{"id":23999,"date":"2020-01-25T15:13:52","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T14:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=23999"},"modified":"2020-01-25T15:13:52","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T14:13:52","slug":"northern-southern-leaders-hold-peace-talk-in-lagos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=23999","title":{"rendered":"Northern, Southern leaders hold peace talk in Lagos"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chioma Ugboma<\/strong> (NAN)
\nSome eminent Nigerian leaders from across the nation on Friday held a closed door meeting in Lagos on the need to preserve continued unity and peaceful coexistence of the country.
\nThe meeting, which held at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, was chaired by a former Presidential Adviser founding member of Northern Elders Forum, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai.
\nThe meeting themed: \u201cNational Discourse on Nigeria, Chaos or Community\u201d, was convened by Nigerian National Summit Group (NNSG) in collaboration with Osigwe Anyiam \u2013 Osigwe Foundation and We Care Foundation.
\nThe News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that those in attendance included leaders of thought from various ethnic nationalities across the country and representatives of some civil society and socio-cultural\u00a0 organisations.
\nNAN reports that the meeting, which was not open to the media, lasted for several\u00a0 hours until late in the evening.
\nIn attendance were Prof. Pat. Utomi, a former Speaker of House Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Na\u2019abba, Dr Ferdinand Ikwang, Mr Tony Uranta, Femi Ayo-Adebanjo, Rasaq Oladosu, Charles Anyiam-Osigwe and Mr Paul Toun.
\nOthers were a former Commissioner for Information in Ogun State, Mr Kayode Samuel; Sen. Ewa Henshaw, Dr. Umar Ardo and Akogun Kola Onadipe.
\nAlso at the meeting were Mrs Nkoyo Toyo, Habiba Abiola, Abdul Bako, Mrs Barong Tony-Uranta, Ahmed Tijani, Shex Ladipo and Abdul Bako, Wale Ajayi, among others.
\nIn his remark, Yakasai appealed to government to pay greater attention to the progressive views of Nigerians who showed genuine commitment to preserving the unity of the country.
\n\u201cAt this trying moment in the life of our country, every facet of opinion is relevant and important to assist calm the turbulent waves of our existence.
\n\u201cAs one of the founding fathers who actively partook in the political processes leading to the attainment of\u00a0 independence, our vision was to build a united and egalitarian Nigerian nation where, irrespective of tribe and creed, you can find home wherever you find comfort to live in the country.
\n\u201cOur forbears lived together peacefully and undertook social economic activities unperturbed in search of livelihood at anywhere in the country,\u201d he said.
\nHe said that given the observed security challenges the country was facing, particularly the persistent threats from Boko Haram and \u201cthe defiance with which those in authority interrogated and selectively applied the rule of law, the sense of communal security and unity had wained.
\n\u201cThese make imperative, our focus in today\u2019s meeting, \u2018Nigeria Chaos or Community,\u201d he said.
\nIn his remark, Tony Uranta, Executive Secretary of NNSG, said the meeting was \u2018pro peace\u2019, aimed at proffering solution to the myriad of challenges in the country.
\nUranta said the conveners of the meeting decided to initiate the discourse for selected distinguished Nigerians to fashion out a plausible strategy that could arrest the current slide in Nigeria.
\n\u201cWe are determined to, with your creative inputs and support, further this initiative to galvanise all centrifugal forces to not only pull our country together but cement the pillars of unity founded on core democratic values, equity, fairness and justice,\u201d he said .
\nAlso speaking, Anyiam-Osigwe said that as Nigeria approached her 60 years as a nation and with discordant voices from every corner of the nation as to the basis of its corporate existence, the Foundation thought it urgent to initiate a dialogue to confront and proffer workable solutions to douse the palpable tension and forge a peaceful and prosperous country.
\nHe urged the discussants to finds ways of engendering peace in Nigerian communities.
\nUtomi, in his remark, said there was need to act fast as the people were already getting tired of the challenges that confronted them daily.
\n\u201cIt should not be talk as usual. The agitations are getting worse everyday. We must act fast and come up with lasting solutions that are implementable and acceptable to all Nigerians,\u201d\u00a0 Utomi said.
\nNAN reports that the meeting agreed to set up some committees to fasttrack implementation of decisions reached while a communique on the outcome of the forum would be issued later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chioma Ugboma (NAN) Some eminent Nigerian leaders from across the nation on Friday held a closed door meeting in Lagos on the need to preserve continued unity and peaceful coexistence of the country. The meeting, which held at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, was chaired by a former Presidential Adviser founding member of Northern Elders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[828,829,830],"class_list":["post-23999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-north","tag-peace","tag-south"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}