Boko Haram Insurgents To Lay Down Arms To Embrace Amnesty - Cleric

The chief Imam of Apo Legislative Quarters Mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Khalid has urged the Boko Haram insurgents to lay down arms and accept the Federal Government's offer of amnesty.

He made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.

According to Khalid, the insurgents will reap a lot of benefits from the current peace initiative and the nation will return to normalcy if they accept the offer.

`` If they accept the offer, Muslims and non Muslims alike will be strongly behind them and peace will reign supreme in the country, but if they do not accept the offer, it can degenerate into a serious crisis that can cause a set back to the country."

He also expressed optimism that the committee set up by the Federal Government would, at the end of the day, achieve its objective judging by the calibre of members.

Khalid, however, stressed the need for government to show sincerity and commitment to the outcome of the committee's recommendations geared towards salvaging the present situation, once and for all.

The Islamic cleric also stressed the need for the nation's food security programme to be revived and backed by the Act of Parliament.

According to him, the sovereignty of a nation lies solely on food security and its ability to provide food in order to support her citizens.

He advised the Federal Government to establish a proper planning on food security to enable the country not to run into famine.

Khalid said the country has had a lot of programmes on food security in the past such as "Operation Feed the Nation(OFN)"and "Green Revolution (GR)".

He urged the government to revisit such laudable programmes with a view to encouraging the teeming unemployed youth to embrace agriculture and boost food security.

Khalid said that if a nation could feed itself then that nation could be considered as a fully fledged sovereign nation. ``

"The security of a nation whether physical, political and domestic security are solely dependent on food security.

`` So to address this we need to first of all, advise our legislatures not to only depend on treaties signed by Nigeria with other countries but to enact a law that would force the government to invest in agriculture.

He expressed optimism that with adequate power supply in the country, it would attract the attention of foreign investors and increased investments in the country.

Khalid urged the Federal Government to give priority to training and retraining of civil servants in the country for speedy development.

`` Our local farmers need serious training in order to boost their production, thereby, increasing food production in the country as well.

`` If there is adequate supply of food in any country of the world, that country will have lesser security threat," Khalid said.

NAN