“Police stations are gone. Roads, buildings, hospitals and schools have all been destroyed.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, said that Nigeria must win the war against insurgency in order to reach full civilisation level.
The Speaker stated this at the annual cultural festival of Berom people of Plateau, Jos, on Friday.
The festival also known as the Nzem Berom which is marked between the month of August and April is celebrated to usher in the planting season.
The Speaker, was the made chairman of the event, and he said the violence confronting the country must be stopped at all means.
According to Dogara: “I have said it many times, we cannot afford to lose the fight against violence and still keep our civilisation.
“Any nation that has lost the fight against violence has always lost its civilisation.
“Take the situation with the Northeast where I come from, as an example, there are communities where you can’t find anything as representatives of the government.
“Police stations are gone. Roads, buildings, hospitals and schools have all been destroyed.
“How long is it going to take us before we even get back to the position where we were prior to the breakout of violence?”
Dogara highlighted that he had observed the issues pertaining to the violence in the country for long, and found out that most Nigerians dwell on mistakes, which serve as the chathe for violence.
Dogara said that, for instance, there was an error that tells us that a whole ethnic group could just be wiped out.
According to Dogara, any person who utilises his senses should know that it is highly impossible to talk of just wiping out an ethnic group, except the God that created them decides to wipe them out Himself.
He said: “I have also heard of the error that stipulates that violence can be cured by more violence.
“There has never been a conflict in the world, not even where the best of the war machines are used, that the weapons of war were thought to have resolved and brought peace.
“Peace has always been obtained at the table of brotherhood. So, we can defeat violence in Nigeria if we are determined to do so and we have the leaders who are willing to do so.
“It is also an error to say that some people are being killed because of cattle rustling,” he concluded.