Northern Nigerian governors blisteringly convened in Washington DC, United States this week to discuss insecurity and conflict resolution with United Nations top echelon and officials of other foreign agencies.
As part of the discussions, a symposium organized by the Washington-based African Center of the United States Institute of Peace involving the governors was held to brainstorm on the burning issues in which they reportedly focused on the “Drivers of Insecurity and Opportunities for Stabilization,” and also looked at “strengthening conflict prevention and mitigation”, and explored “non-violent strategies for engaging armed groups through mediation and negotiation”.
According to the reports, participants “deepened their understanding of insecurity within the context of unstable socioeconomic dimensions and discussed current approaches to insecurity as well as identified near-term opportunities for addressing drivers of instability in Northern Nigeria.” Also, discussions were said to have revolved around identifying options for strengthening conflict prevention and mitigation, by drawing lessons from other countries, and contextualizing the role of regional and international assistance.
At the conclusion of the event, global best practices were “shared for leveraging mediation and negotiation within a broader strategy of non-violent engagement with armed groups”. Short-term options for violence prevention and mid-to long-term opportunities for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration were also identified….
MY TAKE: It beggars’ belief that high-level insecurity is happening in Northern Nigeria, yet our governors went to Washington DC for a conflict resolution meeting. This is nothing but a jamboree. I think they should be ashamed of themselves going to the US to talk about their Nigerian failures whereas the solution is with us and within us, not in the US. The United Nations has failed in the Congo and Sudan, and look at the crisis in the Sahel, has it been tackled by the Western powers? Aren’t they part of the problem?
After spending our scarce resources and tax payers money, this trip may not yield anything positive. It’s high time we learn what’s best for us.
Why can’t these governors meet in Nigeria and brainstorm? Why waste scarce resources for such baseless travel? This is another example of waste of resources. What kind of insecurity conflict resolution that can not be discussed in the North where the insecurity is happening but only in DC? Is Washington DC part of the northern Nigeria that such summit has to be held there? They can’t discuss it in Gusau or Sokoto or Kaduna or Kano or even Maiduguri? It could be best addressed in Nigeria because it is Nigeria’s peculiar problem that requires local solution!
Still in the United States, mass chaos broke out on Wednesday at university campuses across the country as pro-Palestine protests intensify.
Protesters are crowding Columbia, Harvard, USC, University of Texas at Austin, and many more institutions. However, the authorities are currently using force and brutality to suppress the rights of the students to hold pro-Palestinian protests. The Police are reportedly beating students at US universities for protesting the Israeli genocide in Gaza and against the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
State troopers from Texas havearrested many people at the University of Texas at Austin, just as pro-Palestine protesters have occupied Harvard Yard and are camping there because the university threatened to take action.
Indeed, the protests and the governments point at a direction: the US democracy is declining. It strongly suggests that there are no more a democratic state in the US where Americans have rights to speak freely.
The more the US authorities suppress the citizens, the quicker they lead the country to anarchy. The Americans, the politically conscious ones, are now tired of the Zionists controlling all facets of their lives.
And students across the United States can no longer watch the government shamelessly support and arm Israel and Netanyahu, who commits genocide against children, in front of the entire world.
