PRESS RELEASE: ACTING PRESIDENT HOLDS CONSULTATIONS ON AGITATIONS ;MEETS WITH POLITICAL,RELIGIOUS & TRADITIONAL LEADERS.{PHOTO}.

                 In response to the recent spate of agitations pitting Northern Nigeria against the Southeast,the Acting President commenced a series of engagements and consultations with political,religious and traditional leaders from across the country as follows:
1. Northern Leaderss of Thought: Tuesday 13 June,2017
2. Southeast Leaders of Thought: Wednesday 14 June,2017
3. Southeast Traditional Rulers: Sunday 18 June,2017.
4. Northern Traditional Rulers: Tuesday 20 June,2017.
5.All State Governors: Wednesday 21 June,2017
6. Publishers and Editors: thursday 22 June,2017.
   The Meetings were convened to provide a platform for frank and open discussions between the concerned stakeholders on issues relating to the unity,peace and security of Nigeria.The Meetings touched on various issues relating to the ethnic agitations that have manifested most recently in a call for secession by some groups of youth from the Southeast,and an ultimatum by Northern youths for south-easterners living in the North to leave the region by 1st October 2017.Acting President Osinbajo said ''There is a point where a line has to be drawn,and that is when conversations or agitations degenerate into hateful rhetoric,where the narrative descends into pejorative name-calling,expressions of outright prejudice and hatred.Let me say that we are not deaf to the legitimate concerns and frustrationss arising from around the country.Every part of Nigeria has its own grievance.But these have to be expressed graciously and managed with mutually rather than with scorn and disdain.All of us have agreed that our nation must remain one..I think that there is clarity as to that one thing,that our country ought to remain,must remain,a united country.It will be wrong of us to aproach our grievances by threatening to disobey the laws or by threatening the integrity of our nation.I firmly believe that we ought to address these agitations and proclamations urgently and decisively.Burying our heads in the sand and expecting the storms to blow over of their own accord is not an option.One thing is clear-violence and war are not going to do anyone any good.They are easy to start but near impossible to end.We are witnesses to the unspeakable devastation that war continues to inflict across the world.No one who has seen the horrors of war-even merely on television-would wish it on their worst enemy''.He further said ''Our emotions must not be allowed to run wild in such a way as to endanger the lives of so many''
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President
Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President
22 June 2017.