PRESS STATEMENT OF THE CONFERENCE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS (CONGOs)
In recent efforts at combatting the incursion of the Islamic State in the ongoing war with Nigeria, governors of some of the Northern States of Nigeria have announced the closure of markets, and expressly restricted the fetching of firewood as well as restriction on the sales of fuel above N5,000 to vehicles.
Further to these steps taken by the governors, the federal government has ordered the service providers of the mobile communication networks to shut down their services in Northern Nigeria for two weeks.
We salute the efforts of the Nigerian government in its battle against the Islamic State. However, these initiatives by our government are worrisome because of the economic implication they convey.
As a development focused coalition, we opine that the Islamic State is gradually collapsing what is left of our economic capacity – a weapon of war that has delivered maximally drawing from history. We submit that economic activities in Northern Nigeria have been tactically targeted by the Islamic State in its activities over the years.
Deriving from its wicked murder as well as kidnapping of farmers in their farms these past years, many people have abandoned their farms in Northern Nigeria and relocated to IDP camps as displaced persons.
Bearing in mind that Northern Nigeria account for a large percentage of food and cash crops production and supply in Nigeria, the attack on the agricultural base of Northern Nigeria is a fundamental displacement of the balance of trade capacity of our country. This delivers a serious infringement on the Gross Domestic and National product of our country.
With government reducing the economic activities of farmers and the natives in general with regards to bush clearing, adopting policies that seriously reduce pastoral activities and insisting on closure of markets, it is obvious that we are losing to the Islamic State.
Its implication is spiral inflation, restrained access to food supply and the manifest scarcity of food items. We posit that the option of house-to-house supply chain for food items among others is impossible to implement anywhere in Nigeria. Retail trading cannot be reduced to door step activities for all products. The closure of markets is, therefore, ill-advised
We inform that these policies will deliver severe economic regression for our country and its people. It will adversely affect the welfare of the people. It will maximally increase the already horrible poverty scale of our people. Its impact on the supply chain for food and cash crops from and to Northern Nigeria will maximally alter the economic balance of our country internally.
Equally, to shut down the operations of the mobile communication service providers in Northern Nigeria dangerously limit economic activities in Northern Nigeria in all spheres and adversely infringe on our economic activities internationally. We aver that if these methods are the options of our governments in curtailing the Islamic State, they deliver victory for the enemy and loss to the Nigerian State.
Policies that significantly weakens our capacity economically in a war situation cannot be our options reactively. Moreso, we note that our country has no fallback facilities in food storage and the storage of other essentials for emergency situations.
We posit that these policies adopted by our government are highly reductive and does not draw from a proper understanding of the enemy. We inform that our enemy has been carrying out combat activities in Cameroun, Chad, Niger and other neighbouring countries.
Therefore, their supply chains cannot be localised and particularised to Nigeria. Drawing from this, we aver that the policies of our government will only minimally affect the operational capacity of the enemy whose environmental locale is West African regional based.
We urge the Federal Government to acquire capacity for more sophisticated technological endowment to combat the insurgents. We request to know what happened to the Nigeria satellite/ space craft project. We cannot be closing markets and restricting the movement of peasant farmers in combatting the enemy at war in a 21st century world.
We call on government to bring retribution to all who have corruptly crippled the economic and technological capacity of our country over the years. As a country, we presently stand on the cliff of imminent annihilation drawing from our present realities.
It is time to get serious with anticorruption in Nigeria. The recourse to legal quibbles and harakiri in dribbling the populace further to a virtually unrealistic anti-corruption campaign must stop.
We must seek the understanding of the developed world and immediately acquire the much-needed technology for aerial surveillance as well as the drones for effectively pre-empting and neutralising enemy actions and target.
We acknowledge the perspective of government which focus on crippling the access of these criminals to the supply chain of food items and other essential needs. Yet, we insist that excepting those internal factors that have compromised and aid the enemy in information and other operational assistance are located, identified and neutralised, these efforts and policies by government will end up with a boomerang. They will be counter productive
CONGOs insist on viable policies in curtailing these invaders rather than approaches that further compromise our already shackled economic space.
Let the policies of government in the prosecution of the ongoing war with the Islamic State be relevant to a war-winning objective. Let government evolve policies and methods that does not deliver unbearable hardship on the Nigerian people.
Finally, we posit that giving a false narrative to our presently ongoing war amount to self-deception. Bandits and ordinary local criminal gangs do not possess the sophistication and finesse which have characterised the operations of our enemy at war in recent times. This is the Islamic State at work. Getting the descriptive correctly helps us build the appropriate psychological will, mental and social synergy relevant to the evil we are confronting.
“Truth crushed to earth shall rise again”. Let us be guided as a people.
Mrs Abiola Daisy Igaga
President
Comrade Gifted Aghedo
Director of Publicity
