President of the Foundation for Peace and Non-Violence in Nigeria, and hero of the Niger Delta Amnesty programme, Mr. Onengiya Erekosuma, has said the greatest challenge facing the country is not the insecurity the country has been struggling with over the years, but the lack of truthfulness by the Nigerian government.
Erekosuma while speaking in an interview with New Telegraph, said when a country practices a system that has frustrated their people to the point that some are willing to do anything just to survive," the current challenges facing the country shouldn't come as a surprise.
He lamented that while government is making efforts to address these challenges, it is using a method that would only create more future problems for the country even if it did succeed in the short term.
He said, "The leaders are leading his people to the path of guerilla warfare. The situation is not about using the military, but using the right method that can only be achieved through a nonviolence approach. I hope Nigerians will listen before it gets out of hand, and I pray God to give our leaders the understanding to see what times we are in.
"The problem is that we don’t tell ourselves the truth. The government needs to face the reality that things are not being done the right way."
Asked why insecurity has become a booming business despite the risks, he said government has already created a situation where people no longer see the difference between dying from hardship, and dying from striving to survive through acts of criminality.
"Living in Nigeria now is not a risk? Serious attempts have not been made to deal with unemployment and poverty, but the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
"There had been widespread corruption and profligacy in the country, particularly on the part of our leaders," he added.
Speaking further, he said winning the people out of criminality, is not through the use of force, but by addressing the root cause of the problems. He warned that not taking the right approach will create greater problems than the current ones.
"Any region or state that succeeds in ending insecurity will be living in danger. I say this because whatever will end insecurity now must be done all over Nigeria and neighbouring African countries.
"Don’t say I did not tell you this; any state that will end its own insecurity problems, without helping to end it in Nigeria at large, that peace will not last long. I told, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to give me six months, but we were given two months; that’s why those who did not believe that amnesty was going to work did not come out to surrender their arms, and it is kiIIing us now," he said.