Former Military Head of States, Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, on Tuesday, pledged support for the North Central People’s Forum (NCPF) for peace and development of the region.
They gave their support when they received Board of Trustees of NCPF led by its Chairman, General Jeremiah Useni, separately at their Hilltop homes in Minna.
Babangida commended members of the forum for the formation of the forum to ensure peace and development of the North Central region.
“Your visit has made my day, the North Central region is blessed by God but it never played its unique role for many years until now.
”We have heard other zones make noise but the North Central zone has been quiet, in the area of votes, the North Central zone has more votes than other zones yet they make more noise, ” he said.
He commended the forum for a job well done and pledged to give the forum necessary support that would foster peace and development in the region.
Similarly, Abdulsalami commended the members for forming the forum to seek for peace and development of the north central region.
He described the members of the forum as “eminent personalities” with records of tremendous achievement in the country and urged them to exhibit the same performance for the growth of the region.
“Use your influence and voices to promote peace among our people because you are the caliber of people that are respected and your voices are heard and listened to,” he said.
The former military head of state urged the forum to use their influence to work towards peaceful co-existence of the region for rapid economic growth and development of the country.
Earlier, Useni said the purpose of the visit was to inform the former military heads of state about the forum and to present the constitution of the forum to them.
He explained that the aim of the forum was to work towards promoting religious and political tolerance among the people of the region.
He disclosed that the forum would work towards effective establishment of the North Central Development Commission that would help to address issues of infrastructure development in the region.
The chairman added that the aim of the forum was to maintain peace in the zone and reach out to people irrespective of their differences for the peaceful co-existence among people in the region.
