Lux Terra Foundation
Bemoans Worsening Insecurity
The Network and Advocacy Group of Lux Terra Leadership Foundation on Thursday, August 25, 2022 held the 10th Meeting of its Think Tank at the foundation’s multipurpose hall in Abuja. The meeting focused on insecurity and other social issues bedeviling the nation.
In his welcome address, the Executive Director of Lux Terra Leadership Foundation and co-chair of the Think Tank, Rev Fr George Ehusani expressed his gratitude to members for their unwavering commitment to the Nigerian project and also commended them for continuously making efforts to address the issues of social justice, unity and peace in their respective spheres of influence.
However, Fr Ehusani bemoaned the worsening state of insecurity in Nigeria and the seeming inability of government to contain it. While expressing concern about the high amounts of money paid out as ransom by kidnapping victims across the country, Fr Ehusani called on the government to consider refunding such moneys to survivors as compensation for its failure to meet with its primary responsibility of securing the lives and properties of citizens. Fr Ehusani also used the opportunity to introduce new members of the Think Tank to the meeting. He said with the 2023 elections approaching it is pertinent for Nigerians to focus on what the politicians will offer the nation instead of derailing attention with unnecessary internal problems of political parties.
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In her remarks the coordinator of the Network and Advocacy Group of Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, Dr Inya Ode gave an update on the activities of the group, nothing that they have conducted various trainings of community stakeholders and members of the NYSC, sustained sensitization of the public through weekly multimedia messages on the imperatives of social justice, peaceful coexistence, equity, fairness, citizenship rights and duties, and effective conflict management, as well as advocacy visits to influential individuals and institutions as part of the effort to aggregate a critical mass of Nigerians to serve as advocates for a better Country. Dr Ode also informed the members of an upcoming town hall meeting in October; an event that is expected to set an agenda for peaceful election campaigns and transition in 2023.
In their separate contributions, members of the Think Tank, who are drawn from a broad spectrum of the society cutting across, public administration, academia, media, civil society organizations, faith, as well as women and youth groups and persons with disabilities, expressed concern about the growing state of insecurity and called on government to rise up to the occasion and deal decisively with the challenges.
On government’s seeming inability to effectively contain insecurity in Nigeria, members identified a receding of the state and a consequential yielding of grounds to heavily armed ethnic and religious non-state actors as a result of ethnographic and religious influence on the affairs of state administration. And to resolve Nigeria’s multifaceted problems, members posited that religion should be separated from the state in order to maintain Nigeria’s secular and constitutional democratic order as a foundation for equality of citizens, law and order. In the light of the reality, members mandated the secretariat of the Network and Advocacy Group of Lux Terra Leadership Foundation to intensify citizenship and civic enlightenment activities in order to build a critical mass of Nigerians whose loyalty will be to the Nigerian state. Further calls were made to the youth to wake up to their responsibilities and participate in actively in nation building.
At the end of the meeting it was agreed that Nigerians should demand issue and solution based manifestos from candidates as Nigeria moves closer to the next round of general elections in 2023. Members expressed confidence in the new electoral act and INEC’s effort so far in some recent off-cycle elections. And to compliment this effort, members mandated the secretariat to make excerpts of the relevant sections of the electoral act and distribute to Nigerians as part of civic education and enlightenment about their rights and obligations under the law. This is to ensure people are sensitized to understand their rights and to further educate the youth who have voting power to understand their responsibility to vote good leaders.
By PRNigeria
