Less than a month to the November 22, 2012 deadline for the submission of its report, months the 41-man Committee on Reconciliation, Healing and Security set up by the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) to work out ways to end the insurgency, development and security challenges in the region, says it will meet the? ultimatum.
The panel said its optimism was informed by the appreciable progress it had made since it was inaugurated on August 22, 2012.
Some members of the committee, who spoke with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, explained that the panel had completed the preliminary stage of its task and raised sub-committees to handle all the critical issues.
The sub-committees, LEADESHIP SUNDAY learnt were set up to ease the work so that it can meet the deadline.
The coordinator of the committee’s Technical Team and Chief of Staff of Niger State Government House, Prof. Muhammed Kuta Yahaya, hinted that the committee had received memoranda from the public and analysed them for further action.
The governors from the region had on July 26, 2012 taken the decision to constitute the committee with a mandate to ensure the reconciliation, healing, peace and security in the violence-hit region, mainly caused by the insurgency led by the Boko Haram sect.
Consequently, the panel headed by Ambassador Ibrahim Zakari was inaugurated on August 22, 2012 by the Chairman of the NSGF and Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Muazu Aliyu Babangida. The committee was given 90 days to submit its report.
Yahaya said based on the analysis of the memoranda the committee had been divided into three sub-committees of security, social and human capital development, and reconciliation and healing.
He disclosed that the sub-committee on security is headed by Gen. Martin Luther Agwai, the panel on human and social development is led by Air Vice-Marshal Mukhtar Mohammed while the one on reconciliation and healing is chaired by the Lamido of Adamawa, Alhaji Aliyu Barkindo Mustapha.
He said the committee had worked out modalities to achieve the mandate given to it by the NSGF and would soon embark on the next step, which is going to the field to meet the people for their input.
Yahaya said the committee is on track and will achieve the vision of the governors’ forum, adding that the panel is also liaising with the Presidency to achieve the set goals.??
When contacted, another member of the committee, Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) Ali Jos (rtd), referred LEADERSHIP SUNDAY to the secretary of the committee, declaring that he was better suited to speak on the panel’s activities.
He said: “I cannot speak on the activities of the committee, it is the secretary who should do that on behalf of the committee.”
Similarly, Prof. Shedrack Best, Secretary to the Plateau State government, who is also a member of the committee, asked LEADERSHIP WEEKEND to contact Hajiya Saudaatu Mahdi, the deputy secretary of the committee.
Hajiya Mahdi could not be reached on her mobile phone for comments at the time of filling this report.
The governors mandated the panel “to fashion out strategies to address the disturbing state of insecurity and proffer practical and enduring solutions” to it.
Its terms of reference included engendering the “restoration of the most desired peaceful co-existence, unity and development in the entire region.”
While 31 members of the committee are nominees of the governors, the other 10 are representatives of organisations and traditional rulers in the North.
The traditional rulers are in the committee are the Lamido of Adamawa, Dr. Barkindo Aliyu Mustafa, the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Zulu Gambari, the Emir of Yauri, Alhaji Zaiyanu Abdulahi and the Ngolong Nas, Nde Joshua Dimlong.
Other members include the chairman of the defunct Federal Government’s committee on the 2011 post-election violence in some parts of the North, Sheik Ahmed Lemu and the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church, Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Martin Luther Agwai, Hajiya Maryam Uwais, wife of former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Muhammadu Uwais and a? former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav.