This is as Rivers State governor and chairman, Nigeria Governors' Forum (NGF), Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, said that an end to the Book Haram insurgency in the North-East does not lie in the Nigerian military, but in education and agriculture.
Abubakar, who made the appeal yesterday while speaking at the opening of the Port Harcourt World Book Capital 2014, in the Rivers State capital, said all Nigerians need to work together to ensure peace in the country.
He said, "We need to work together. If there is no peace, there will be no chance to read all these books. If there is no peace, there is no country. We urge all Nigerians to put hands on deck to ensure peace in this country."
Designation of Port Harcourt, major achievement – Jonathan
In his speech, President Goodluck Jonathan said the designation of Port Harcourt as World Book Capital 2014 by UNESCO is a major achievement that has made it a centre of enlightenment and scholarship.
Jonathan, represented by his special assistant on documentation, Mrs Molara Wood, said the achievement also made Port Harcourt a city that is going forward. "We can all build upon it to reinforce the reading culture.
"It can also improve the value of getting information to the development of the thought process for humanity.''
He commended the movers of the bid for the World Book Capital 2014, adding that it was a visionary endeavour that saw Port Harcourt beat 10 major cities of the world including the renowned educational city of Oxford.
In his speech, Governor Amaechi said a lot of children are dropping out of school in the country due to lack of motivation.
He said, "Only recently, UNICEF released the figure of out-of-school children; 10.8million Nigerian children are out of school, and I heared the minister of education say it's not 10.8; but 8 point something million. Whether it is 10.8 or 8.5million, the truth is that there are children withdrawing from school in Nigeria. And it is because there is no motivation for them to go to school.
"I have said it over and over again that the solution to Book Haram does not rest in the military; it lies in education and agriculture. If we start farming on the vast land of the North, all recruits of Book Haram will find an alternative to Boko Haram."
Soyinka decries govt's failure to rescue abducted girls
In his keynote address, Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, decried the failure of the government to rescue over 100 female students abducted from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram.
Soyinka also took a swipe at President Jonathan for participating in a political rally barely a few hours after the dastardly Nyanya bombing and abduction of over 200 female students from Chibok by suspected Boko Haram gunmen.
He stressed that the predicament of the abducted girls who are wandering through dangerous forests at this moment should spur the federal government to take the battle to the Boko Haram sect and rescue the girls.
The nobel laureate wondered why the Nigerian government, which deployed its soldiers to Mali to battle extremist groups whose agenda is to eradicate the community of learning, tolerance and peaceful cohabitation, cannot do the same to the Boko Haram sect which has declared a 'fatwa' on enlightenment in the country.
Soyinka lamented that instead of leading the country in grief following the Nyanya bombing and the abduction of the secondary school girls, President Jonathan decided to embark on a political rally.
"One would think that this is the time that our nation led by our president should be in sackcloth and ashes; let's bear in mind that the bombing at Nyanya went beyond a harvest of body bags; there was also the dilemma of the 200 children, some of whom could have been your own, disappearing under violent conditions.
"One would think that in place of a dance floor, a nation's leader should have been holding round the clock emergency meetings on the recovery of those children, mobilising the entire nation, including the encouragement of volunteers for back up duties to the military," Soyinka said.
Culled from Leadership
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