The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has said non-kinetic efforts to address the challenge of insecurity in the southeast are yielding positive results.
He disclosed this when he was honoured with the Outstanding Peace Ambassador Award for his initiative, Peace in the South East Project (PISE-P), from the House of Representatives Press Corps at the National Assembly Complex.
Kalu said security agencies have committed to pursuing non-kinetic solutions to address the problem, adding that though the efforts so far in this regard were yielding positive results more still needs to be done.
He expressed gratitude to the Corps led by Gboyega Onadiran for its professionalism in ensuring Nigerians are provided with accurate information pertaining to the workings of the parliament.
He said, “Before now, I was the spokesperson of the House, and I worked with you. You have not changed. You remain consistent in ensuring that you do the right work with regard to the ethics of your profession.
“You’ve been feeding Nigerians with the right information. You’ve been unbundling what we do here, we want to be more transparent. You know what that has done for us is that it has increased the confidence level of Nigerians in the workings of the parliament, more than it used to be.
“And today, launching the Green Sentinel, this Green Sentinel started when I was with you. And you’re not allowed a dream to die. And I’m so proud of you for supporting you to make sure that you keep telling the story.
“You’ve also gone ahead to give me an award, not just as one of you, but as one of you who is interested in peace and motivation. The motivation has been nothing but the fact that we only have one country. We don’t have two. All this division. North, South, and West don’t matter to people like us.
“In fact, the more it is dissolved, the better. The more we remove all these North, South, East, and West, the better for us because we are one. Because we are one, we must preach peace to sustain that oneness.
“That is the truth. We must preach it starting from home and from the Southeast, and they say charity begins at home. There’s no how I would preach peace outside to the rest of the rest of Nigeria while leaving what is in my area.
“You know, Southeast has been, you know, there’s been a crisis there for some time, even though it’s going down now a little bit through our various interventions, and through your own intervention, the way you report the stories there, it’s going down. But we started the Southeast Peace Project, which the President was there to launch on the 29th of December barely a year ago.
“And with that, we lobbied for the South East Development Commission, we reached out to people and we are beginning to speak to those who are radicalized and say, please come.
“There are better ways of achieving what we want to achieve through the non-kinetic approach. We spoke to the military and the security forces and they have given their support and they are ensuring that the kinetic approach to resolving problems is not the only approach.
“It’s working. Are we there yet? No. Are we going to get there? Yes. Especially now that the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in his magnanimity approved the Southeast Development Commission Bill to become an Act and has gone ahead to make a budget proposal. So he’s not just talking the talk, he is walking the talk.
“What this would do for the peace project we are doing is that it’s going to calm the nerves of so many people who are agitating for one marginalization or the other.
“The President has now said this is the fund from the federation account to develop your place. What other excuse do you have to carry arms? What other excuse do you have to destroy your place? This is a peace tool that the President has given to us. And the President has taken that also to other regions of the country.
“The regional development agenda of Mr. President is a wonderful agenda because you see Northwest has received funds that are going to be used to calm the nerves of those there who are carrying out the insurgency and the rest of them. Northeast is working. Very soon, Southwest will start. South-South, and the rest of them.
“Before you know it, it would be every man to your own camp, develop your place. That is a regional agenda which worked for us before which is coming back again in the spirit of federalism and I’m sure it is going to work.
“So all this is because if we don’t pursue peace, there will be no unity. And if we don’t have unity, there will be no progress. Check our coat of arms. It says, peace, unity and progress.
“So if Nigeria wants to progress, the foundation is peace. Thank you for recognising our work, and we pledge to partner with you to make sure that we achieve more within that space.”
