings, we must synergise among different arms of the national security architecture and implement a multi-track approach to peace building and conflict mitigation that encompasses the thresholds of force deployment, preventive diplomacy and conflict mediation. This means leveraging on the promise of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms including but not limited to transitional justice methods, restorative justice principles and an effective deradicalization process.

“We must understand the broader trends and regional factors at play by building workable and sustainable regional military, intelligence gathering and strategic partnerships. By demanding our international partners and multilateral institutions step up their technical, logistic, military and financial assistance in the war against terrorism and new national security threats, we can truly begin to turn the tide in our favour”, he further stated.

He warned that ahead of the 2023 general elections, the political elite must be prepared to play the politics “with a patriotic vision, great vigour and a sense of justice anchored on the practical realities of our national existence”.

According to him, “the country, now more than ever, needs honest, virile, visionary and capable leadership. Politics we must play but I propose that, rather than pander to extreme partisan proclivities that exacerbate our dysfunctional fault-lines, we must educate our citizens on the challenge ahead and how to approach it”.

He further warned that the “urgency of now does not permit the hitherto helpless indulgence of allowing self-serving political differences, to divide us and put national cohesion and growth to jeopardy”.