Babangida Aliyu, former governor of Niger state, says some
northerners made it impossible for former President Goodluck Jonathan to defeat
Boko Haram.
Speaking during an interview with the Punch,
the former governor said it is unfortunate that insecurity has been allowed to
escalate.
“When Boko Haram started and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and
Goodluck Jonathan’s government started doing something about it, it fell on
former President Jonathan to carry on. Many northerners misconstrued his
(Jonathan) position at that time and for political purposes, they threw many
arguments that made it impossible for the proper articulation and proper
implementation of policies that would have got rid of Boko Haram and now, we
still have them till today,” he said.
“The banditry that many of us thought was impossible to
happen, I am yet to hear from anybody about the statement credited to Kawu
Baraje, our former PDP national chairman in Kwara State, when he stated that
they brought the bandits or Fulani from other places. I think based on the
thinking that probably former President Jonathan wouldn’t have handed over
power even if they had won, but he handed over.
“He congratulated
them even before the conclusion proper counting of votes which then took away
whatever purposes of bringing those people would have served and I would have
thought that if that is true, then those who brought them in would compensated
them to go back to where they came from.”
Speaking further, Aliyu said he believes that “if the
governors had really done a lot from 2015 to date, we would have got rid of the
banditry”.
”Today it’s so unfortunate that you probably have to be
praying when you leave Abuja for Kaduna or Kaduna to Abuja or indeed,
particularly in the northern states,” he said.
“Now, even in the day time, you can’t drive freely and
comfortably. So, I believe that the first port of call for fighting insecurity
is the governors. Maybe you heard me in Kano when I was saying could one be
greater than 19 because at one time, even though the circumstances were
different, we had one man for 19 states and now, we have 19 governors and
still, we have more problems than we did the last time.”
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