Matthew Kukah, bishop of Sokoto Catholic diocese, says Abdulsalami Abubakar, former head of state, has given respectability to Nigeria’s electoral process through the peace committee.
The National Peace Committe (NPC) was conceptualised in 2014 in response to emerging threats brought on by the 2015 general election.
The committee is headed by Abubakar and has since inception held many peace pacts among candidates of political parties before elections.
Speaking at a conference in honour of Abubakar held in Abuja, Kukah said the mandate of the peace committee was for the 2015 elections, but the committee still continued with its mandate because of the credibility of the former head of state.
The bishop, who is also the secretary of the committee, said all stakeholders in the country’s political process agreed that the committee should continue with its mandate after the 2015 elections.
“On behalf of the peace committee, we want to thank General Abdulsalami because he has given respectability to election and electoral processes,” he said.
“Because we work very closely with INEC and now we are literally finding ourselves being called from left, right and centre.
“When the peace committee was set up, the name was peace committee for the 2015 elections.
“The idea was that after the 2015 elections everybody will go home. When we finished we decided to say ‘are we to shake hands and go home?’ We said ‘look, let’s sit down together’.
“Truly, General Abdulsalami was gracious enough when we suggested that why don’t we hear from Nigerians what they think about the work of the peace committee.
“We called the media, we called civil society, we called the BOT of the two parties, we went to see the president, we went to see the speaker, we went to see the senate president, and President Goodluck Jonathan.
“Everybody said the peace committee must remain and we could have gone home but I think that it is to the credibility of General Abdulsalami that we are still going.”
KUKAH TIPS ABDULSALAMI FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
He also tipped the former head of state for the Nobel Peace Prize, saying it is long overdue for Abdulsalami to clinch the prestigious prize.
“I believe but I don’t know how but I think the next campaign that all of us must now wait for is to work hard because the Nobel Prize for peace is long overdue,” he added.
“As far as we are considered, General Abdulsalami is a Nobel laureate, all we need to do is for those who took the award to have the decency to stamp their stamp of authority over what we have already agreed on.”
