Former President Goodluck Jonathan also called on all leaders to speak out whenever things were going wrong in the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari had a few days ago advised leaders to watch their utterances, saying those criticising his administration handling of insecurity were not patriotic.
But Jonathan on Thursday said leaders should come together and proffer solutions to insecurity in the country.
He said insecurity appeared from time to time, but noted that leaders must come together for a conversation that would end attacks on defenceless citizens.
Jonathan said this in Abuja during the public presentation of a book, “Not By Might Nor By Power: Selected messages to the world,” an autobiography written by the Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, who would retire next year.
“We must get the country out of insecurity,” he said at the event which brought together eminent Nigerians including a former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd.).
But in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the event, Jonathan said every generation had challenges, adding that leaders must come together to address the menace.
He said, “If things are wrong, leaders, including me, should be talking. And there are a lot of conversations going on to solve this problem (of insecurity); every generation has its problems. In fact, my generation is almost gone. It’s for your generation and we must all come together to solve the problem.
“The security challenges have been with us for long, but we know that whatever the challenges are, we must come together and address them. The political leaders in the country and traditional leaders are talking. And we must get the country out of insecurity.”
Okoh cautioned ethnic groups forming their own militias to retrace their steps and stop the killings in the country.
He said, “I have no solution because I am an individual. But we should try to ask the appropriate authorities to do what they should do, and that is the government.
“I strongly believe that individuals should not take security initiative because if individuals take their own security initiatives, I mean organising our own militias, the country will be destroyed. Everybody will perish.
“But the government which has the constitutional responsibility to maintain security should do so and quickly too before it gets out of hand. That is my appeal.”
Also, the Primate advised young pastors not to be in a hurry, adding that what he observed was that many of them were in a hurry to be noticed.
“If you are with God, hear from God before you speak. Don’t resort to your imagination and say, ‘God has said’; make sure you receive a message from God and you are in tune with Him (God).”
According to him, the Nicholas Okoh Foundation will help him in ministry even after leaving as Primate in 2020.
“I want to continue with my work as a man of God. The book is about yearly situations and the solutions I provided. At this point, I decided that the two volumes should be published. There are other books unpublished. There is a gap between what we think and what we do. We want our children and those following us to know that we have not arrived. We must back it up with moral integrity,” Okoh added
