Jonathan meets US lawmakers, says Southern Kaduna crisis will end if…

FORMER president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday, in the United States (US), said the implementation of 2014 national conference report would end ethno-religious violence in Nigeria.

Jonathan, who spoke as a guest of US Congress House Sub-Committee on Africa on the need to end religious intolerance in Nigeria and the Niger Delta, said the implementation of the confab report would end ethic and religious tension.

A statement by Jonathan’s media aide, Ikechukwu Eze, made available to the media on Thursday, said the meeting in the US was part of Jonathan’s efforts in promoting peace in Nigeria and Africa on the ticket of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation.

The statement confirmed that the former president met with the US Congress House sub-committee on Africa on the challenges facing Christians in Nigeria and the Niger Delta issue.

The confab report, according to the former president was capable of nipping in the bud, crises such as the recent Southern Kaduna killings.

“He (Jonathan) also identified impunity as a factor that contributes to the recurrence of such violence, noting that if those behind previous violence were not prosecuted, then likeminded individuals and groups would be emboldened to repeat the same act.

“Dr Jonathan talked about 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, who was arrested, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned by his administration and was the first successful prosecution of a terrorist attack on a place of worship in Nigeria’s history.

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

“The former president also noted 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.

“While supporting the recommendation of 2014 national conference for an independent religious equity commission to be set up to apprehend and arrest perpetrators of ethnic and religious violence, Dr Goodluck Jonathan maintained that ending impunity will also mean ending these tensions.

“On the Niger Delta, the former president said he fully aligned with the views of the 2014 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 interventionist agencies like the Niger Delta Development Commission tend not to be effective due to over-politicisation.

“The former president opined that 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 Organisations, Congressman Christopher H Smith and other influential staff of the committee,” the statement read.