BEVERLY HILLS, May 03, (THEWILL) -Former Senate President, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, wants President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a panel to interrogate the causes of all non-violent agitations in the country.
Anyim, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, in an open letter to Buhari, said the commission should be modelled after the Willink’s Commission of 1957, named after its chairman Mr. Harry Willink.
He said the commission produced a far-reaching report after extensive hearings of the complaints and suggestions from the people, adding that no other document in the history of Nigeria has had a far-reaching impact on our political structure than the Willink report.
Anyim in the letter dated May 3, 2021 and titled, “The State of Insecurity in the Nation,” urged the President to heed the concerns of Nigerians.
The former Senate President said it had become apparent that the foundation of the various agitations in Nigeria today was that the comfort provided at Independence by the Willink’s Commission Report was no longer working.
He said, “I make bold to recommend that Mr. President should make history by empaneling another commission of inquiry to inquire into the violent and non-violent agitations in Nigeria and make recommendations on the immediate-, short- and long-term solutions as a way of first de-escalating the rising tension in the land and a process for the renewal of our march to nationhood.
“It is important to note that in a democracy, no action is deemed successful or completed until the buy-in-of the people is secured through a democratic process. This buy-in- is an imperative that is yet to be pursued in the fight against violent agitations in Nigeria. I must say that as long as the people are not part of the process of finding solutions to the conflicts, a permanent solution will be a mirage.”
He added that he was forced to write an open letter to Buhari because the President didn’t get an earlier private letter sent to him.
He wrote: “Mr. President, you may recall that on the 5th of October 2018, I had an audience with you in your office. In that meeting, with your then Chief of Staff, the late Mallam Abba Kyari, in attendance, we touched on a number of issues including the insecurity in the country and about which you directed that I should do a short brief on my suggestion and forward to your Chief of Staff.
“Mr. President may wish to know that I did as you directed and submitted my suggestion to your then Chief of Staff on the 20th of October, 2018.”
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