President and Chairman of Council, National Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Mallam Mukhtar Zubairu Sirajo, has said that while efforts were being made to restore peace and dignity in the country, there was also the need to engage the citizens in dialogue to find lasting solutions.
Speaking on Wednesday in Abuja at the inauguration ceremony of the National Planning Committee for Citizens Summits on National Integration, Peace and Security, he said that there was a need to seek citizen-derived solutions and actions based on a people-to-people approach to re-galvanise and re-energize the nationhood.
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He said that going through the news items in the media space about Nigeria makes it clear that there was an urgent need for restoration of peace, security, confidence and mutual understanding in the nation.
He believed that “posterity will not forgive us if we fail in our choices to prefer the roundtable, the harnessing of our diversity for the benefit of all, prosperity over poverty and rising to the occasion of sustainable growth and development based on equity, justice and respect and love for one another.”
While inaugurating a 52-man committee, headed by Dr. Ike Neliaku, Sirajo noted that there were essential ingredients required to rally everyone to a round table to resolve whatever differences “that appear to want to be tearing us apart.”
“We conceptualized the Summit on National Integration, Peace and Security as the platform to harvest ideas, beginning in September 2021, from each of the 36 states of the Federation, to the zonal levels and culminating into a citizens National Summit later in the year.
“Ideas generated from the Summit will be transformed into a blueprint and policy recommendations for governments at all levels,” he said.
He said that there was the need to engage men and women of good conscience to hearken to the clarion call and join in the very noble initiative.
“I must emphasise here that we are not doing this to score any political points. Rather, as relationship builders and menders, reputation auditors and managers, as well as promoters of understanding and goodwill,” he said.
Sirajo called on stakeholders to join hands in the move to restore the country through dialogue, stressing that “we cannot do this alone and we also do not pretend to have solutions to all the issues at stake.”
He note that there would be no segment of the Nigerian society that would be left out of the consultation process.
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