Worried by the activities of the Boko Haram Islamic fundamentalists, the National President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, has declared that an urgent convocation of the Sovereign National Conference (SNC) is imperative to address fundamental issues confronting the country.

The Arewa youth leader bared his mind in Ibadan on the occasion of the Ishrat 2012 Inter-faith symposium organised by the Shafaudeen in Islam Fidunya Wal’akhirat in collaboration with Centre for Religions Tolerance and Cooperation.

Alhaji Shettima, in his lecture entitled “Achieving Peace through Democracy - A Leadership Challenge” reiterated the crucial need for all segments in the country to sit down and dialogue.

“Call it sovereign national conference, national dialogue or constitutional conference, we need to sit down together urgently to avoid Nigeria crashing,” he said.

Commenting specifically on the recurring Boko Haram crisis in the Northern part of the country, the Arewa youth leader posited that “no religion allows killing”. He, however, maintained that peace cannot be achieved without justice and equity just as he decried in strong terms the role of those he tagged “the Northern oligarchy” in the crisis.

According to Alhaji Shettima, “the Northern oligarchy are not comfortable despite their abysmal failure to make the best use of their over 35 years of control of power in the country.”

He noted with concern that the Boko Haram had been hijacked by political rivals as against the original principle of the group’s late leader, Malam Yusuf advising that “the Federal Government should do everything possible to curb the excesses of the group because if it gets out of hand, it will be dangerous to contain.”