Northern Christians advocate forum with Muslims

Christian Elders in the North under the auspices of the Northern Christian Elders Forum (NORCEF) yesterday advocated a conference of Northern Muslims Elders with their Christian counterparts to address the current insecurity in the region.
The present situation, if unchecked, they said would bring the nation into a full scale war.
They said the North has had enough of bloodshed.
But the forum said the docility of Christians in the North should not be mistaken for cowardice and asked the federal government to extend to them the Almajiri education scheme recently launched in the North.
Chairman of the forum, Evangelist Matthew Owojaiye, deplored the barrage of criticisms that trailed a recent statement by the Senate President, David Mark that Northern elders have not done enough to address the insecurity posed by the Boko Haram insurgency.
NORCEF asked Northern elders, traditional rulers and politicians to stop treating the Boko Haram issue and the attendant bombing and killing with the kid-glove, saying “It is not a small thing. It is a dangerous thing that can escalate and degenerate into a full scale war. Enough is enough! Let everybody wake up.

“An urgent meeting of Northern Muslim Elders and Northern Christian Elders should be called especially in the states affected to fashion the way forward. We are at the brink, the edge of a bottomless pit. A step forward may bring calamity. It is time for us to retrace our steps. We expect all the Elders, the Speaker of the House of Representatives to join the Senate President to sound the alarm”.
On Mark’s statement, he said: “What did he say that is strange? Haven’t other people said the same thing or more? Are we accusing him because he was frank and bold enough to say what all of us have been saying in private? Even at the meeting of the Northern Elders Forum in Abuja, the forum blamed the Northern Elders for the situation that the North has found itself.
“The Forum admitted the Northern Elders had not followed the footsteps of the Sardauna in peace and harmony and also in development. Everybody is alarmed at the state of the nation. The North has never had it so bad. We Northerners must be frank with ourselves. We have failed miserably. Can the Village and Ward Heads claim they don’t know the people causing the trouble?
“When the Christian Elders Forum of Northern States was shouting at the beginning of the fracas, nobody took us serious. We were called alarmists and all kind of names. Later ACF came on board to sound caution. Yes, the Northern Elders have not done enough to bring peace. We can do more.
Source