Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Babangida Aliyu has said that the Governors of troubled states in the North cannot be accused of not doing their best to stop the insurgency causing unprecedented insecurity in the region.
Governor Aliyu responded to comments by Information Minister, Labran Maku which suggested that the Northern Governors were not doing enough to combat the insecurity in the region.
Speaking at the opening of a one day meeting of Federal and State Government’s Security Administrators in Minna earlier today, the government described Maku’s remarks as “uncharitable and unfortunate.”
Aliyu said, “I was very sad when I read today ( Thursday) in virtually all the papers, where the Minister of Information was accusing us (northern governors) of not doing enough to fight insurgency in the region.
“If it is his views, then it is very unfortunate; if it is the views of the Federal Government, that is very very uncharitable. It is more than unfortunate and I think it is a part of hypocrisy because no governor, as far as I know and as Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, no Governor will be accused of not doing enough.
“But given the circumstances that we have found ourselves, how can we do enough when we are aware that people like Labaran Maku would be playing politics of their states with a serious matter? I think the statement came out because of what is happening in Nasarawa State and now he generalises it to the northern states.
“How can we do enough when some people believe that what is happening is a deliberate plan to stop some people and therefore the action that should have been taken from the start was delayed?
“Why should anybody accuse us of not doing enough with even the children that were kidnapped? Some people are trying to make it look as if nothing happened.
“I am not aware of any governor that has either been invited by the National Security Adviser or the Director of SSS to be told what to do and he did not do it. I am not aware of that.
“We as Northern Governors set up a committee that went round all the states we sent our report and recommendations to the Federal Government and what did the Federal Government do? It set up another committee which went round and plagiarised the report of the Northern governors.
“So, for any minister to wake up and start castigating people, that will not solve the problem. I think with what has happened that we need to stop this blame game and start to find solution to what is happening.
“If we are serious, if there is the political will, with the assistance of the international committee, we should be able to finish this thing in three months. We still insist, all the agreements entered into should be finished withing three months.
“It is do-able. If Labaran Maku and co, if like I said, maybe it is his personal opinion, then it is very unfortunate. If he is representing the Federal Government, it is very very uncharitable to the northern governors forum and to the northern governors as a whole.”