Confab has solution to southern Kaduna crisis, says Jonathan as he meets US lawmakers

The implementation of the resolutions of the 2014 national conference will prevent ethnic and religious tensions that lead to crises such as the ongoing southern Kaduna killings, former President Goodluck, has said.

According to Ikechukwu Eze, his media aide, the Nigerian leader said this when he addressed the United States congress house sub-committee on Africa.

President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed not to touch the report of the conference, which he described as a misplacement of priority.

Eze said Jonathan also identified impunity as a factor that contributes to the reoccurrence of violence, noting that if those behind previous violence were not prosecuted, then like-minded individuals and groups would be emboldened to repeat the same act.

He also spoke on the crisis in the Niger Delta region, and the challenges facing Christians in Nigeria.

Eze said the meeting was part of efforts of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation to fulfill its mission to promote peace and prosperity in Nigeria and Africa.

He said the former president, who was invited by the US congress subcommittee, spoke in his capacity as chairman of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation.

Jonathan also spoke on his efforts to end impunity, specifically citing the case of Kabiru Sokoto, the mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing of Saint Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger state.

Sokoto’s prosecution was the first of its kind in the trial of an attack on a place of worship in Nigeria.

“That promise was fulfilled on the 20th of December 2013 when Kabiru Umar, aka Kabiru Sokoto, was sentenced to life imprisonment after my administration investigated that crime, identified him as the mastermind, arrested him and diligently prosecuted him and some of his associates,” Jonathan reportedly said.

The former president added that his administration’s prosecution of the perpetrators of the deadly bombing of an office of the Independent National Electoral Commission also in Madalla on April 8, 2011 was the first successful prosecution of “terrorists” in Nigeria.

On the Niger Delta, the former president said he fully aligned with the views of the national conference which called for true and fiscal federalism as the way out of agitations in the region and in other parts of Nigeria.

He also said that interventionist agencies like the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) tend not to be effective due to over politicisation.

The former president said the almost overnight development of a state like Akwa Ibom proved that what the region needed was resource control not interventionist agencies.

The meeting was attended by chairman of the US house sub-committee on Africa, global health, global human rights and international organizations.