Former Executive Secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof Usman Yusuf, says banditry and insurgency plaguing the north cannot be resolved through military might.
The Katsina-born professor described insecurity in the north as a local problem that can only be resolved by addressing the local roots.
He compared the security challenges in the region to the Niger Delta militancy, saying that the latter was not ended by soldiers.
Speaking about Nigeria’s current situation in an interview Saturday Sun, Yusuf lamented that there was “killings everywhere”.
He said the trend was depressing and called on the leadership to “pay attention to what is happening”.
On way forward, the Professor of Haematology-Oncology and Bone Marrow transplantation said, “What we do every day is to call soldiers to control problem when it gets worse.
“Insecurity is always local, Niger Delta issue is Niger Delta, Boko Haram is local, banditry is local. Unless we address local problems, soldiers cannot solve insecurity for us.
“Soldiers didn’t solve insecurity problem in Niger Delta, soldiers will not solve Boko Haram problem, and they will not solve banditry problem, soldiers are just one part of the solution.”
Meanwhile, Yusuf has supported President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew, Mamman Daura in his assertion that competence and not “turn-by-turn” should determine who emerges president in 2023.
He described rotational presidency as an undemocratic and “annoying” practice and clamour for restructuring as “nonsense”.
Yusuf said, “Democracy is you voting for who you want to vote for. Anything outside this is fraud. A Taraba man wants to be president, how will that improve the lives of his people? It doesn’t; we have seen that many times.
“We have had presidents from the North, we have had one from Ijaw and we have had Yoruba people, go and see if the lives of their people improved; it has not improved and it will not improve.
“This thing, rotation, rotation really annoys me; you are rotating from where to where? They just want to rotate into their pockets, you and I know it, the educated people know it; it is the ordinary masses they are deceiving.
“You stand for restructuring, you stand for rotation, this is nonsense and they know it. Anybody who wants to be a leader is free to do so, that is what democracy is; people have to vote for you.
“Rotation is undemocratic. From 2023 onward, people are tired and they are not going to accept this mago mago; people are wiser, they are tired of these lies, fraud, deceit every time. Our democracy has not served our people well.