TEXT of PRESENTATION of DR HAKEEM BABA-AHMED, OON, at THE PUBLIC LECTURE ORGANIZED BY MORAL INITIATIVE OF NIGERIA (MIN) AT AREWA HOUSE, KADUNA ON SATURDAY, 22ND SEPTEMBER, 2018

I should start by commending Moral Initiative of Nigeria (MIN) for this thoughtful step towards reminding our nation of the imperatives of its moral foundation at a point when we are being prepared to exercise choices over leaders and parties, I am also grateful to Professor Ango Abdullahi, Magajin Rafin Zazzanu, who, in his characteristic fatherly manner, assigned us responsibilities for participation in this programme. May God bless your intentions and the outcome of this event.

        It may be a matter of deliberate choice that Moral Initiative of Nigeria left much of the choice on focus and substance in our contributions to us. I have noted that the Initiative identified the need to raise awareness around immorality and the promotion of peace and love among Nigerians as its main motives for organizing this event.

        I have chosen to address the place of leadership as the foundation of any people’s moral standards, and in this context, I will share with you my humble thoughts on issues that we need to pay close attention to as a nation if we will begin to turn the tide again moral decay, the drift towards anarchy and the descent into the nightmare of the rule of terror, evil and violence.

There is no value in discussing issues of morality, systems and processes, legal system, policies and programmes and development in a nation such as ours without acknowledging that we are fundamentally a people of faith. What this means is that all Nigerians believe that we are accountable to a power greater than us, Who has designed the basic elements of our social existence and to Whom we are accountable. Please note that my definition here is universally applicable to us all, irrespective of the nature of our faith or how you exercise it.

How then does a nation of people who accept the validity of a Being that delineates good from evil and right from wrong also seem to tolerate the ignominy of being one of the most corrupt nations on earth; a nation that consigns a huge percentage of its population to the rungs of the poorest in the world, and one where the value of human life is virtually non- existent?

A liberal democratic system cannot effectively function without some core values that must be protected at all cost by those who have the authority and responsibility to do so. These persons must also be accountable to, for their success or failure in this task. These core values are spelt out in our constitution, and our leaders are made to swear with divine words of God in the Quran or Bible that they will defend and protect them. Few people care to recognize the irony that we invoke God to protect and defend a secular constitution. Ordinarily, there will be little problem with this. If leaders break our oaths, and the secular system works, they will be held to account. In addition, the God in whose name we swear to defend the constitution will hold us to account, if not in this world, then in the next one.

The problem appears that our faith is weakest when applied to public matters, such that issues of personal integrity of leaders, doing justice, being accountable, compassionate and fair are rarely measured by leaders  within the rigorous and demanding contexts of God’s laws and injunctions. The system makes it so much easier to offend and violate the constitution, and leaders feel that in exercise of political mandates and/or official responsibilities, God’s wrath is easily assuaged with prayers for forgiveness. In the worst cases, leaders in secular constitutional systems behave as if nothing they do or refuse to do has anything to do with God. Responsibilities of leaders to, and for, followers is seldom treated in religious contests, and secular laws are abused with such impunity that they may well not exist. Democracy as a system rests on the assumption that citizens as voters will exercise powers to distinguish bad from good, leaders and despots from democrats, and  also exercise their power to vote them in or out of power. When, however, wealth and power become the main sources of wealth and power, the democratic system becomes a farce, a charade that merely re-cycles the wealthy and corrupt in leadership positions.

The greatest failing of our leaders who are entrusted with power through our votes is their inability to do justice. Shehu Usman Dan Fadio said, “A kingdom can endure with unbelief, but not with injustice”. (1) The injustice of the leader begins with injustice to himself: he fails to live by the demanding standards which leading people place on him. Leadership is a most onerous and frightening burden and those who lead without full congnisance of its implications do great dissersive to themselves. On the Day of Judgment leaders of men and women will be held to account for every action or inaction over which their positions of responsibility hold them accountable. Injustice breeds disrespect, contempt, insecurity, anarchy and corruption as followers lose faith in unjust leaders who corrupt the ethical and legal basis of their positions.

A leader who fails the test to be just to himself and his responsibility is most unlikely to be just to the people he leads. The descent from the challenging heights of personal discipline and piety to the lowest levels of impunity and corruption is certain and limitless. Arbitrariness takes the place of due process and rule of law; arrogance and contempt for the poor, the powerless and the weak take the place of compassion and humility; corruption and abuse of office replace personal integrity and honesty while the interests of the leader become elevated above the interest of the people. Advisers become psychophants and courtiers; loyalty is demanded in place of respect and the leader is elevated to the position of one to be served, rather than the servant(2).

In the next few weeks, we will be called up to debate, argue and even fight over who will exercise responsibility over us in the 2019 elections. These elections represent an important turning point in terms of whether our lives as citizens, our communities, our values and our nation will continue to deteriorate, or improve. What will determine the direction we move is a template we should adopt in interrogating our choices as Muslims, Christians and Citizens, and the templates we will apply against those who ask us to trust them with responsibility for our security, economic welfare and the protection of our key values.

As citizens, we should apply against ourselves demanding responsibilities in judging politicians. We should ask, to the limits of our understanding and knowledge, these questions among others:

i)                           Am I convinced that the person who wants my vote fears God and will seek His favour in leading me?

ii)                         Am I convinced he wants to lead me as service to me, rather than a means to acquire power and wealth for himself?

iii)                        Am I convinced that he can lead with knowledge, experience, compassion and justice?

iv)                       Am I convinced that he is honest, and will not convert what is public to his private use?

v)                         Am I convinced that he is the best among those asking for my vote, and that I am not voting for him for purely ethno-religious, or regional sentiments?

vi)                       Can I trust him with my life, my assets, my welfare, my family and community and my future?

vii)                      Can I fight to defend his mandate because it is the expression of the will of the people and not a stolen mandate?

viii)                     Do I believe that I can respect him through his tenure because he has remained steadfast in the pursuit of honest service, humble and God-fearing?

ix)                        Am I convinced that he will make my children’s future brighter or worse?

We should also demand from all politicians who will ask for our trust and confidence in 2019 that they answer the following questions first before asking for our votes:

i)             Am I aware of the heavy burden that God will place upon my shoulders if I assume a leadership position?

ii)           Am I satisfied that I posses the required religious, moral, ethical and other personal qualities to lead as God wills and as demanded by the constitution?

iii)          Am I sure I want to serve, not to be served?

iv)         Am I honest enough to resist the temptation to be corrupt?

v)           m I the best in terms of education, experience and personal disposition among those competing with me?

vi)         Am I healthy enough to shoulder the burden of leadership?

vii)        Will my children be proud or ashamed of me at the end of my term?

viii)       Will God be pleased with me?

          As a people, we must use the next elections to create a real beginning for genuine change. Very few of the people asking for our votes today are ready to change the system in such a way that it will resist abuse, impunity and corruption. With our votes, we should say that we are tired of lip service to fighting corruption and insecurity. No one should be trusted with a mandate of any type unless he or she demonstrates a knowledge of our problems, a willingness to tackle them, and a commitment to account for failures. Those who want our votes must convince us that they know how to make our laws less vulnerable to subversion, including subversion by themselves. God will punish those who abuse our trust, but He can choose whether to punish them  here,  in the hereafter, or both. We have faith in Him, but we should make our system good enough to punish those who abuse our trust in this world, so that they serve as example to others that our rights to be led by honest, competent people should not be treated as luxury. If leaders will not improve our laws to eliminate or mitigate impunity and corruption, we should invoke the powers of the Almighty and pray that He keeps those who will abuse our trust or abandon us to fears and hopelessness away from power. The ideal thing of course is to both pray and insist on putting only the most God-fearing and the best people in positions of trust. 

I thank you once again for the opportunity to participate in this event.

REFERENCE

(i)                  Shehu Usman, Bayan Wujuls al-bijra ala al-ibad, 1221 – 1806, Quoted in Mahmud Tukur, Leadership and Governance in Nigeria: the Relevance of Values, Hudahuda/Hodder & Stonghton, 1999, p22

(ii)                 Dr Mahmud Tuhurs’ Leadership and Governace in Nigeria (Ibid)  is an excellent book on the central place of values in governance. Usman Bugaje (ed) Muslims and the Nigerian Political space Books and Libraries, Abuja, 2016 is also a useful book on contemporary situation of Muslims and the Nigerian state.

Nine stitches

Nigerian politics today shows the truism in the saying, ‘a stitch in time saves nine’. It seems all the major characters in this rapidly developing drama had ignored to make use of a vital ingredient in politics: timing. Now everyone is scrambling to gain the upper hand, reclaim lost territory, control damage or throw wild punches hoping that they will  hit the right target. In the next few months, Nigerian voters will be asked to decide who made the right moves, who took the sensible risks or who made life-time blunders. What happens between now and then will be determined by political intelligence, huge resources and the disposition of agents of the Nigerian state.

 It now seems clear that Saraki’s side had delayed bolting out of the APC until the fear of the Buhari mystique and the EFCC had decimated its ranks  of the big names that were its natural first eleven. Now Saraki’s side is out, but not out of danger. Until the National Assembly resumes in September, they will have to fight for their political lives to improve their ranks and acceptance as the side that decides Buhari’s political future. Buhari himself had to be vigorously awakened by a handful of governors and a  new party chairman to the reality that politics is all about protecting and expanding turfs. By the time he descended into the real world of deals, pleas and huge doses of humility ,a big chunk of his turf had drifted away. The subjects and objects of this huge tussle themselves were so engrossed in the search for options that they left all their flanks exposed. It was not a question of if, but when they would leave the party, a situation that left little room for unanticipated maneuvers. The major receptacle of the outpouring of APC’s losses, the PDP, was poorly prepared to handle the largess, or it couldnt believe its luck. It may now find that it has too little room for the  defectors, or it may fail to unseat Buhari because it is unable to digest much of its old and fairly new ambitions.

 All this frenzy will be amusing if it were not seriously about the nation’s future. Buhari will now have to carefully count, almost on a daily basis, how many of the satellites that revolved around him are still there. This will be very stressful for a politician who had routinely  ignored too many turning points. The strategy of denouncing all the defectors as worthless and irredeemably corrupt will have many blunt edges. These were the people who made a major contribution to his electoral success, the same people his corruption-fighting government co-habited with for three years. He is left with a rump of loyalists that bear a disturbing resemblance to those who defected, people with cases before the EFCC who may be holding on only out of fear or the hope that he still has some capacity to help them win elections. He has highly elusive numbers, but not the quality he needs to say his camp is better qualified to fight corruption, fix the economy and secure large populations. When he takes stock, he will find in his camp deeply unpopular governors, incompetent ministers, handpicked party leaders, senators that could be in jail next week if the judiciary and the EFCC  do their jobs.He may yet find that many of them are greek gifts when he attempts to create harmony out of bitter enemies, such as el-Rufai and Shehu Sani.

The Saraki camp must be involved in critical damage assessment, and how much political asset it needs to make it feel secure. The challenges it has before it are mind-boggling: managing ambitions of returnees and traditional presidential flag-seekers; creating room for Kwankwaso in Kano without offending hostile interests; balancing the gain in Tambuwal against hostility from Wammako, Aliero and Yarima in the strategic north west; making full use of the outing of Speaker Dogara from the APC among northern Christians; eroding the remnants of Buhari’s support in the middle belt without risking a backlash from poor handling of religious politics; deepening the divide around Tinubu in the south west; consolidating strong resistance against Buhari in the south east and the south south even in the face the fear of persecution of powerful politicians by the federal government; and above all, demystifying Buhari’s infallibility among millions of northern voters.

They will have to do all these with very little time; while fighting a regime desperate to retain  power, and in a party which may still prove a serious hard sell in many parts of the country. Its considerable numbers of defectors must make immediate and pronounced impact by squeezing APC’s space. Their biggest liability is the good case to be made that they are all about getting more power than they had under the Buhari administration. The Buhari camp will twist  the knife with propaganda that they merely want to return the nation to the Jonathan-type kleptocracy.

The nation will be challeged to choose between politicians who will fight for new mandates with old, tired weapons. President Buhari’s depleted camp will be hesitant to campaign around security in a nation that gave it full endorsement mainly  to secure citizens. These days, in its stronghold of the north, death and destruction stalk communities that were substantially spared the ravages of Boko Haram before the Buhari presidency. The Boko Haram epicenter is not out of the woods yet, and terrorists remind the nation of this every once in a while with suicide bombs and audacious assaults on communities and the military. Buhari’s fight against corruption is visible only in the number of court cases against a handful of politicians, many of them filed  long before he became president. Figures from sales of crude oil represent the only changes in an economy that does not create new jobs or opportunities. The assault against a resurgent opposition will be led by a president in his 70s whose vision is still as unclear as the state of his health.

The job of his opposition is no less daunting. It will have to prove that it is more than a combination of the left-over of the discredited PDP and defectors whose only political goals are to recapture and abuse power. It will have to resolve major tussles between those who think its future requires new vision, new faces and a new brand against those who believe that its traditional reliance on big, familiar names and tons and tons of money is the way to go. It may have too little time to convince enough Nigerians that it wants to do more than just replace the Buhari administration. Can it sell new ideas and strategies on security, job creation and building new foundations for a nation in search of a future?

 If we stay awake until end of September, we may very well witness a desperate dash in place of a long distance race.

Buhari and Saraki

I would give the proverbial arm to know what President Buhari and Senate President Bukola Saraki said to each other last week Thursday. Still, the photo smiles of a tired-looking President, VP, Saraki and a posse of governors (who presumably, midwifed a meeting of the two people with potentially the greatest impact on the 2019 elections) was a collector’s item. It has been in the air that Saraki was leading an exodus of powerful and severely aggrieved APC politicians, and  President Buhari was treating the threat in his characteristic manner: either it will all go away, or it will be someone else’s responsibility to deal with. The comfort is in knowing that this week, it will most likely all spill out. It is that season of high drama, risky gambles and earth-shaking developments that will lay out the boundaries of the contests for elective offices next year.

Four years ago this month, Saraki’s group absconded with a huge chunk of the APC’s assets, and were settling in nicely into the new coalition that was the APC, leaving a fatal gap in the PDP. The tables are now turning. The political renegades say they had found no home in the APC and appear, in all likelihood, to be headed back to PDP. They also appear to have picked a substantial number of other aggrieved APC politicians along the way. President Buhari’s fixers with some political antennae must have been alarmed enough to shut out the let-them-go chorus that had been dominant in the air until now. Arrogant complacency over Saraki's wrecking crew's threat to the APC must have worried a few around a President not used to panicking over opposition. It now appears that President Buhari was convinced that he had to persuade Saraki to call off the rebellious hoard  that had all but factionalized the party.

Now, let your imagination roam around what President Buhari could  have said to a man he had prosecuted for three years until the Supreme Court said he was innocent, and that his trial had been engineered by other interests outside the powers of the Court of Conduct Tribunal. In general terms, Buhari’s propagandists have created a role for Saraki as the scoundrel-in-chief in the anti-corruption war. In the last three months, Buhari’s police had strongly hinted that Saraki was the leader of an armed robbery gang in his home state. Many of Saraki’s fellow-travelers also bear deep scars from altercations with law and order agencies and governors who appeared to enjoy free hands to make enemies for the president. The party structure had shut out an entire segment of elected members of the APC, making it virtually impossible for them to contest fairly for re-election. Scores of Senators and dozens of members of the House of Representatives can only win back mandates if they contest on other party platforms. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara who is the highest ranking elected northern Christian in the ruling APC has been stripped of all influence and presence in his State by his governor. There are a number of governors in Saraki’s group who are unsure whether the APC can or will deliver them another mandate.

President Buhari obviously assumes that Saraki has awesome powers of forgiveness and the clout to lead a large group of very bitter politicians who are convinced they will get better deals elsewhere, back to the APC. In fairness, it must also be assumed that the President had offered Saraki & Co some incentives to stay, but what could they be? He cannot dismantle the elaborate party structures put in place by governors to keep Saraki’s people out. He cannot persuade governors to make up with injured adversaries, some of whom suffer precisely because they covet the governor’s places. He cannot call off the EFCC from pursuing suspects without doing serious damage to his fragile claim to fighting corruption. He will not stand down for another person, nor can he convincingly promise to be a different person or president. He has little time left to make major changes in his government to affect improvements in the quality of governance.

President Buhari could promise Saraki’s people to be altogether a different leader if they all stay put and get him re-elected, but will they believe him? Already in his 70s, he is pretty much settled in his ways, and these do not include pronounced traits for charting new courses, living outside the past or designing radically new options. If he has another four years, will he run a more effective and inclusive adminstration? Will he dismantle the tiny, rigid circle of relations to whom he appears to have consigned huge powers to run the country? Will he eschew the tendency to ignore vital political relationships; assume a firmer control over the decision-making process; and respect the rule of law more diligently in a four-year period when he could afford to be less accountable? Will his frail health hold enough to allow him to personally offer strong leadership in a nation desperate to be secured, healed, united and developed? Can he be trusted by people who see him basically a vindictive, narrow -minded leader who has deep disdain for the basic mechanics of politics?

If Senator Saraki walks with a swagger these days, it will not be the result of the vindication of his innocence by the Supreme Court. True, that  verdict must have removed a huge psychological restraint on an ambitious politician, but the swagger will hide deep concerns that his group’s  destination is by no means a distinctly better option than staying, as we speak. They are working to put together a coalition around their old party, the PDP, but that will only give it a thin coat of paint which will not cover its basic character. His camp, which is still dangerously exposed to subversion, has many doubts over their ability to sell the PDP as a better choice  than Buhari’s APC, even potentially poorer without them. It will be interesting to see how much Saraki’s people can make PDP change its character, and how much difference they can make to its chances to defeat the APC. In 2015, they reinforced the APC’s key selling point, which was Buhari. If they leave now, Buhari will be the only asset available to the APC, as well as  its major liability. Can Buhari defeat a poorly-rebranded coalition using only his bruised persona and a ragged scorecard?

Saraki and his fellow travelers have two options. They can continue  to perch  on the margins of the APC with their record of  disloyalty to Buhari and trust that the future will be kind to them. Or they can leave and do all they can to defeat Buhari, because life for them under Buhari’s second term will be thoroughly unbearable.

Text of Welcome and Keynote Address

By Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, OON.

Extraordinary Summit of Leaders and Elders of Nigeria.

Wesdesday,18th July,2018,Abuja.

Protocols,

 I am humbled and honoured by this opportunity to deliver the Welcome and Keynote address at this historic Summit of Leaders and Elders of Nigeria. In these challenging days when the very foundations of our nation are often questioned by all and sundry, it is my hope that Nigerians are sitting up and taking note of this event. They will see, without any ambiguity, an unfamiliar union of Nigerians brought together by the realization that no one section of our country can achieve any meaningful goal of development or security alone. Nigerians will see in this setting a strategic closing of ranks around certain fundamentals, a deliberate step towards leaning on each other to solve particular and general problems.

This Summit is evidence that the nation is successfully revisiting one of its authentic and most valuable assets, which is its stock of elders and leaders. As Africans, we know that our communities are rooted in the wisdom and experiences of elders. Our history is a patchwork of follies of ignoring this asset, as well as the values of turning to it in the most trying times of need. There is no better time than now to pool together our entire stock of elders and experiences of leaders to put at the disposal of those whom destiny and our mandates have made our leaders today. No one needs worry about the taunting of the ill-informed and the mischievous who question the value and credibility of elders and leaders such as those assembled here today. It is enough that we know what to do when our communities and our nation are challenged for direction, for vision, for courage or caution. This Summit is as representative of Nigeria as the best-designed institutions of state, and the nation will do well to pay due attention to because it represents the beginning of a momentum that with a clear vision and an intrinsic value.

This Summit represents a bridge across all Nigerian communities. It speaks of a vast foundation of commonness of our challenges as a people, as well as the futility of damaging quarrels over matters we can best solve together. It is inspired by a genuine desire to lend support to leadership at all levels, whether that leadership asks for that support, or is uncomfortable with it. This Summit is the elder who insists that the goat  will not give birth while tethered. It is not the actualization of an idle wish, but the culmination of very demanding discussions and engagements  that successfully lowered barricades and barriers we have erected our the past decades around our communities. In this hall, there is a string resolve to work together so that every Nigerian can live in the realities of our ideals, which is to live in peace with dignity and to pursue progress unhindered by region, religion or ethnicity.

The decision to create a common national platform from all the regional and socio-cultural groups is a major breakthrough in the search for  solutions that have made every Nigerian a living grievance. I commend the tenacity of our elders who saw real possibilities in collaboration, leaders who felt incomplete because they are unable to lead in a situation where every section is pulling in its own direction, and elders who are experienced in managing complex situations. In this hall we can commit to protecting the rights of Fulani herders who are only interested in living in peace and herding their only source of livelihood. We can speak for the farmer who is threatened by violence from his land and livelihood. We can speak for communities that need each other to survive and develop; communities that long to be relocated away from IDP camps; communities that live in fear from the next attack and see enemies in every stranger; and communities that are losing faith in a nation that has room for everyone.

Distinguished elders and leaders, my prayer is that the fire you lit will never be extinguished. I hope younger Nigerians and our leaders will listen to the voices of this Summit. They will experience a world that can exist without hate, a nation that can deliver on the promise to be just to all, to protect the weak and not penalise the strong.

I have listed a number of personal observations I hope will be useful to the Summit as it examines the state of security in which we live as Nigerians:

a) The nation is facing unprecedented spate of violence from familiar sources as well many new fronts, with vast tracts of the nation completely at the mercy of marauding killers, inter- communal conflicts, violent crimes, kidnapping and violent  urban gangs;

b)The nation’s entire security and law and order assets appear incapable of arresting the drift towards pervasive and widespread conflicts and violent crimes which make every citizen a potential victim;

c)Fear and uncertainty are fuelling narratives that create convenient enemies, and many communities are in danger of coming to terms with permanent state of insecurity;

d) The failure of the government to arrest and successfully prosecute killers is creating the impression of a weak state in which killers and criminals operate almost at will;

e) Entire communities have been uprooted and placed at the mercy of an unprepared state and the elements. Livelihood will be disrupted for many years to come;

f) Hate, suspicion and fear are driving dangerous barriers in community relations in many parts of the country, and governments themselves have been responsible for their spread;

g)Federal and state governments have failed to put forward policies, initiatives or progammes that will improve citizen and community security, improve community relations or mediate conflicts;

h)Security, law and order agencies have not been held accountable for the disastrous collapse of the nation’s security infrastructure;

i) The nation is potentially exposed to more violence as the police fails in its basic responsibilities, the military is stretched beyond its capacities and the challenges of the forthcoming elections will divert resources and attention from basic security responsibilities;

In addition,I would offer these suggestions:

i)                    President Muhammadu Buhari needs to show firmer and more decisive leadership in dealing with alarming scale of killings and other violent claims. It is the responsibility of leadership to secure the  citizen, no matter what the sources or nature of threats to his life and property are.

ii)                  All leaders and citizens have a vital role in improving levels of security. The President’s claims that certain interests and persons are involved in fueling the killings for political reasons must be taken seriously. These persons and interests must be exposed and brought to book. They must not remain as mere excuse for failure to secure citizens and the nation. Heads of security, law and order institutions must be held accountable for failures and lapses. The President should critically assess the levels of competence and commitment of agencies responsible for securing Nigerians and take necessary steps to ensure that only the best and most committed from them are entrusted with responsibility.

iii)                 The nation’s basic security infrastructure must be completely rebuilt on a new philosophy, structure and commitment to security as the prime function of the state.

iv)                The nation should come to terms with the realities of the limitations of the current structure of our union, particularly in the area of security and welfare of citizens. There are compelling grounds for restructuring our federal system in a manner that benefits all sections and interest in the nation. In this respect, the recent initiative of the Senate to initiate a review of the Constitution towards creating State Police should be supported as a matter of the highest national priority. The amendments on devolution of powers should also be revisited by the National and State Assemblies. Nigerians demand that their leaders must operate with requisite sensitivity to the challenges of our existence,and must put aside parochial and divisive sentiments in dealing with national issues.

v)                  Government should  take immediate and decisive steps to do the following:

a)           Address the alarming spread of illegal weapons in the hands of citizens, criminals and communities;

b)          Adopt measures that will hasten the ranching of cattle, and encourage communities to create harmonious working and living relationships with other communities;

c)           Address hate speach it all its ramifications; Design strategies that will encourage improved understanding and unity among all communities in Nigeria;

d)          Address widespead poverty and youth unemployment;

e)           Take decisive steps to demonstrate respect for the rule of law, the sanctity of life and rights of citizens to justice;

f)            Improve popular perception on the fight against corruption by removing any hint of partisanship or bias in the manner cases are investigated and prosecuted;

g)          Assure Nigerians that the 2019 elections will be free and fair, and conducted in an atmosphere devoid of violence.

I thank this Summit for this opportunity to sgare with you my personal views on the search for peace and security in our nation.

May God bless your efforts and our nation.