The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) has called for drafting of a new Constitution for the country and the implementation of other recommendations in the 2014 National Conference report.
The NCEF Chairman, Dr Samuel Gani, at a news conference on the state of the nation in Abuja, said that the perennial amendment of the Constitution by the National Assembly should cease.
Gani called on the legislators to start work on a new Constitution for Nigeria.
“After five alterations to the Nigeria Constitution, without any significant positive impact on the country, the National Assembly should commence work immediately on adopting the report of the 2014 National conference with its draft Constitution,’’ he said.
Expressing concerns on the level of insecurity in the country, Gani attributed it to external forces seeking to tear the country apart for hostile takeover of the land and its resources.
He said that it was evident that Nigeria was facing an organised invasion by foreign forces masquerading as religious extremists, and cultural domination agenda disguised as religious intolerance.
Gani said that available record and data had shown how hundreds of villages of the ethnic nationalities in Plateau and Kaduna, Benue were dislodged to in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps and their villages renamed.
“The amount of blood that has been shed in Nigeria, involving indigenous Christians, Muslims, and traditionalists, prove that the indigenous ethnic nationalities have the same enemy.
“That enemy is a foreign invader. The killings going on in Nigeria are not motivated by the indigenous ethnic nationalities.
“Unfortunately, some of the local actors were manipulated into thinking they were pursuing a religious agenda, but the puppet masters have no religious goal in view. It is all about racial displacement,” he said.
Gani added that ethnic nationalities should assert their right and ownership over their ancestral land and assert the dominion of their thrones in Nigeria.
“The ethnic socio-cultural groups such as Afenifere, Ohaneze Ndigbo, Arewa Consultative Group, Middle Belt Forum, and PANDEF should consider these issues in greater detail,” he said.
The forum, according to Gani, further recommended the immediate ban on open grazing to further reduce farmer-herder crisis, saying cattle owners should be compelled to set up ranches at their own expense as business entrepreneurs.
Gani also called for the abolition of the RUGA project, saying the Federal Government has no statutory right to allocate land in Nigeria under the Land Use Act.
“This is the responsibility of the states. Any business investor that requires land should apply for land like other citizens,” he said.
NCEF called on the stakeholders to examine these issues and take positions that would be in the long-term best interest of their ethnic groups.
He reiterated its earlier recommendation that President Tinubu should appoint a Special Investigator to conduct a Commission of Inquiry into the causes, as well as expose the actors, in the various acts of terrorism and religious insurgency that overwhelmed Nigeria.
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