REJECT BEING USED FOR ELECTION VIOLENCE- GEN ABDULSALAMI URGES

Iswat Jinad

The former head of state, General Abudlsalami Abubakar has urged the Nigerian youth to reject being used as instruments of election violence.

General Abubakar said this while speaking recently at the maiden peace lecture of the University of Ibadan Abdulsalam Abubakar Postgraduate Hall at the Trenchard hall. 

According to him, the people balme it on poverty, ignorance, religion and ethnicity but fail to realize that many get killed in the process. He therefore called for a change of attitude to what unites us rather than what divides us for the betterment of our beloved country- Nigeria.

Congratulating the Nigerian youth on the success of the Not too Young to Run he emphasized that, “getting into the political office is not enough but that the most important thing is to hold the country together”. He buttressed this by giving the late Nelson Mandela’s quote that “Peace is the greatest weapon for development that anybody can have’ and added that Nigeria, being a heterogeneous society, needs to accommodate everyone.

“Nigeria is being battered from different forms, but it remains a great and a strong country; we should collaborate in peace as peace is the absence of violence and the presence of justice. As in Martin Luther King Jr’s quote that “Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals

Meanwhile, he has advised that politicians should be more reconciliatory in their address to people while urging Nigerians to exercise the freedom of choosing their leader.

On the issue of the security situation in Nigeria especially the Fulani herdsmen, he reiterated that there are many underlying questions that the government cannot answer alone. He therefore charged the University of Ibadan with the challenged of being the leading team for proffering solution to the herdsmen crises through rigorous research.