Mr Ayo Opadokun, the General Secretary of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), on Friday urged the Federal Government not to allow the Boko Haram group to dictate the pace of peace talks.
He gave the advice in Lagos during the 11th Annual Leadership Lecture and Role Model Awards, organised by Leadership Watch, a non-governmental organisation.
Opadokun said that the demand by Boko Haram for peace talks in Saudi Arabia, among other demands, “is a curious demand’’ and an attempt by the “tail to wag the head’’.
The NADECO scribe said that it was a “total absurdity’’ for a violent group, which had caused a lot of mayhem in the country, to dictate to Nigerians, urging the Federal Government to live up to expectations.
Opadokun, who was the chairman of the occasion, said that even though he did not disapprove of dialogue with the group, such talks should be held on the right terms and conditions.
“The government must tread softly,’’ he said.
He said that if the government acceded to the demands of Boko Haram, it could serve as a precedent which could propel other aggrieved groups to employ the same tactics.
Opadokun, however, said that the level of insecurity in the country portended a bleak future.
He called for innovative strategies to tackle the menace of insecurity effectively.
The guest lecturer, Prof. Anya O Anya, the Chairman of the Alpha Institute for Research in Science, Economics and Development (AISED) traced the origin of terrorism and the Nigerian experience.
He said that the 9/11 attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001 brought about a new consciousness and perception of terror and violence globally.
According to him, Nigeria has not been isolated from the development.
However, Anya said that violence and insecurity in Nigeria had its root in the pre-colonial era, as violence was then used an instrument of social control.
He said that violence and insecurity went through various stages until the emergence of the Boko Haram sect, whose activities became more political than religious or ethnic as they were being painted.
He said that Boko Haram had provided an avenue for the coming of foreign jihadist movements into the country.
Anya stressed that the current state of insecurity was not conducive to the evolution of the kind of economic transformation which the nation needed.
He, however, said that Nigerians should not think that no good leaders could emerge in the country, saying: “The Nigeria of our dream could not be built in the climate of negativity and depreciation of all leaders.’’
Anya said that pragmatic nation building efforts involved “patient and cumulative brick-by-brick construction and some degree of myth-making and even symbolism, founded on the ability to select and amplify desirable elements’’.
Gov. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, Mr Adetunji Oyebanji, Managing Director of Mobil Oil Nigeria and Mrs Rose Uzoma, Comptroller-General, Nigeria Immigration Service, were given awards of excellence in leadership at the occasion.
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