By VICTORIA OJEME

ABUJA — As  the ongoing National Conference continues today, the High Commissioner of Rwanda to Nigeria, Joseph Habineza, has warned delegates to desist from act that could worsen the country’s security situation.

Speaking, last weekend, at a press briefing in Abuja to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1994 genocide which claimed more than one million people in Rwanda, Habineza urged Nigerians to learn from his country’s ugly experience.

While fielding questions from journalists, Habineza said the ongoing national conference would be a welcome development to finding lasting solution to the country’s plethora of problems, if the delegates eschewed greediness.

According to him, “the first disease Nigeria has is greed with selfishness.

“The ongoing national conference is a good thing, but first of all, individually, the delegates should have self-transformation, because you can be in the conference and from there you go and call your friend, who is a member of Boko Haram, to attack.

“So nothing is going to come out from there if you are not committed to the peace of your country,” he said.

“The fact is there are bad politicians and there are good politicians, but the bad ones are so evil; they can use all means to get what they want,” he added.

He warned those calling for secession to have a rethink as those who called for war were often the first victims.

His words: “Coming to our experience, a week before the tragedy, I met somebody, an adviser to the late president, a former ambassador to Germany. He was a very close friend to my parents and we were discussing politics.

“The president was supposed to implement the Arusha agreement…So I met this adviser and I said your Excellency, uncle, why don’t you advise the president to implement the Arusha agreement?

“He said my son, in politics, it is like a tug of war, which if it is cut, you fall. You see, it can’t be cut because we are the majority…but he doesn’t know that if you think like that, you can be the first victim and your family members too may be killed.

“If you are thinking of bringing the war, you can be the first victim. But you know what happened, that ambassador, unfortunately, died in the plane with the president.”

Habineza advised the delegates and other Nigerians in authority to see their present status as an opportunity to serve the people and not themselves.

“I think politicians should remember they are civil servants because once you are serving, you are rendering service, and not  serving yourself,” he stated.

According to him, with the resources available in the country, every Nigerian should have access to decent and affordable houses, if the resources are productively used.

“Nigerians should have nice houses, water; just what you have here. Look at your land, so fertile, and you import tomatoes; the oil, the gas, minerals that even people don’t know,” he said.

“You focus on that and make it productive. So they should think about the people, not about themselves, the delegates who are there; not talking about how much we are getting from here.”

Habineza attributed the 1994 crisis of his country to the manipulation of the colonial power on the one hand and the country’s politicians on the other.

“This kind of indoctrination, brain-washing, mixed with poverty brought Rwanda to that end. We have to blame ourselves and the colonials also.”