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| Former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu |
Former governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, has revealed that some northerners made it impossible for former president Goodluck Jonathan to defeat Boko Haram during his tenure as president of Nigeria.
Aliyu made this revelation during an interview with PUNCH on Saturday.
When asked to comment on the security situation in the North and some local government taken over by terrorists in Niger State he said:
"It is really unfortunate that we have allowed the situation to reach this level, and let me say again, I don’t want to be misconstrued as being in that group- this is a cumulative issue. 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.
"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.
"I believe if the governors had really done a lot from 2015 to date, we would have got rid of the banditry but 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.
"Any road that you follow, you probably need a lot of prayers and this is contrary to the position before where many of us were driving from one place to the other, used to sleep in the daytime so we can drive at night when there will be less traffic, less noise.
"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.
"We need to look at how our people are really enjoying their lives and unemployment. Before, we used to beg parents to allow them take their wards to school. Now, they have allowed them to go to school. Many of them have been uprooted from their local culture, many of them are farmers and now, they can’t go back to their farms.
"They have had their degrees or whatever courses they have gone for and now, unemployment is facing them for five years, six years and thereafter, we are not thinking of any innovation to engage them.
On communities paying levies to bandits Aliyu said: "It is very unfortunate when you hear today that many people were killed, 50 burnt; tomorrow, 40 people killed, bandits are abducting to the extent that villages and other towns are now levied by the bandits. Yes, it is a sign of failure but like I told you, don’t look at only one administration and start talking about it because it is a cumulative thing. We needed to have been building on what others have done. You can’t just come and say nothing has been done.
"We inherited these problems from the military regimes. Every military coup will look at the one they have toppled as having done nothing good which isn’t so. Governance is about a building block; take the good this person has done and continue with it. The one you consider not too good, you can redesign it but let the people appreciate and you need to also communicate properly with the people.
"The level of the noise in our community is more than the actual facts that people need to understand. So, for people to survive, they need to do whatever that is necessary but that’s not their job.
"Their job is not to pay levies to terrorists. In fact, the principle is to say you won’t negotiate with terrorists and go after them. In many countries, the code is kill a security officer, then it means your whole family may be done with but here you hear that a policeman is killed, a soldier is killed and nothing happens. So, it is a failure of the government as well as the people.
"Let me expatiate about it being the failure of the people. In the days gone by, when people see something, they report it either directly to the police or through their local traditional ruler and a position is taken at each level.